The Role of Time in Negotiation

“Time is money”, and is also a very strong tool in negotiation; we must learn to use time to our benefit while negotiating.

In negotiations conducted in laboratory settings, subjects show an almost uncanny ability to detect even small zones of agreement but the smaller the zone, and the more offset it is according to their prior expectations, the longer it usually takes them to agree on a solution. As a corollary to this we can surmise that the bargainer who is willing to wait longer, to probe more patiently, to appear less eager for a settlement will be more successful.

Richard Zeckhauser once conducted a negotiation experiment in which Israeli subjects played against American subjects. He found that the Israelis did better because they were less impatient to arrive at a negotiated settlement. The Israelis even asked Zeckhauser how firm he considered the deadline that he imposed on the length of the negotiations. When 8:00P.M was the deadline for an all-day negotiation, a lot depended, in their minds, on whether Zeckhauser would accept a settlement executed at 8:02P.M. Many Americans are uncomfortable with long pauses in the give and-take of negotiations. They feel obliged to say something, anything, to get the negotiations rolling. However, it’s not what is said in negotiations that counts, but what isn’t said. Very often: the strategic essence of a negotiation exercise is merely a waiting game with self-imposed penalties (embarrassment) for delays. It is true that during negotiations, real penalties may be incurred by one side or the other with the passage of time; but many unskillful negotiators place a dysfunctional premium on speed. Their concerns are not only anxiety-along-the-way or fear that the other side will opt out or concern that a totally unexpected event will intervene or even politeness, but rather a psychological uneasiness about wasting time. Certainly time is valuable, and sometimes one should be willing to trade money against time. But most people are far too impatient to see a deal consummated.

Source:

Raiffa, H. 1982. The art and science of negotiation. Cambridge, Mass.: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press.