The Art of Negotiations

Negotiations must assume a relative equality of the parties around the table.  This is critical to finding solutions that are being sought.  

I sat on many negotiation teams with CTA and later on management’s side of the table.  And nothing killed negotiations more than one side or the other dominating.

This particularly was the case early in the history of the Rodda  Act, in the 1970s, that mandated collective bargaining of educational workers in California.

Superintendents had almost unlimited power before that.  Most of the old guard, were used to having the veto power of any bargained agreement under the old laws of “meet and confer” which really meant meet and take what management gave you.

So an entire generation of Superintendents had to retire, being unable to understand negotiations.  Authoritarianism no longer was a successful model.  It never is.  

Even today, especially when Charter Schools get collective bargaining, people have to be trained in negotiating, reaching consensus; etc.  And the last school I was associate with was nearly destroyed because they refused to negotiate in “good faith”, costing thousands in legal fee and cut the school in half; a true train wreck.  

I offered to help negotiate the new contract with CTA, having the background.  A member of the board was so angry with me he even accused me of letting CTA in (I had nothing to do with it) and misunderstood what negotiations are.  He was an authoritarian and didn’t have a clue.  He saw negotiations as weakness, when actually it is a strength.  

It is a skill.  It does not imply weakness in fact, in our national system of checks and balances it is the ONLY way of getting anything done.  Politics is an art and it takes years to figure it out.  And to sit down with people you fundamentally disagree with but still come up with a functional law or policy is a skill.  It is NOT weakness...it is not capitulation...it is called governing. 

We are seeing that right now on the federal level.  Donald Trump, who was elected on the fabrication that he was a negotiating “genius” (The Art of the Deal), in fact has no negotiating skills whatsoever.  

He uses the outmaneuver techniques, in cornering the opposition and forcing them to capitulate.  This Art of the Deal to him is lying, cornering, and bull dozing the opposition.  

That may work for awhile, but not long.  Because it fosters the art of the pay back, which means the negotiations deteriorate into chaos, since neither side can trust the other.  In short, power politics does not negotiate well, it does not govern well.  

We see that now with the DACA issue.  Trump at first showed flexibility, but must adhere to his minority base, since that is the ONLY support he has left (his popularity is at record lows).  So he quickly backed away from a deal, and now is trying to blackmail the other side.  

He has threatened to go to the Supreme Court to invalidate DACA, after a lower court issued an injunction forbidding him to stop DACA.  He reasons (?) that if he can kill DACA that the other side will be forced to accept his terms to resurrect DACA (if he even wants to do that).

But, the other side is needed to keep the government open..which opens the payback is a bitch card for the opposition.  

What may happen is the “other side” will decide to not cooperate at all, and shut down the government.  This is damaging to BOTH sides and could be catastrophic to the country and is a direct result of Trumps inability to even know how to begin to negotiate.

In short, the authoritarian model is being followed to disaster  since that is the model of negotiations that Trump has followed his entire life.  It is not negotiations, it is bullying and it doesn’t work!

It has a pattern of destroying trust and building momentum in the opposition to pay back the arrogance.  So sooner or later, when Trump weakens, the payback will be swift and sure, and lethal politically.

But the damage done to the body politic to get there  will be huge. 

The nation hangs currently on having the government shut down because of this dynamic.  We have a President who is an authoritarian who does not know how to negotiate.  This may work for a shot time, he can bully his way as he did with the tax cut, but victories will be short lived because the social compact  (Trump has no idea what that is) will be ruptured.  

The losers in this are the American People, because governmental chaos will be the result; that kills markets and will ruin the economy...

Governing is a skill of statesmanship...Trump doesn’t have a clue.