Parties in collective bargaining persistently face the challenge of neglecting to learn from successive rounds of negotiation. They often fail to remember the past and, more often than not, continue negotiating as they have always done – holding position and wielding power. This perpetuates a Sisyphus-like ritual in each negotiation, echoing the warning of Spanish philosopher George Santayana: "Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it."
There appears to be little (or no) motivation to reflect on and learn from past experience. This oversight leads to prolonged engagements, escalating conflict, an erosion of trust, and excessive reliance on statutory dispute resolution. We designed our Negotiation Retrospective to address this problem.
Negotiation Retrospective in a Nutshell
The Negotiation Retrospective offers a platform for negotiating parties to collaboratively identify and discuss the issues that may have affected their ability to reach agreement. It provides a useful opportunity for both sides to learn from the experience. Thereby improving the effectiveness of the process going forward.
A Negotiation Retrospective is a structured process that empowers all parties to reflect on the negotiation process in a safe setting. The process involves identifying and understanding all issues influencing the effectiveness of the negotiation, prioritising critical matters for resolution, designing initiatives to address these issues, and ultimately compiling selected initiatives into a roadmap for implementation. By engaging in this reflective process, all parties can glean valuable lessons applicable to future negotiations.
Benefits of the Negotiation Retrospective
Conducting a Negotiation Retrospective can provide a number of benefits for parties involved in collective bargaining. Here are just a few:
Improved negotiation tactics
By reflecting on the negotiation process through a structured process, parties can collaboratively identify what worked well and what didn't. Using this information, all parties can make adjustments accordingly. This can help to improve overall skills and increase the chances of successful outcomes in the future.
Addressed underlying issues
Collective bargaining can often bring up underlying issues or conflicts between parties. A Negotiation Retrospective can help to identify and address these issues head-on. This will prevent them from becoming bigger problems down the road.
Improved relationships between parties
By reflecting on past negotiations and identifying areas for improvement, parties can work to improve their relationships with the other party and create a more collaborative process.
Conclusion
Overall, the importance of conducting a negotiation retrospective cannot be overstated. By taking the time to reflect on and learn from past; parties can improve their bargaining skills, enhance collaboration, better handle future challenges, and significantly increase the odds of improving subsequent processes.
Read here how we assisted a major player in the transport sector.
If you have recently concluded a wage negotiation, let's make time to talk about how Perispec Consulting's Negotiation Retrospective can add value to your process. Click here to schedule a free 30 minute consultation, or request more information.