Negotiators often develop the wrong impression that common interests between the parties are the cornerstone of a successful win-win negotiation.
While teaching value negotiation recently, a student of mine asked, “for a win-win outcome, don’t you need interests to be well-aligned or at least have common interests?”
Well, “yes and no”, I replied. If two negotiators both want a certain project to succeed, then maybe sharing that common interest will facilitate a negotiation about how much money or time each of them should invest.
