Neuro Linguistic Programming NLP is a powerful set of tools and techniques for managing your mind, and emotions and for developing powerful relationships with others. We teach these in our NLP training in New York. Here we will consider how a powerful NLP technique can be used in a negotiation.

One of the strongest NLP techniques is called the Visual Squash or Part’s Integration. This technique can be used when a person says "on the one hand I want A but on the other hand I want B". It is designed to reconcile views that on the face of it appear irreconcilable. It can be a very hypnotic technique and we also teach it to hypnotists on our hypnosis training in New York.

However, the idea that "Part of me wants this and part of me wants that" is exactly the situation we have in a negotiation between two parties. This article considers how Part’s Integration can be used as a model for a successful negotiation.

How Parts Integration Works

Here is the basic model for Parts Integration.

• Step 1: Identify the stated positions of the two parties. In the first instance these may appear irreconcilable.

• Step 2: Find out what the "higher" intention or need of each of the parties is. This higher intention is found by asking questions such as "If you had what you wanted, what would that do for you".

• Step 3: You continue this, getting higher and higher intentions until you get an intention from each part that is the same, or where the intentions are very close. Note that these higher intentions are likely to be more vague than the stated aims in Step 1.

• Step 4: Showing the parties that they have a common goal, we can begin to build rapport between them.

• Step 5: When rapport is built, we can begin to step down toward more specific aims that satisfy the shared positive intention.

Let's consider a specific example. Suppose we have a company and a union negotiating over a pay deal:

• Step 1: The Union states that they want a 15% pay rise. The company states that they are in financial difficulties and actually want the union to accept pay cuts. Even if we assume the unions position is posturing (perhaps they will accept 10%), the union and company positions seem mutually exclusive and irreconcilable, and you are called in to arbitrate.

• Step 2: You talk separately to the union. Your find that they are concerned to do the best they can for their members. Their members are concerned about falling standards of living for their members, rising health care costs, and falling education standards. Their members believe that if they have the money they are asking they will be better able to take care of their families health, education and general welfare.

• You talk to the company and find that they are concerned about the company’s financial state and ability to make much needed investments in new machinery and processes. If they are able to make these investments they will be more profitable and will maximize the return for their stakeholders, including the owners, managers customers and employees.

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