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and evaluation of the offer. Changing just because there is a deadlock is also not
advisable.
Guarding Against Making Concessions Early
People come to negotiation because of disagreement or different needs which
need to be brought together. Some of the needs may not be obvious at the beginning;
therefore one needs to be very careful and patient so that one does not make early
concessions before discovering the real needs.
Fuller (1992:176) suggests that it is better to ask for more concessions while
conceding little. It is also to be noted that conceding what seems of minor importance
to you, may turn out to be of great value to your opponent. Therefore when planning,
look at the negotiation process from the opponent's point of view. Only after
determining this will you be certain ofwhat you will need to concede.
All the above factors can be determined, however, only after negotiation has
started, because it is only then that you can be certain of what is of paramount
importance to your opponent. That is why it is not wise to give concessions early in the
process, even though it may have been part of the planning. Even when you have to
make concessions that must be done in return for something. Harris and Reilly
(http://\\'Ww.idea.intlpublications/democracvanddeeprootedconflict/home.htm
suggest that the time available should be used to get a sustainable and durable result.
They suggest a "slow-fast approach" where the process of negotiation happens as
slowly as possible so that the result can be "comprehensive and detailed". In this way
the implementation phase will be fast. According to the authors many negotiations are
done through the fast-slow approach because ofpressure to reach results. The outcome
is usually not satisfactory and the implementation is thus made difficult. It is thus
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