Monday, May 31, 2010

ON REACHING AGREEMENTS

To Genereal John C. Pemberton, who was commanding the Confederate forces trapped within Vicksburg, surrendering with the "honors of war" was an important issue. He wrote to Ulysses S Grant:

"...in justice voth to the honor and spirit of my troops, manifested in the defense of Vicksburg...at ten o'clock a.m. tomorrow [July 4, 1863], I propose to...surrender by marching out with my colors and arms, stacking them in front of my present lines. After which you till take possession."

To this Grant replied:

"If you mean by your proposition for each brigade to march to the front of the lines now occupied by it, and stack arms at ten o'clock a.m., and then return to the inside and there remain as prisoners until properly paroled, I will make no objections to it."

LESSON: Agreements are reached when each party thinks it has cut the best deal it can. A bargain is when each party thinks it has gotten the better of the other. Onve of the best ways to insure that the party you are negotiating with thinks it is getting a bargain is to yield on symbolic issues that are important to the other party but have no substantive impact on the results of the negotiations.

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