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Reclaiming Negotiation by Empowering Women

"The destiny of the world lies in the hearts and brains of it’s women.
This world can not travel upward faster that the feet of its women are climbing the path of progress"

Mary Seymour Howell, a leader, lecturer, and activist for women's suffrage in the United States

Women don’t often see themselves as negotiators or intentionally build their negotiation skills. Because of this, much of the negotiation industry is male. We’d like this to change.

We’re tired of negotiation being perceived as an aggressive, often male dominated, ‘game’ of trying to bully or trick the other party into getting your way. We think others might too. The author of a ‘core’ book on how to prepare and structure a negotiation, wrote an article in Time Magazine about this. He assumes that all negotiation is conflict – a perception shared by many.

It doesn’t have to be this way. We’re here to take back ‘negotiation’ to where it should be – a collaborative process that creates value.

Return the perception of negotiation to collaborative and value creating, away from one focused on tricks and tactics, conflict, and gamesmanship. Women*Not all women will fall into this high-level categorization, and some men will fall into this area. Additionally, some women may have an implicit view of conflict and negotiation that they may not yet recognize. Be flexible, if you’re reading this far there’s something in this that will speak to you. today continue to have a negative view of the skill of negotiation, and we seek to highlight this issue and provide helpful ways to improve.

Instead of trying to negotiate more like an aggressive, gamesmanship focused person, we seek to empower people to change the negotiation landscape**This type of negotiation approach is for any situation where two (or more) parties can create value together. and use a collaborative, interest-based approach that improves working relationships.

Two women negotiating

Change women’s perception of negotiation from a confrontational, aggressive game to a collaborative, relationship building outcome that creates more value.

If we’re successful, we will see:

  1. A return to the original study of negotiation that proved collaborative, interest-based discussions were the most successful creation of value between two (or more parties).
  2. A new definition of ‘negotiation’ to one that is focused on successful resolutions and improved paths forward, and a move away from getting to a decision through tactics, tricks and aggressive behaviors focused on short term results.

Raise Awareness

Leave your contact details to stay informed of any new resources and opportunities to help further our quest towards reclaiming negotiation, coming from both WorldCC, and the WorldCC Foundation.