The International Negotiations Handbook - Baker & McKenzie

PILPG and Baker & McKenzie
Defining “Success”
In a dispute, it is important to decide in the beginning what the delegation is trying
to achieve. From that, everything else follows. Every step and strategic choice in
the negotiation process must be made after asking the fundamental question: how
does this help your delegation “achieve success?”
• The delegation must ask: what is your delegation trying to achieve? 1
– Sometimes, this might be what is your delegation trying to avoid?
• What does your delegation need?
– Decide if it is complete victory, partial victory, or any progress at all.
• What are the needs and goals of your delegation’s constituency? Your delegation
will need to account for these factors in order to achieve success.
• Evaluate the likelihood of achieving what your delegation wants, which requires
evaluating the strengths of the other parties’ positions.
• Decide whether your delegation is seeking a solution for now or a solution for
all time (ceasefire, return of refugees, redrawing borders, sovereignty).
• Break out the elements of your delegation’s ultimate goals – what “successes”
are necessary to reach your delegation’s ultimate goals?
Based on the points above – should your delegation redefine success? Once your
delegation asks itself these questions, your delegation’s next obligation will be to
decide whether what your delegation thought initially would be considered “success”
remains the same. Oftentimes the discipline of going through the above exercise of
examining and writing down your delegation’s answers to these questions reveals
the strengths and weaknesses of your delegation’s initial definition of success. As
with all internal communications, confidentiality must be maintained. Measures
should be taken to ensure that the documents are not disclosed to the other parties,
the media or your constituents by mistake.
The chosen definition of success will drive your delegation’s strategy throughout
the process. One of the challenges of a negotiation is deciding how strictly to
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1 It is often helpful to write down the delegation’s responses to these questions and to refer to them
throughout the negotiation.
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