What do you do when the negotiation is completely deadlocked?

From time to time you usually end up in a negotiation where the positions from both sides are locked, neither party is willing to give in further, leading to a complete breakdown of the negotiations.

Here are five suggestions to get negotiations back on track:

1. try to solve the smallest things

It is very common for the focus of negotiations to quickly turn to what the parties think is most important, the biggest point(s), and while there is nothing wrong with that, it can bring the negotiations to a standstill. If you find yourself in this position, suggest that you focus on other aspects of the negotiation. Being able to agree on smaller issues builds momentum and trust between the parties and can make it easier to resolve the big issues when you get back to them.

There are examples of peace processes that started by negotiating and agreeing on something as trivial as the hotel where the peace talks should be held.

2. Soft on people, hard on issues

This technique can be very effective but there must be a certain degree of trust between the parties for it to work optimally. As frustration between negotiators tends to grow when agreements cannot be reached, it can be very effective to make a statement along the lines of:

"I/we note that we are not making progress in this negotiation and, as there are easily frustrations associated with this, I would therefore just like to clarify that, at least from my/our side, we care about our working relationship and do not want this negotiation to affect it. As such, I/we would like to suggest that the approach to this negotiation is soft on the person but hard on the issue."

Very few counterparts would disagree with such an approach and what it does is create a more collaborative problem-solving attitude where the focus is on the issues to be resolved rather than the negotiators. It is very easy to blame deadlocked negotiations on the people on the other side of the negotiating table. By making the above type of statement, you take the people aspect out of the negotiation which can significantly improve the atmosphere in the room. If you can also mix the negotiating teams so that they are not split up on opposite sides of a table, it will be even better. Then list problems to be solved on a whiteboard or similar so the focus is there instead of across the table.

Keep an eye out for the next post where a couple more suggestions will be listed.

See our course on negotiation