Trade-Offs in Multiparty Negotiations

What are trade-offs in a multi-party negotiation and why are they difficult

Well, generally in any negotiation, concessions are a big part of the negotiation process

That is, one party gives up one thing and the other party gives up another thing

Now, generally the most common form of trade-off is that you are giving something up that you value

that the other person acquires. That is, you give up something of value

they acquire that value that you're giving up, and vice versa. So you are both making concessions

This is known as a reciprocal trade-off. Now, in general, we do this with interests

that are disparately valued. That is, I care about one issue more than you

you care about one issue more than I do. That is, I can then trade off

and allow you to gain more of the interest that you value

And I lose some of that interest, but I gain more of an interest that I value more

and you lose some of that. That is a reciprocal one-to-one trade-off

Now, this is very difficult to do in group negotiations because you have multiple parties with distinct interests

So these reciprocal trade-offs are difficult. In comes a technique known as circular log rolling

Oftentimes trade-offs are known as log rolling in that you go down on one side

the other side comes up and it's a continuous circle in this way and you

add multiple interest to the fray and you are able to achieve this reciprocal trade Well in circular log rolling you are expanding this to more parties And I for example may have to trade

off an interest with one party whereby that party gains in order for that party to allow

another party to the negotiation, a third party, to gain. And I will negotiate directly with that

third party that I'm willing to allow this scenario to happen if that party who ultimately

gains from the scenario is willing to allow me to gain in some interest. So it takes the place of

the one-to-one reciprocal trade-off and makes it circular in nature in that you are trading off

different things with different parties and the interests being traded off on go in somewhat of a

circular fashion. Now this can become far more complex as you add additional parties and each

party benefits separately. It becomes extremely difficult to keep up with when you get to four or

more parties because it's difficult to value how one party is gaining in the negotiation and another

party is losing and it becomes more difficult for that party to tie the cause of them gaining back

to you and being willing to trade off something of value to you in exchange for you undertaking

or kicking off that cascade or process. So this is why trading off in a multi-party negotiation can be quite difficult