Let’s start the second topic of our course: effective communication in negotiations, first considering the three pillars of effective communication: Perception, Cognition, and Emotion, so we can later concentrate on Emotional Intelligence as a skill for negotiation, trying to approach the ancient dilemma of human behavior: reason or emotion. It’s impossible to imagine a good negotiator without effective communication skills. It’s a need that’s inherent to the very process of negotiation. Communication during the negotiation process includes offers and counter offers, exchange of information, motives, and alternatives, besides the impact of non-verbal communication. To manage this delicate balance, professor Roy Lewicki of Fisher College of Business at Ohio University proposes, together with other authors, the analysis of three components of effective communication within the context of a negotiation: Perception, Cognition, and Emotion. Perception, Cognition, and Emotion are the foundation of negotiation because social interactions are guided by the way we perceive and analyze the other party, the situation, and our own interests and positions. Formal knowledge of how human beings perceive and process information is important for understanding why people behave the way we do during the negotiation process. Perception is a physical and psychological process that produces a formal representation of what is captured by our senses. Perceptions vary from person to person. Different people perceive different things in the same situation. Furthermore, we assign different meanings to what we perceive. In every negotiation, the personal needs, desires, motivations, and experience of the receiver can create a predisposition towards the other party. This is a problem when it leads to biases and errors in perception. Cognition or knowledge in the exchange of information among negotiators refers to the effectiveness with which they process the messages they receive. When a negotiator, either inadvertently or intentionally produces a bias or preconception in the messages, the process of effective communication is damaged. Some cognitive biases in negotiation are: anchoring , irrational escalation of the commitment, excessive confidence, the myth of the fixed pie, frame of reference, the risk, the law of small numbers. One important aspect of this cognitive bias manifests itself in the phenomenon of self-confirmation, which occurs when the same information is shown to groups with different points of view; the tendency is to perceive everything in a different way (even opposite) according to each group’s beliefs. Emotions make a significant difference in the way we perceive reality and can become more intense when people interact among themselves in a negotiation. According to current research, it is surprising how many decisions are made automatically, without even considering available information because, of course, people are being guided by emotions. Positive moods generally lead to effective negotiations and encourage interdependent relationships for the long term, based on trust and value creation. On the other hand, negative attitudes often lead to seeking short term results, regardless of damage to the relationship, with the possibility of conflict escalation. The discovery of Emotional Intelligence (EI), promoted mainly by Dr. Daniel Goleman in his book of the same title, which has sold more than five million copies, motivated our wanting to understand how EI works and how it can improve a negotiation. As a key skill in negotiation, Emotional Intelligence promotes self-awareness of our own emotions and how they affect others, regulating our behavior so we can find common ground with the other party in order to realize constructive activities and achieve personal development. Emotional Intelligence as a negotiation strategy will help the negotiator learn to identify and manage emotional expressions (verbal and non-verbal) that can make a positive or negative impact on the other party’s behavior because people tend to mimic the emotional manifestations that we experience. A negotiator without communication skills can commit errors by an erroneous perception or cognitive bias, especially when not adequately handling his emotions. To develop the skills of Emotional Intelligence as a negotiation strategy can encourage empathy, understanding, and trust among negotiators.
