Negotiating during tough times

Amidst the coronavirus pandemic, the manner in which we learn to Negotiating  to adapt to work environment changes is a lot like learning to adapt to the virus spreading. We observe, understand, and respond, and the cycle repeats. In the current situation of prominent business organizations, several approaches have been created or modified to help clients plan effectively during a pandemic. Here are a few.

Focus on joint objectives

A mutual understanding of the pandemic’s scale and effect has prompted unprecedented degrees of participation between partners. Reason and realism have seemed to replace adversarial industrial relations, and you can see this being exemplified at a macro level today. Executives and employees both have the same shared desired to survive when faced with the same challenge–in this case, let’s take the pandemic, for instance. Necessary changes can be made faster when a dialog is more genuine than it needs to be. If not, the choices and decisions made will be hard to make things fair and open. Change action can also happen successfully if there are minimal negative impacts on employees while also conveying effective outcomes indicating the business can endure the pandemic.

You can try and make the best use of this joint approach. Look beyond existing facilities to build a forum to future-proof the company and its people. It could be a forum where individuals would have to commit to mutually beneficial methods to help each organization grow concurrently.   

Coming up with scalable solutions

This one’s no doubt an all-time solution to almost every aspect of organizational activities. However, it may not be well-implemented during crises where solutions derived need to be immediate, responsive, and flexible. Finding a way to change once is hard. Beginning without any planning if the environment shifts—and the plans you have concurred were not enough—will add in a heap of human stress, time, and costs. Having one-time mutual agreements regarding changing processes, opportunities, and work flexibility can indicate that companies during a pandemic are well prepared to react when changes occur.

You can seek ideas from even beyond your company because there is an extensive market out there implementing a ton of changes to their respective industries. Benchmarks can help discover what industries do to keep themselves ahead and what adaptive measures they take to combat unanticipated changes.

Making key relationships an investment

Two people who share a relationship will work out when there is a positive effect. It works pretty much the same way when it comes to negotiation between two firms. During a crisis or change, putting forth logical business cases is crucial. And in times like these, businesses need to connect with their people in a manner that will engage them to respond to change or uncertainty quickly. Good, working relationships result from successful negotiations (mainly in times of distress), and that’s what makes a successful negotiation different from an unsuccessful one—with trust and compromise. 

Most importantly, connect directly and consistently with your partners. For starters, hear them out. Time and resources are scattered in places, so pare back and approach employees with simple Negotiating tools and mediums. All in all, the key takeaway that reflects business-critical issues is to understand what matters to your kin.