Negotiation, Step 8: Agree

Be sure to agree on what is actually agreed upon, because it's much easier to clear up ambiguities at this time than later when both parties are taking action.

Keys to effective agreements

• Confirm agreement in an acceptable form.
• Ensure that all parties are comfortable with agreement and are ready to put it into practice.
• Develop a balanced and detailed summary of the deal.
• Get the other party's agreement and circulate it immediately.
• Avoid deal creep, when the other party's notes are ambiguous and you interpret them for your benefit. 

Scotwork NA opens Canadian office    

Gaëtan Pellerin

Thanks to growing demand for business north of the border, Scotwork NA has opened a Canadian office in Montreal, and brought in a Canadian director, Gaëtan Pellerin.  

With broad international business experience, Gaëtan has negotiated multi-million dollar contracts with major corporations in the U.S., Japan, China, Thailand and other countries. Since he is bilingual, negotiation skills courses can be offered in French and English.

"The number of requests for negotiating skills courses in Canada continues to surge," said CEO Marty Finkle. "Gaëtan is an accomplished multi-national professional who will help us build the Canadian market." To find out more, email Gaetan.

FAA budget had to be cut

Without money to fund every area of the FAA, its budget had to be trimmed, says Alan Paret, U.S. Army Contract Specialist, winner of the July contest. Congrats, Alan, for your thoughtful analysis!

According to Alan, there is no reason to change the law to favor labor unions, which can still organize. It's not the government's job to favor organized labor, but rather to fund the agency, as the Republicans stated.

Enter the contest below on the Verizon dispute!   

Verizon management vs. unions: you decide 

Though unions representing 45,000 employees of Verizon's landline division (phone, Internet & TV service from Maine to Virginia) ended a two-week strike, some key issues need to be resolved:

General

Unions: While Verizon's productivity has been strong ($22 billion the last four years), we're being asked for concessions on issues like health insurance contributions and pensions--which threaten our standard of living.

Management: Cuts are essential given the loss of revenues, as many opt to give up land-line phones. 

Salaries

Management: Unionized technicians in the Northeast earn an average of $81,000 to $91,000 a year.

Unions: This average is distorted, based on two months of overtime.

Health insurance contributions

Unions: Management wants us to contribute $1,300 to $3,000 a year.

Management: Similar contributions are being made by our non-union employees. Plus, as health care costs soar, we can't afford to continue providing "Cadillac plans" for 800,000 employees, retirees and their families.

Win a bottle of wine...

Sandy Sbarra

Bio    Email

Rich Waldrop Bio    Email

Simon Letchford

Bio  Email 

Register here for  Advanced Negotiating Skills on Oct. 10-13 or any of the dates below.  

Parsippany, NJ  

-Oct. 10-13

-Nov. 7-10

-Dec. 5-8

Other sites  

-Sept. 26-29

 (Chicago)

-Oct. 17-20

 (San Francisco)

See our 2012 dates here. 

About Scotwork

North America

Scotwork (NA) Inc. is the North American division of Scotwork Negotiating Skills, the world's largest independent provider of negotiation skills training and consulting with offices in 35 countries.

Its seasoned negotiators offer consulting and training in 22 languages to more than 9,000 executives and managers worldwide. Scotwork's clients receive an average return of 10 times the course fee within three months.