First Step Marketing

Space, somebody once said, is the final frontier. But, as far as your negotiation is concerned, it’s the first frontier. The ways that you use the space around you when you negotiate are as individual, distinctive and particular as you are. We all, for example, have what is known as a ‘personal space‘. This space is roughly circular in shape with us occupying an off-centre position – with more personal space to our front than to our rear. The size of this circle depends upon our personality, age, gender and status. It is also influenced by the situation that we’re in – such as whether we like or dislike the people around us. The way that we use this and other parts of the space around us sends signals to the people around us. For example, if you wish to control a meeting then the best place to sit is at the head of the table or, if there isn’t a table, in the chair which is largest or occupies a key position in the room. The distances that we keep or allow between us and other people are eloquent about how we feel about them. For example, most of the informal conversations that you’ll have — like those that might occur on the fringes of our negotiations — take place with a distance of half a metre to 174 metres between you and the person you’re talking to. In the more formal part of your negotiation this separation distance can rise to as high as 3′h metres. As a consequence you’ll have to speak louder, supplement your words with gestures or facial expressions and signal which person you’re talking (or listening) to by the direction of your gaze. In negotiations that involve large teams, separation distances can rise to as high as 7¹/2 metres. At this sort of distance you’ll have to use emphasized vocal cues, posture and gestures to replace the eye contact and facial expression that you used when you were closer to each other. Status can also influence this separation distance with high status individuals needing — or being given — more and better protected space. But status isn’t the only factor that influences the way that you use your negotiating space. You’ll sit or stand closer to the people that you like, are similar to or need approval from and you’ll sit or stand further away from those that you dislike or think of as being somehow ‘different’. All of these factors influence the ways in which you’ll use and arrange the spaces of your negotiation.

Many, but not all, of your negotiations will be conducted while you are seated. When you sit you adopt a posture that’s halfway between the extremes of lying down and standing up. When you sit down with someone, you signal your social availability to them. Sitting with someone means you are accessible to them; you can see, touch and hear each other. This sitting together can be informal, as when you talk to your friends or when you eat breakfast together with your family, or formal, as when you sit with your boss to be told whether or not you’ve got a pay rise this year. What you intend to do when you sit together and the way that you intend to do it influence the seating arrangement that you choose. For example, the corner seating arrangement is the most informal. In this, you’re close to the other person, you can see and touch them as well as being able to see their papers or notes. While sitting side by side is less informal, it is usually seen as a seating arrangement that is co_operative. It is easy, for example, to compare or exchange written material in this position. But when you’re in _competition with or unsure about someone, then you almost always choose to sit opposite to them. You do this so that you can see and watch what they’re doing. Many of your formal _negotiations will adopt this ‘sitting opposite‘ seating arrangement. The opposing teams will face each other across a rectangular table with the team leaders seated opposite to each other. But in really big negotiations — such as those between several opposing groups — the people present are often limited to the representatives of those groups and are seated in a large circle or at a circular table. What happens at these negotiations is often controlled by a chairperson — who has to act impartially — and speakers may even have to get up to go to a stand or podium to make their case.

But you don’t have to use rectangular tables, nor do you have to abide by the ‘sitting opposite‘ arrangement. For example, you and the other side can sit at a round table or even at no table at all, and you don’t have to sit in opposition to each other — you can mix the two teams up by sitting them adjacent to each other. Whatever you decide to do about the seating arrangements for your negotiation it is worth making sure that:

• the seats that you use are comfortable
• the people on your team that you need to check or consult with are seated near you
• the person from the other side with whom you have the most conflict or difficulty is seated near to or opposite to you — so that you can make eye contact with them you can make eye contact with the key people in both your team and theirs.

Possibly related posts: (automatically generated)
Negotiating space, which seat is yours?

This entry was posted on Tuesday, October 7th, 2008 at 12:02 am and is filed under Career Management, Promotion. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.