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Tag Archive - negotiation

Have a Seat

October 31, 2011 in by with 3 Comments

Fans have a voice, too. Right? Right?

Image via KidKameleon on Flickr

J.D. Hastings, in a blog post last week, pointed out that in this two-party negotiation, there are actually 5 important stakeholders: 1) The players; 2) The owners; 3) The media, who cover, disseminate, speculate, leak, and analyze; 4) The agents, who lobby for the players so they can make sure they keep their slice of player salaries; and 5) The fans. Regarding the fans, Hastings points out that although they are “the basis upon which every other level of this economic industry is built [they are] regularly described as helpless bystanders in the entire process.”

Thanks to more interactive forms of media in 2011 (sup twitter!), fans have been far from silent during the lockout negotiations. But it’s not like they (we?) have a seat at the negotiating table. Both the owners and players may claim to speak for the fans, but it’s clear that neither of them do (at least not fully). If they (we!) did have a seat at the table, what would their (our) interests be?

Avoiding the cancellation of games, I’d assume, would be the number one priority; but that ship has sailed. What else do fans want?

Maybe some fans want to make sure their players don’t run away from their small market town, leaving them in the lurches of championship-lessness for another four decades. Maybe other fans want to make sure that their town and their passion can be a target for players that have their sights set on bigger and better (or at least sunnier and income-tax-free) things.

Do fans want respect? Maybe they don’t want a fight over millions and billions of dollars rubbed in their faces when 9% of them across the country are trying to nail down a job.

How about something as simple as “being entertained?” A quality product put out for them on a regular basis, to which people can turn to help them escape their lives for a little while, giving them relate to something bigger than themselves.

As a fan, and a season ticket holder (so what if it’s the Wizards; I love basketball, ok?!), this is what I want:

[flash http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5F_zRBsC5BY w=640 h=360]

If I had 2 minutes at that negotiating table, I’d show the parties this video, and tell them that’s what I wanted before they kicked me out. If you had a seat at the table, what would you ask for? Leave your thoughts, requests, and demands in the comments.

Stay in School

October 31, 2011 in by with 0 Comments

Staredown

Image via shafik on Flickr

One of my favorite courses I took in grad school was a weekend course called “Negotiation Skills.” I figured it would be a pretty easy class: get in groups, schmooze with your classmates, make some deals that don’t actually have any bearing on your real life, get an A, go home, and eat some pizza.

Well, most of that was true (no pizza, though, frownyface). But the class sure wasn’t easy, and if you were participating correctly, you couldn’t help caring about the deals you were making. There we were swapping squares of paper, and suddenly pride got involved somehow. We wanted what we thought we deserved. The problem with that was that we ALL wanted what we deserved in a zero-sum game. More for me = less for you.

The most interesting part of the course for me was when we learned the difference between Positional Negotiation and Principled Negotiation. I never realized there was more than one kind, so that fact in itself was informative (there are many more kinds that I won’t get into here). Positional negotiation refers to (and I’m paraphrasing my prof here) bargaining to put yourself in a better position relative to your adversary. Normally, one sees this type of negotiation when parties don’t have to repeatedly work together and have a strong cooperative relationship (think: buying a car). However, this seems to be a lot of what we’re seeing publicly in the NBA and NBPA press conferences: blame-shifting, accusations of greed, the digging-in of heels. It’s hostile, it sucks to watch, and it seems counterproductive to the longevity of the partnership between the league and its players.

We spent most of our course discussing Principled Negotiation. It sets itself apart from the previous type of negotiation by concentrating on four tenets:

  1. Get an objective standard and try to match the results to that.
  2. Make sure you don’t confuse the people and the problem.
  3. Think outside the box on issues that may be important but aren’t discussed.
  4. Most importantly: focus on the interests of each party and not their positions.

Since every pro sports league in the country seems to have a different way of doing business, Tenet 1 is difficult to follow in this situation. There are multiple objective baselines for the league to follow.

But maybe we could avoid stepping all over Tenet 2 by trying to keep the more inflammatory members (*ahem SternKesslerAllenGilbertGarnett) out of the room. Although, admittedly it may be difficult to get things done without Stern in the room. (Though maybe he should cool his tone before his dreams of expanding basketball internationally take players out of his league for good.)

Tenet 4 is the most important, but it doesn’t seem like either side is being 100% forthright. Hey owners: is the structure of the league really untenable? Then why did you essentially renew CBA in 2004? If it’s really about covering the losses over the past few years, then say it. There’s no shame in that. The players also have an interest in keeping the league viable. They want to play and they want to make money, too. Why not flip the percentage distribution so that you can recoup losses over the first few years of the CBA, then flip it back in the players’ favor over the last few years once you’re afloat (and I use that word loosely, since they’re all afloat and will be for ∞ years). I’m by no means a negotiation expert. Last I checked, one of the top negotiation experts in the country thought these meetings were a lost cause. But at least it looks like I’m trying to use Tenet 3 once in a while, guys.

Maybe to league and players, they’re just swapping squares of paper back and forth. Billions and billions or squares of paper. Maybe there’s too much pride on each side to come to an amicable agreement. Maybe there’s not enough pride on each side to respect each other at the podium.  Maybe percentage-wise it’s a zero-sum game. But building from the momentum of a great season promises to make the stack of paper bigger, ensuring everyone gets more anyway.

If you’d also like to become an armchair negotiation aficionado, I’d highly recommend checking out this site and reading their book.