CHAPTER 15

WHAT SHOULD WE DO IF WE CAN’T REACH A SOLUTION?

(Developing a Contingency Plan)

What are you going to do if you can’t find a solution? If you don’t know that, you’re not prepared. You will be at a tremendous disadvantage in your negotiations if you do not have a well-thought-out contingency plan in case negotiations fail. Someone without such a strategy will have no measure of success. Their only reference point to measure the value of possible solutions is their hopes and dreams or fears. People trying hard to build collaborative relationships are vulnerable to the seduction of agreeing with the other side just to build the relationship if they have no well-thought-out contingency plan.1

Without a well-thought-out contingency plan ...

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