My two kids occasionally try the divide-and-conquer strategy on my wife and me.
First my daughter asks my wife for something (and it’s usually our daughter now as our son is in college). If she gets a lukewarm response or a no, she will then approach me and ask for the same thing – pretending that she asked me first. She won’t lie, but she won’t be forthcoming either.
Depending on my reaction, she would then circle back to my wife.
What is this strategy? According to Griffith University senior lecturer Larry Crump as cited in a recent Harvard Negotiation Journal article, the strategy is “rooted in the observation that when members of a negotiation team spend resources fighting one another, they will have fewer resources to use against their opposition.”
Of course, we have all heard the biblical saying “a house divided against itself shall not stand.”
So where and how can you effectively use this strategy and how can you defend against it?
Initially recognize this as an aggressive strategy that – if your counterparts find out – can harm the parties’ future relationship. If you care about that relationship, use it with caution. But if you don’t care or the potential benefit of it outweighs the risk to the relationship, go for it.
Plus, this only works if:
a) multiple counterpart team members exist;
b) your counterparts have different, misaligned and/or conflicting interests that can be identified and potentially exploited;
c) an opportunity exists, or you can create one, to independently engage with those different team members; and
d) those team members do not effectively communicate with each other, presenting a united front to your side.
Years ago, I was negotiating the settlement of a lawsuit for a client that had been accused of breaching a non-compete employment contract and stealing trade secrets from his former employer. In the negotiation, opposing counsel vociferously argued that my client was at fault and owed his client hundreds of thousands of dollars.
As this lawyer made his case, I noticed that his relatively young client – who had recently taken over his family business and seemed to have a large ego – appeared more focused on growing his business than on getting money from a former employee and spending a ton on legal fees.
I also knew that his lawyer, a senior partner at a large law firm with a significant hourly rate, had a financial self-interest in continuing the litigation and billing a lot. In other words, the lawyer’s financial interest in the litigation conflicted with his client’s interests in saving money and moving his business forward without distractions like litigation.
How did we pit these two against each other, using a divide-and-conquer strategy? During a break, I suggested to my client that he approach his counterpart and offer to independently work it out without the lawyers.
I also knew my client was an excellent negotiator and that his young counterpart would likely agree to meet alone based on his ego and be more likely to cave than his experienced lawyer.
It worked. We settled the case and no money changed hands.
As the Harvard Negotiation Journal notes:
“The key to implementing a divide-and-conquer strategy is to recognize that the interests and preferences of negotiation team members are often misaligned. One partner may have greater financial incentives to close a deal with you. One may have a stronger interest in building a long-term relationship with you. And one partner may have less motivation to get along with her partner than the other person does. . . .[So] think about whether you can use such differences to your advantage, whether by shutting out one counterpart [like I did in the above example], encouraging a counterpart to influence her partner, or trying to drive a wedge between factions.”
What if you recognize the other side is trying to do this to your team or want to prevent them from even going down this path?
First, and most importantly, prepare a written Strategic Negotiation Plan for your team based on my Five Golden Rules of Negotiation. This will ensure you comprehensively plan and increase the likelihood your team will use proven research-based strategies and tactics.
Second, focus on your team’s overall goals and the possible misaligned interests of your team members. Then prioritize them and make sure everyone agrees with them. Consider having everyone sign off on the Plan, too, to lessen the likelihood of any miscommunication.
Third, as part of this Plan, assign roles and responsibilities to each team member and identify who, what, where, if, and how each communicates with the other side.
Fourth, meet as a group to discuss strategy and not in separate caucuses, where possible. Alliances within your team and/or internal coalitions can open yourself up to the divide-and-conquer strategy.
Finally, commit as a team to a process to resolve internal conflicts regarding strategy and regularly meet privately after the negotiations start to address any efforts by your counterparts to work you off against each other.
This is a work in progress for my wife and me. Easier said than done!
Latz’s Lesson: Divide-and-conquer has been used in negotiations for thousands of years. Learn how to effectively use it and how to guard against it.
* Marty Latz is the founder of Latz Negotiation, a national negotiation training and consulting company that helps individuals and organizations achieve better results with best practices based on the experts’ research. He can be reached at 480.951.3222 or Marty@LatzNegotiation.com.