Negotiators—whether politicians or homebuyers—begin with bold concessions which rapidly shrink the gulf between opposing sides. But like curves approaching an asymptote in geometry, as they near an agreement they level off and struggle to bridge the final, though trivial, gap. The effect of their ongoing quarreling is that, by the end, their motivating goal is not so much to strike a deal or make a sale as to make the other side yield, on no matter how minor a point. The fact of winning a concession matters more than the concession’s substance. Not who yields most, but who yields last, appears to lose. The negotiation grows more bitter, the less remains at stake.

(Thanks to friend Rex Stevens for passing this along from the Aphorisms and Paradoxes blog.)

* * *

That’s not about money, it’s about face.

We call this end stage simply the final impasse but when the end stage stretches out into a seemingly endless future, we call it a “hurting stalemate” which is what we’ve got in Washington right now.

So how do you break an impasse that may or may not turn into a hurting stalemate?

Read original article


Tags: concession