A recent post to the Harvard Law School Program on Negotiation's Daily Blog draws an analogy between project management and the negotiation technique of "backward mapping."[1] The post is an adaption of an article the Program's monthly newsletter, Negotiation, by Harvard Business School professor James K. Sebenius.
Where conventional wisdom teaches that "when entering a negotiation, you should get your allies onboard first," Professor Sebenius argues that backwards mapping provides a more effective approach to negotiation sequencing. This approach involves "envision[ing] your preferred outcome and think[ing] in reverse about how to get there." Basically, it is a project management approach to negotiation:
To better understand the logic of backward mapping, consider the logic of project management. When deciding how to undertake a complex project, you focus first on your endpoint, then develop a critical path and a timeline by working backward to the present. A successfully completed project is comparable to a value-creating agreement supported by a sustainable coalition.[2]
The process of backwards mapping provides an interesting form of stakeholder analysis to use in preparing for negotiations. It begins with drawing a map of all involved parties, along with their interests and no-deal options then estimating the cost and value of gaining each parties agreement and determining the key relationships among the parties. You then focus on the most difficult to persuade player and determining who you would like to have board to both initiate negotiations and to maximize the chances of the most difficult player saying yes. "Map backward in this fashion until you have found the most promising path through the cloud of possibilities."[3]
To someone training in project management, this is a fairly intuitive process. Whether this is intuitive to most lawyers, will depend upon their experience more than their training. For better or worse, law school tends to better prepare lawyers to litigate than to negotiate. That begs the question, could project management training improve an attorney's negotiation skills?
[1] Lisa Witzler, A better negotiation map, Harvard Law School Program on Negotiation Daily Blog, Dec. 1, 2009, http://www.pon.harvard.edu/?p=9188 (last visited on Jan. 1, 2009), adapted from James K. Sebenius, Mapping Backward: Negotiating in the Right Sequence, Negotiation, available at http://www.pon.harvard.edu/negotiation-monthly/archives/ (last visited on Jan. 1, 2009).
[2] Id.
[3] Id.
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