I read an interesting blog post on the LexBlog Network from Tom Crane of the San Antonio Employment Law Blog called What We Can Learn from the Government Shutdown. The lesson Crane preaches that bullying tactics usually do not work very well in negotiation and tend to invite an equal response from the other side.

I agree with Crane regarding the fact that bullying tactics don’t work well in negotiations. In my view there a couple of things you should remember in your next business negotiation. First, you need to leave some room for the other side to save face. This is true even if you have the upper hand and likely don’t need to give in to the other side’s demands. People need to feel as though they have gotten something from you. How can this be accomplished? One of the easiest ways is to have throw away points in the negotiation that you are willing to give up. So even if these points aren’t important to you, the other side can still feel like they received something in return for their compromise.

Secondly, don’t use ultimatums or say that you will "never" do something unless you really mean it. And even if you do mean it, it still is not the best idea to use this strategy. Ultimatums and saying you will "never" agree to something invites the same strategy in return. Such techniques build roadblocks to compromise and a successful negotiation.

A key is to disagree without being disagreeable. Something our politicians desperately need to learn.