Do you have a possibility mindset when it comes to negotiation?

I first heard the term possibility mindset from a very good friend of mine Alexandra Andre, she's a marathon coach and professional speaker, she wrote much about what it means to have a possibility mindset in her book The Power of Possibility. 

When I think of a possibility mindset, I think of it quite distinctly to growth mindset. 

Dr Carol Dweck, a Professor of Psychology at Stanford University and author of her book Mindset, defines growth mindset as follows:

“In a growth mindset, people believe that their most basic abilities can be developed through dedication and hard work—brains and talent are just the starting point. This view creates a love of learning and a resilience that is essential for great accomplishment.” ( Dweck, 2015) 

The distinction I see with the word possibility and possibility mindset is that it not only speaks to the mindset required for developing yourself and the opportunities you want it also leads you to the mental rehearsal of your desired outcome. Creating in your mind the possibility of a vision, a goal, coming true even in the face of what might initially appear impossible. 

The power of a possibility mindset in negotiation is that helps you to identify a vision of what could be possible that others may not dare reach for. It also anchors in your mind the thoughts and behaviours you need to adopt, and the person you need to become to create that vision into reality. 

So, how can you tell if you have a possibility mindset when it comes to negotiation?

Well, you:

1. Focus on the upside, not the downside.

In one Harvard study they measured the impact of the mindset in a negotiation by priming two different groups of students. 

One group of students prior to the negotiation were asked to write a paragraph on all the things they thought that could go wrong in the negotiation. These students focused on the downside risk. They considered their worst-case scenario. They wrote down what were they most afraid of happening.

The second group were asked to write a paragraph on everything they thought could go right in the negotiation. Considering what could be possible if everything went well. What the upside would be if everything went their way. Focussing on their most ideal scenario. 

Now taking those two situations, you've got one group focusing on the downside risk and one group focusing on the upside risk. Those two groups were then put into negotiations, which group do you think negotiated better outcomes? 

I hope you’re thinking that it's those that have been focusing on the upside risk!

If you are, you would be exactly right because you often get what you think about. If you don't allow the opportunity to think about what's possible, then the likelihood of you looking for different ways to create that possibility are going to be limited. 

Too many people in negotiation environments go into them focused on protecting what they do not want to lose. As a result, what feels like a win is if they've protected their business from not losing too much or avoided their worst-case scenario. What is often missed is opportunity for value creation that could have been created but wasn’t because they were so concerned about protecting value that they didn't look to grow value.

When you don’t focus on the possible upside opportunity you lose the opportunity to gain. We all know the reason why people focus on protecting the downside, as humans we’re a lot more focused on avoiding pain than we are on looking for pleasure. The upside focus is considering the pleasure and the possibility of what could be gained. But the downside risk is obviously what is going to be lost. And therefore, the focus on losing is a lot greater because there's a tendency to want to avoid loss rather than go for what is to be gained.

Research has proven if you focus on the upside possibility you will get a better result in your negotiations than you do if you focus on just value protecting

2. Consider, What if?

If you have a possibility mindset you consider ‘what if?’ You don't discount your best-case scenario before you've even gone into the room.

It's easy to convince yourself prior to the negotiation that the other party can’t or won’t give you what you want. If you allow this to happen, then you’ve discounted the value of what could be possible in your own mind before you've gone into the room.

If you're focusing, prior to the negotiation, on all the things that could go wrong, then you want to figure out what you can do to mitigate those risks where possible and go into that negotiation being clear of how you will respond in those situations.

But in the same way you consider how to mitigate the downside risk, consider all the ways you could create the possibility of identifying and securing the maximum the other party can give you. How can you influence the negotiation to go your way?

Too often the focus is on mitigating against the downside, but what energy and attention is given to considering what if everything were to go your way what conditions need to be true?

Identify if any of those conditions could be influenced ahead of the negotiation to ensure that when you get to the table you are in control. If you've already designed the deal that you want and started executing it prior to the negotiation you stand a better chance of getting what you're after.

Consider ‘What if?’ and don't discount your best case before you've even had the chance to explore the possibility of it.

3. Instead of saying no, ask for more information

When someone's making a proposal in a negotiation you don't want to agree to, maybe it isn't right for your business, instead of saying no and rejecting it and shutting the other person down, consider how you could keep that dialogue open and get curious instead. What conditions would need to be met to make it happen?

Having a possibility mindset isn't deferring to using rejecting language, such as ‘No that won't work for us’ or ‘No, I can't do that’ or ‘No, I won't do that’ it's very much about curiosity and exploration to identify and understand what their deeper interests are.

Through getting curious you can identify their real need. You can consider if there is opportunity for you to create value from something that you would never have otherwise discovered or considered. If you automatically shut down the conversation without considering asking for more information, you’re missing the opportunity to develop insights, create leverage and the opportunity to create value.

Negotiation isn't about sitting and waiting for the other party to capitulate to what you want, it’s a two-way dialogue. Practise showing a genuine interest in exploring ‘what if’ something was possible and even if it's not something that you would on the surface agree with, go deep get more information and stay open to exploring different ways for something to be created where value can be created for both parties.

Maybe something completely out of the box is possible because there's synergies and opportunities that you can leverage in your business that you wouldn't have otherwise considered.

4. Don’t be limited by what’s been done before

Too often people go into negotiations looking at the deals that have been agreed before and thinking they're not going to get too much different to what's been agreed before.

As a result, they won't ask for something radically different or create a possibility for a new opportunity that looks nothing like the previous agreement. 

With a possibility mindset you don’t limit yourself to thinking only about what has been agreed before, rather you take yourself away from the table and think about what you could design as the perfect deal and identify what conditions would need to be true to make it happen.

With a possibility mindset you take a situation and scenario that currently feels is impossible and mould it into something that could be realised. 

If you go into a negotiation with the mindset that the deal that you're going to negotiate must look like what you've done before, you're missing out. You're missing the opportunity to innovate. You're missing the opportunity to create value. You're missing out because you haven’t explored other possibilities outside of what has been done before.

Every day innovation is born because there are people out there creating. They create because they are unlimited and unconstrained by what already exists. What can you create from applying a possibility mindset? Why not be more innovative in the deals you construct?

The Bottom Line, if you want to create value for your business to the levels it’s never been created before, then adopt a possibility mindset and create the possible from the impossible.