The Need for Negotiation Literacy

United States citizens are increasingly polarized in many arenas, from the voting booth to cyberspace. This polarization appears to be as much about intangibles, such as identity and feelings, as about tangibles like income inequality and wealth. Future generations must learn to manage negotiations rooted in intangibles and to understand the use of intangibles for ill and for good.

As a foundation, every citizen (from kindergarten on) should learn the basics of negotiation theory and practice. The basic negotiation skills are indeed very basic and are, as it happens, mostly about intangibles. We need to listen broadly and effectively; recognize our own feelings and those of others; maintain self‐discipline; be perceived to be respectful and trustworthy; assess truthfulness and credibility; understand taking sides (advocacy) and not taking sides (neutrality). We need to learn to develop and evaluate many options for action. These skills help us to identify relevant stakeholders in any negotiation, and the significant interests and sources of power of each stakeholder – including our own.

Citizens should also use these skills to understand negotiation strategy and how the intangibles can serve destructive as well constructive strategies. Parties may “compete, collaborate, avoid, accommodate and/or compromise” for positive gains (Blake and Mouton 1964) and negotiators may “force” and/or “foster” to achieve their goals (Cutcher‐ Gershenfeld, McKersie, and Walton 1995).

Some stakeholders, however, have negative interests: autocratic control, revenge, self‐aggrandizement, and constant combat – to steal from, and/or eliminate other parties with non‐kinetic forms of opposition (Rowe 2015). Sometimes negative strategies seem attractive to politicians, especially when they serve the interests of a limited group of stakeholders. Citizens must learn when and why to reject destructive strategies.

When I was a child I was only taught that collaboration was the “right” thing to do. I learned from negotiation theory that collaboration, where it is possible, can also produce mathematically better outcomes for more citizens more of the time.

中文翻译：

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学习有关无形资产的谈判–造福于善

谈判素养的需求

从投票站到网络空间，美国公民在许多领域都日益分化。这种两极分化似乎与无形资产（例如身份和情感）和收入不平等和财富等有形资产一样多。子孙后代必须学会管理根植于无形资产的谈判，并了解无形资产对生病和福祉的使用。

作为基础，每个公民（从幼儿园开始）都应该学习谈判理论和实践的基础。基本的谈判技巧确实非常基础，而且碰巧主要是无形资产。我们需要广泛而有效地倾听；认识我们自己和他人的感受；保持自律；被认为是尊重和值得信赖的；评估真实性和信誉；理解立场（倡导）而不是立场（中立）。我们需要学习制定和评估许多行动方案。这些技能可帮助我们在任何谈判中确定相关的利益相关者，以及每个利益相关者（包括我们自己）的重大利益和权力来源。

公民还应该利用这些技能来理解谈判策略以及无形资产如何服务于破坏性和建设性策略。政党可以“竞争，合作，避免，适应和/或妥协”以获得积极的收益（布雷克和穆顿，1964年），谈判者可以“强迫”和/或“促进”实现自己的目标（库彻·格申菲尔德，麦克基斯和沃尔顿，1995年））。

但是，一些利益相关者则具有消极利益：专制控制，报仇，自我强化和持续战斗–窃取和/或消除具有非运动形式反对派的其他政党（Rowe，2015）。有时，消极策略对政客似乎很有吸引力，尤其是当它们为少数利益相关者的利益服务时。公民必须学习何时以及为何拒绝破坏性策略。

当我还是个孩子的时候，我仅被告知合作是要做的“正确”事情。我从谈判理论中学到，在可能的情况下，协作也可以在更多时间上为更多公民带来数学上更好的结果。