Module 5

Concessions and convergence: reading the pattern of moves

Once the first offers are on the table, a negotiation becomes a sequence of moves, and the sequence carries information. A side that moves in large steps early and small steps late is telling you something about how close it is to its limit. A side that moves in equal steps every time is following a habit, or a script. A side that retreats has been told something that changed its mind. All of this is data, and a negotiator who writes it down, rather than remembering it vaguely, will read it better and also manage their own moves with more discipline. This module teaches how to plan your own concessions before the first session, how to link each to a condition so that it buys something, how to record the offers and read the pattern, and how to project where each side may be heading, with a strong warning that the projection is a guess about behaviour and not a measurement of anyone’s real limit. It also covers the midpoint trap, the effect of deadlines and the discipline of not giving away the margin early. The Concession Tracker works with invented offers.

General education on using data in negotiation, with invented companies, people, disputes and figures. It states common practice in simplified form and does not describe any one country's law or professional rules, which differ and change; rules on candour, misrepresentation, confidentiality and settlement in particular vary. The tools organise your own estimates and cannot predict the result of any real negotiation. It is not legal advice, and it does not replace advice from a qualified lawyer on a real matter.