Few
negotiators can imagine negotiation scenarios more stressful than the kinds of
crisis negotiations the New York City Police Department’s Hostage Negotiation
Team undertake.
The
Program on Negotiation received an article from
Jeff Thompson and Hugh McGowan, Ph.D., outlining the techniques and strategies
that the New York City Police Department’s Hostage Negotiations Team (HNT)
employ while dealing with high-stakes, high-pressure crisis negotiation
situations.
Jeff
Thompson, a NYPD Detective, is a research scholar at Columbia University School
of Law and a Ph.D. candidate at the Griffith University Law School in
Queensland, Australia. Hugh McGowan is a former commanding officer of the
NYPD’s Hostage Negotiation Team, having led the HNT for 13 years. The NYPD
Hostage Negotiation Team handles more crisis negotiations in one month than
most departments do in a year and, in 2012 alone, the department handled 400
such negotiations. In a previous year, one incident was well over 50
hours long and included a team of 17 crisis negotiators.
Not
unlike integrative negotiators who seek to create value between negotiating
counterparts and distributive negotiators who seek to maximize one’s claim to
value in the negotiation at hand, hostage negotiators need to be able to “apply
a specific set of skills in a strategic manner that is based on the current
context.”
The
goal of hostage negotiations is to “work with the person in crisis towards a
peaceful solution that previously seemed impossible,” or, in other words, to
reconcile your counterpart’s problems with the need to maintain the peace for
society at large.
Using
active-listening techniques,
maintaining an open-minded approach, and building rapport to influence your
counterpart are just a few of the “skills negotiators use to transcend these
unique incidents and [which] are applicable to a variety of other [negotiating]
situations.”
Important
negotiation skills that the NYPD Hostage Negotiations Team has identified for
future hostage negotiators also have applicability to the kinds of
value-creating, integrative negotiations business negotiators undertake during
the course of their careers.
Here
are the essential skills of a NYPD HNT Negotiator:
“Talk
to Me”
The
motto for NYPD HNT emphasizes communication as an essential negotiation skill
for their crisis negotiators, and for good reason. Opening up avenues of
communication to your counterpart signals that you are ready to listen, an
integral first step to building rapport between negotiating counterparts by
“build[ing] trust…as well as display[ing] empathy” which can lead to further
mutual gains at the bargaining table as the negotiation progresses beyond the
initial stages.
Patience
Not
only is it important to allow your counterpart a forum to air concerns during a
hostage negotiation, it is also critical for the crisis negotiator to be
patient and “avoid jumping to conclusions and rushing quickly towards a
resolution.” The patient negotiator seeks to build rapport so as to influence
her counterpart’s actions; if she ignores this process she greatly hinders her
ability to influence her counterpart and resolve the situation in a peaceful
manner.
Active
Listening
The
NYPD Hostage Negotiations Team calls “active listening” an affective and
effective skill. Active listening is an affective skill when it is used to
build trust and rapport between negotiating parties with the effective
byproduct of this process resulting in information gathering which can help
maintain an open dialogue with your negotiating counterpart.
Respect
Active
listening and patience both result in your counterpart feeling respected and
that her concerns are being heard and addressed.
Calm
Displaying
calm in the midst of a heated crisis negotiation is perhaps one of the most
critical skills a hostage negotiator can master, because “the negotiator’s
actions are contagious and as a guide using a calm, understanding, and
respectful tone is what helps the subject realize there is an alternative way
out.”
Self-Awareness
Self
awareness for the NYPD HNT involves the dual realization that the crisis
negotiator must establish a relationship with a complete stranger while keeping
her communication strategic and purposeful in nature.
Adaptability
A
negotiation strategy that all skilled negotiators should possess in their
negotiation skills repertoire is the ability to adapt to changing circumstances
and to respond to those circumstances in a way that preserves the relationship
you have built with your counterpart while also bringing you closer to your
negotiation goals. As the NYPD HNT points out, “crisis and hostage negotiation
is not a ‘cookie-cutter’ design where the same approach and actions are used
each time in an identical way,” and, indeed, no skilled negotiator would ever
approach the bargaining table with this mindset.
While
negotiations are never uniform or universal, the relationship building and
communication skills advocated by integrative bargainers do apply in nearly
every negotiation scenario you can imagine.
Though
not often fraught with the emotional complexity of a hostage negotiation,
business negotiations still rely upon trust, rapport, and a mutual sense of
respect in order to make the deal happen. Likewise, when dealing with difficult
people in your daily life, active listening and a respectful, calm demeanor are
proven techniques for preserving your relationship with your counterpart while
also addressing her concerns in a thoughtful way.
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