Podcast: The art of playing your cards close during a business negotiation

Information is the lifeblood of any negotiation, but one dilemma negotiators will face is knowing what to reveal to get what they want.

In the latest Melbourne Business School podcast, Professor of Management Mara Olekalns discusses how to properly negotiate by knowing what to reveal or withhold.

"If I gather more information about you than you have about me, I can use that strategically to build my own outcomes and to worsen your own," she says. "If we're using it for good, then I work together with you in sharing information."

Professor Olekalns explains how to play your cards close to your chest during a negotiation – and why you should.

"At the start of the negotiation, I don't tell you what my worst acceptable outcome is. As the negotiation goes on, I start to tell you things that are important to me when they're not because that way I hope you'll make concessions to me," she says.

"I might tell you that concessions are impossible for me to make in the hope that you'll give in to me, whereas I know that I can easily make particular concessions."

Professor Olekalns is an expert in relational resilience and adversity in negotiation. Her research covers gender difference and trust violations. She currently teaches negotiations on the Part-time MBA, Executive MBA and Senior Executive MBA programs at Melbourne Business School.

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