“COMPROMISE” Is Killing American Democracy!

During my days as an Account Manager, I negotiated multi-million dollar contracts and managed the “Who’s Who” of Wisconsin business. (NML, Johnson Wax, Fiserv, J.I. Case, Johnson Controls, Woolworth) As an educator for 17 years, I’ve taught “Negotiation Skills” using the Harvard Business School concept of “Principled Negotiations”. In a nutshell, “Principled Negotiation” is the old “Win-Win” negotiation strategy on steroids. The aim is to protect the long-term relationship of the parties by identifying the “real” problems and solving them. Tactics include: free flow of information, trust, honesty, developing multiple alternatives and the belief that there is an agreeable solution that’s worthy of negotiation.

Negotiation and Relationships

By looking at the relationship between the negotiators we can determine our negotiation tactics. If there’s NO RELATIONSHIP and the deal is a one-off negotiation, we can play hard ball and go for the deal that best suits our own interests. A Win-Lose strategy would suffice and compromise would be welcome if it helps close the deal in our favor. However, if there is a LONG-TERM WORKING RELATIONSHIP between the negotiators that needs to remain positive and accountable to constituents, a very different set of tactics and strategy must be invoked to PROTECT the relationship and provide POSITIVE SOLUTIONS for the constituents. PROBLEM IDENTIFICATION and SOLUTION are the ONLY OUTCOMES that will suffice.

COMPROMISE is NOT considered a POSITIVE OUTCOME of “Principled Negotiation”

When you COMPROMISE, you agree on something that allows the negotiation parties to move on for a period of time but DOES NOT address the underlying problem or provide agreeable solutions. NEITHER PARTY IS SATISFIED. The possibility of resolution gets shoved off to a later date. It’s the proverbial “kick the can down the road”. As the negotiation process continues and the results keep reverting to compromise the negotiating parties become more frustrated with each other. They withhold information, garner mistrust and settle for a Win-Lose strategy vying to get the most they can out of each COMPROMISE and blaming the other side for the lack of problem solving solutions. COMPROMISE becomes the NEGOTIATION STRATEGY, not PROBLEM IDENTIFICATION and RESOLUTION.

U.S. Democracy 2017

If you pay any attention to Congress, you know that what I described above is absolutely correct! The negotiation policy is COMPROMISE, COMPROMISE and COMPROMISE. A clean negotiated problem solving solution isn’t even on the radar as a potential goal. The “proverbial” can is full of dents from being kicked so often. The relationship between the parties has escalated to “hatred”. BUT what’s worse is the effect it’s had on the Nation and Democracy. The divide between the right and left politically, in the media and entertainment industry is unprecedented. The tearing apart of friends and family is abhorrent. We all think of COMPROMISE as a “good thing” when actually it’s the DIRTIEST of WORDS!