You will adapt a negotiation plan for a counterpart from a different culture.
The preparation worksheet you built in lesson 3.4, Complete your preparation worksheet, covers interests, alternatives, numbers, issues, criteria, your opening, concessions and tactics, and for most negotiations that is enough. When the other side comes from a different culture, or from an organisation that works very differently from yours, it's missing a section.
This exercise adds that section, and then adjusts the rest of your plan to fit. Kai Xin's renewed negotiation with the Jakarta food manufacturer from lessons 9.1 to 9.3 is the worked example. Allow about 25 minutes.
Use a real negotiation with a counterpart whose way of working differs from yours, or a likely one. It could be a client or supplier overseas, a regional colleague in another office, a new manager from a different background, or a landlord or contractor whose style you've found hard to read. If nothing is coming up, pick a past negotiation that went badly, and plan how you'd run it again.
Start from your existing worksheet for it. If you don't have one, make a short version first, using the sections from lesson 3.4.
Add a new section with four parts. Keep each to a few lines.
Face risks. Where could someone on either side lose face? Think about corrections, refusals, concessions made in front of others and anything that might make a senior person look uninformed. For each risk, note how you'll avoid it. Kai Xin writes: "Purchasing manager may have to explain a higher price to the founder. Do not challenge his figures in the meeting. Send corrections privately. Give him a revised proposal he can present as his own improvement."
Decision route. Who decides, who influences, and in what order? This comes from lesson 9.1, Face, hierarchy and who really decides. Kai Xin: "Founder decides. Son influences, especially on suppliers. Purchasing manager prepares the recommendation. Finance manager checks the numbers."
Relationship steps. What needs to happen before any numbers are discussed? Lesson 9.2, Build the relationship first, then the deal, is your guide here. Kai Xin: "Lunch with the purchasing manager on day one. Factory visit. Dinner with the son if invited. Pricing only in the second or third meeting."
Indirect signals. Which phrases and behaviours should you watch for, and what will you do when you hear them? Lesson 9.3, Hearing no when nobody says no, has the list to start from. Kai Xin: "'We will study it' with no date probably means no. Ask what would make it easier to approve, one to one, after the meeting. Confirm every next step by email the same day."
Now go back through the rest of your worksheet and change what the culture section affects.
Pace. Your timeline may need more meetings and longer gaps. Kai Xin's original plan had pricing agreed in one meeting. Her new plan spreads it over three, with the opening offer in the second and concessions in the third.
Opening. The first offer may need to come later, after the relationship steps, and it may need more room for concessions, since the other side may expect to see you move as a sign of goodwill. Kai Xin keeps her target the same and opens slightly higher, so she has more to give without going below it.
Concessions and hierarchy. Plan who makes which concession. Some concessions are better offered by your senior person to theirs, so the senior person on their side can be seen to have won something. Kai Xin arranges for her head of sales to offer the final concession on delivery terms directly to the founder.
Your numbers don't change. Your BATNA, reservation point and target from module 2 are the same whichever culture you're working with. What changes is the route, the pace and who says what.
Show the culture section and your adjustments to someone who knows the other culture, or ideally the organisation itself, as lesson 9.4, Use culture as a starting guess, not a stereotype, suggested. Ask them which assumptions they'd question, and whether anything in your plan would cause offence or confusion.
Kai Xin asks an Indonesian colleague in her company's regional office. The colleague confirms most of the plan, but suggests that the purchasing manager, not the founder, should be the one to receive the revised proposal first, so he isn't bypassed, and Kai Xin changes the order to match.
You've finished when your worksheet has a culture section covering face risks, the decision route, relationship steps and indirect signals, your opening and concession plan reflect them, and one person who knows the other culture has reviewed it and you've made at least one change. The activity asks you to add this section for your own negotiation and get that review.
Add the culture section to your worksheet for a real or likely cross-cultural negotiation and get one person to review it.
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