Works
- Negotiation Genius, 2007
- Negotiating the Impossible: How to Break Deadlocks and Resolve Ugly Conflicts (without Money or Muscle), 2016
In Tactics of Organizational Politics
Ideas
Negotiating several issues at once. Discussing multiple issues together, and making package offers, lets each side trade what it values less for what it values more, which is how value is created when priorities differ. The book also discusses the post-settlement settlement, a search for a better deal after the first is signed. Caveat: The book's advice to make several package offers at the same time is described here from secondary summaries; the controlled research on multiple equivalent simultaneous offers is by other authors (the Program on Negotiation cites Leonardelli and colleagues).
The power of process. Malhotra presents framing, process, and empathy as three often-neglected tools for resolving deadlocks without money or force. Process covers how a negotiation is conducted, and he treats it as something the parties can themselves negotiate.
What it explains
Malhotra explains how to move a stuck negotiation by changing how the issue is framed, how the talks are run, and how well each side understands the other. Agreeing on process gives parties something to settle while substance is still contested.