Negotiation plays a central role in the workplace. The sales process for example, the lifeblood of commence, is based on matching a willing buyer to a willing seller, and on a process of negotiation, over specification, price, quality and delivery to ensure that each side’s interest are met. But the negotiations that are currently taking place between political parties are just the beginning of a process. Once the deal is struck, players from each side will have to learn to work together.

And so the most important lesson for politicians to learn from the workplace is that of team building. It has long been recognised that in order for companies to succeed their staff need to work together successfully. Politicians in a  power shaping negotiation have far less control over who their partners will be than companies do over whom they employ. But when it comes to working with their partners, they will be working as a team and not as diverse parties. Political organisations already employ team building techniques within their own groupings, they now need to learn how to apply the same techniques across the parties.

If the electoral system is indeed to change then we will see many more coalition governments, and consensus will replace confrontation as the main driver of political decisions. Political trainers now need to be looking at team building and negotiating models from industry in order to ensure that the changes taking place in our political system are managed effectively.

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It is a sad reflection on human nature that, whilst we have achieved phenomenal technological progress, our interpersonal skills remain almost as underdeveloped as ever. Royal Mail (when times are good) can send a letter across the length of the country in a few hours, for a few pence; it is even said that they can deliver a request to Santa Claus at the North Pole. But they and their trades union still cannot find common ground to resolve an industrial dispute.

In their acclaimed book Getting to Yes, Roger Fisher and William L. Ury point out that the art of negotiation is to focus on interests, not positions. In the case of the Royal Mail dispute each side holds strongly felt, conflicting positions. But they have common interests.

In a nutshell, the union’s position is to protect the working conditions of their members. The management position is to protect the commercial viability of the organisation. Each party feels that their position necessarily excludes the other’s and that is why no agreement is possible.

But both management and unions do have shared interests. Each side wants the Royal Mail to survive. Both management and workers want to keep their jobs, they both want greater prosperity, they both want Royal Mail to be successful. According to Fisher and Ury, if the negotiations were to focus on these shared interests, looking at how these goals can be achieved, rather than getting bogged down in intractable positions, there would be a far greater chance of a satisfactory resolution.

Of course it is unlikely that the negotiators have ignored the interests that both parties have in common. But whilst the media statements issued by both parties continue to focus on their differences rather than their commonality, it is hard to escape the conclusion that the real issue here is neither working conditions or commercial viability. Rather, it is the poor negotiating skills present at the table.

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