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Negotiation Toons #1: Positions Vs. Interests

April 29th, 2010 · 2 Comments · Uncategorized

Lately I have been getting interested in negotiation. Above, I have drawn a picture of one of the basic concepts—positions versus interests. Positions are a what a party states they want, and interests are what motivate those assertions.

You can think of interests as the tip of the iceberg—they are what are visible. But dive deeper and you will find the interests that underlay those positions.

When people are negotiating, the better they know each other’s interests, the better chance they will have of finding the agreement that will be optimal to all parties.

You can think of interests as the tip of the iceberg—they are what are visible. But dive deeper and you will find the interests that underlay those positions.

Stay tuned, or should I say tooned, for more Negotiation Toons.

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  • http://www.SocioSphere.net NahumG

    Jonny,

    I like this metaphor, especially that the interests are much bigger and heavier and thus stifling the positions. Also, the fact that they are hidden…

    I also like the simplicity of this metaphor. If you like to complicate this picture, I would add a thin layer of visible, attractive, and usually fake interests that are publicly declared by the owners of the positions.

    Thanks for making it and for pointing it to my short attentions span…

    I cannot help myself mentioning that the background of your avatar fits perfectly with the round form of the face and gives it a dynamic flair. Again, well done.

  • admin

    Thanks for your thoughts, Nahum. I went deliberately simple with this one. Interests and positions are such fundamental concepts in negotiation that I wanted to put them out there without getting into nuances. But those nuances are critically important and I look forward to exploring them in future Negotiation Toons.