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government negotiations

What are Government Negotiations?

Almost everyone has faced the frustrating task of government negotiations—local, state, national, or foreign—at some point in their lives. 

Whether they are applying for a building permit from their local zoning board, trying to sell software to the U.S. Defense Department, looking for approval for a merger, or planning to set up a business in Limerick or Bangalore, businesspeople confront a unique set of challenges when dealing with government negotiations.

When you’re negotiating in the private sector, you typically have alternatives to making a deal. These alternatives give you the ability to walk away if you aren’t happy with what the other party is offering. By contrast, a government agency or employee may be the only negotiating partner you’ve got.

But even though the government may have more power, it does not necessarily have the upper hand. You can increase your power in government negotiations by teaming up with others in your position. 

As an illustration, consider the logic behind labor unions. When bargaining with management, individual employees are in a weak position. A company negotiating with employees one at a time can credibly threaten to hire someone else if an employee demands too much. 

By contrast, unions allow employees to bargain collectively and thereby eliminate the source of their weakness. By negotiating collectively, employees avoid competing against one another; instead, they cooperate.

You can do something similar by forming a coalition. When weak parties join a coalition, they avoid destructive competition with one another and, by pooling their resources, gain strength in negotiations with stronger parties. In addition, a coalition defuses a common adversary’s ability to pit one weak party against another or to credibly threaten to walk away.

To learn more and discover how to boost your power at the bargaining table, download this free special report, BATNA Basics: Boost Your Power at the Bargaining Table, from Harvard Law School.

The following items are tagged government negotiations:

10 Negotiation Failures

Posted by & filed under Negotiation Skills.

Here’s a list of 10 negotiation failures drawn from recent negotiations in the news—including deals that were over before they started and those that proved disastrous after the ink had dried. These cautionary tales offer ample lessons to business negotiators. … Read 10 Negotiation Failures

Negotiation Skills and Strategies: Winning Over Reluctant Counterparts

Posted by & filed under Conflict Resolution.

In the aftermath of the December 2012 killing of 20 children and six adults at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut, then-president Barack Obama moved gun control to the top of his legislative agenda. By April 2013, the Senate was considering requiring universal criminal background checks for all gun purchases and banning assault weapons … Read More

Managing Difficult Negotiations: Lessons from the 2015-2017 Illinois Budget Impasse

Posted by & filed under Dispute Resolution.

On July 6, 2017, the state of Illinois finally resolved a 793-day budget impasse, the longest such impasse in U.S. history. The economically devastating stalemate between Republican then-governor Bruce Rauner and the Democratic-controlled state legislature, triggered by hardball negotiation tactics, offers lessons to negotiators managing difficult negotiations. An Agenda and a Condition As Illinois politicians approached negotiations … Read More

Government Negotiations and Beyond: Using Carrots and Sticks Effectively

Posted by & filed under International Negotiation.

In 1987 government negotiations, U.S. president Ronald Reagan and Soviet General Secretary Mikhail Gorbachev took early steps to end the Cold War by signing the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) arms control treaty in Washington, D.C. Banning all ground-launched nuclear and conventional missile systems within a certain range, the INF treaty put in place a strict … Read More

Negotiating with Governments: How to Deal with Government Officials

Posted by & filed under Teaching Negotiation.

Whether at the local, federal, or international level, negotiations with governments often involve unique pressures and constraints. Does the official at the table actually have decision-making authority? What kinds of regulatory or policy constraints are they operating under? Governments often pursue very different interests in negotiations from those of a private company. In Seven Secrets for … Read More

Government Negotiations: Pfizer’s Rocky Road to U.S. Covid-19 Vaccine Deals

Posted by & filed under Business Negotiations.

In late December, 2020, the Trump administration reached a $1.95 billion deal with pharmaceutical company Pfizer to purchase 100 million doses of the Covid-19 vaccine it had developed in partnership with German drugmaker BioNTech, enough to immunize 50 million people. It was the second such deal the parties had reached since the pandemic began to … Read More

10 Notable Negotiations of 2020

Posted by & filed under Daily.

If there’s one thing that negotiators have practiced this year, it’s thinking on their feet. As our 10 notable negotiations of 2020 illustrate, the coronavirus pandemic left individuals, businesses, nonprofits, and governments trying to replace outmoded plans with more workable alternatives.  10 Notable Negotiations of 2020 10. Struggling to play ball. This year, sports leagues scrambled to … Read 10 Notable Negotiations of 2020