July 9, 2014
Article
Harvard Business Review (website)

A Great Negotiator's Essential Advice

Format:Print

Abstract

The Program on Negotiation (PON), an active Harvard-MIT-Tufts consortium, honored Ambassador Tommy Koh of Singapore as its 2014 "Great Negotiator." During his remarkable career, described in detail here, Koh played central roles in some of the most complex international negotiations ever held that dealt with legal, economic, environmental, security, trade, and political issues. Koh's advice to negotiators emphasizes often-neglected "fundamentals," such as 1) Master your brief; 2) Build a talented, happy, and cohesive team; 3) Build a common fact base; 4) Beyond analytical and emotional intelligence, think outside your own "cultural box;" and 5) "Think win-win." Beyond fundamentals, Koh offers advice for those carrying out vastly more complex negotiations, emphasizing 1) the vital role of "education" as well as advocacy, especially in multiparty dealmaking; 2) how to make progress in very large-scale negotiations by "miniaturizing" negotiations to a small carefully-chosen subgroup, then strategically expanding the circle; and 3) how to think beyond individual negotiations toward orchestrating a "negotiation campaign."