Negotiation Behaviour and Breaking Deadlock

Dr Karl Mackie CBE

CEDR

The CEDR Story

Conflict and Psychology

• Civil justice and commercial/civil

disputes

• A “business disruptor” campaign

- Mediation vs Litigation

- Mediation vs Arbitration

Achieving Social Transformation

• Seeking sources of influence

- corporates, senior judges, government

• A massive campaign amongst influencers

• Credible expertise and training

• Early successes

• Court rules, incentives and sanctions

• Contract clauses

What is your theoretical model?

A process framework

• Confidential/without prejudice

• Authority to settle

• Document exchange

• Open sessions

• Private caucusing

• Bargaining

• Concluding – Binding legal agreement?

Mediation as Turbo-Charged Negotiation Process

Why 70-80% result?

• The right people in the room

• A purpose/focus - resolution

• Quasi-formal status/ritual

• Independent chair/coach/influencer

• Impartiality or multi-partiality

• Listening, communicating, clarifying

options

• Realism of options

• Decision time!

Why does mediation surpass sophisticated negotiator results?

Psychological fundamentals - Cognition

• System 1 thinking

• System 2 thinking

• Cognitive biases

- (Confirmation bias, loss aversion, etc.)

Mediation process - triggers greater space

for reflectiveness

Conflict reactions –Neuroscience and emotional/ cognitive processing –Fight, Flight, Freeze or Fold?

Psychological fundamentals – Cognition and

Emotion

• The elephant and rider metaphor

• Mediation

- calms the elephant impulse

- helps the rider re-think/ get in charge

- nudges the elephant track

- alters and reframes language

Priming and Influencing

‘Groups’ and ‘Context’ as conflict

influencers

• Our environment/group influence our

attention more than we realise

• Groupthink and tribalism

• Mediation resets context/language

• Mediation can alter groupthink dynamics

• Mediation can open new perspectives

How do you eat an elephant?

The neuroscience of empathy or how to

manage difficult conversations

• Active listening

• Open and attentive body language

• Summarising and reflecting

• “Safe space” and resonance

• Reality-testing/perspective

The psychology of negotiation theory

• Positional vs principled negotiation

• ‘Hard’ vs ‘soft’ bargaining

• Anchoring

• Insult zone → zone of potential agreement

• Persuasion and influence

• The psychology of momentum

• Mediation = Turbo-charged, high intensity

negotiation

Beyond ‘Legal’ Mediation?

• Organisational conflicts and leadership

• Business in the public space

• Social change and social media

• A mediation model in politics?

• Climate change as a case study?

Investing in Young Leaders

• Annual commitment by CEDR Foundation hosted by Allen & Overy

• Conflict Management, Negotiation and Communication training for aspiring leaders under 30

• Open to people from all sectors and all backgrounds• Alumni network and on-going support and training

Learn more: cedr.com/foundation/dialogue orYouTube: CEDR New Dialogues – investing in future leaders

Questions?