Creating a Culture of Trust and Openness

Abstract

An arrangement that is exclusively based on one party’s victory over the other is barbaric and can never be humanized. It can only be maintained as long as the party with superior bargaining equity can force the opponent into submission, and sooner or later it will collapse. The alternative is cooperation and SMARTnership. However, the negotiator who does not understand the theoretical reasoning behind the ideas of SMARTnership and NegoEconomics is not motivated to be open and assume the risks inherent in an open negotiation climate. In order to cooperate, both parties must buy into the underlying theory of cooperation.