Saving Face

The CNN.com headline "Both sides claim victory in BA [British Airways] strike" caught my eye yesterday.  It illustrates the importance of both sides being able to "save face" in a negotiation.

One closing strategy I suggest to accomplish this is to avoid narrowing the negotiation down to a single remaining issue.  Instead, keep at least two issues alive so you can trade them off for each other in the end.  If you give in on one of the issues and your counterpart on the other, this will allow your counterpart, at the least, to save face and not walk away feeling like he lost on the final issue.  This has an important psychological impact on your counterpart and this, in the end, will make the deal better for both parties.