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The Orange Quarrel Print E-mail

1. Fairness and Efficiency in Negotiation 

A lecture* prepared by Dr. Ernest Thiessen for an online ODR course at UMassOnline.net. This lecture provides students with background theory useful in any negotiation. Knowledge of this theory is particularly useful in understanding how Smartsettle works. 

The Orange Quarrel

Adapted from "Getting to Yes" by Fisher and Ury (1991)

Many of you will be familiar with the classic example of the two proverbial sisters that quarreled over a single orange. This simple story can be used to explain Smartsettle’s fairness and efficiency objectives, and illustrate how they relate to the concept of "beyond win-win".

Measuring Success with Positions

A close look at this explosive situation reveals that Lucy and Loni’s adversarial methods assumed a one-dimensional model of negotiations. Each sister wanted 100% of the orange. The problem was that in order for one sister to gain some of the orange the other sister had to lose.

Measuring Success with Satisfaction

The first step to solving this problem is to re-label each sister's success scale in terms of satisfaction rather than percentage of the orange. Now it is possible to focus on real interests rather than positions. To better facilitate this new view, take Lucy's satisfaction scale and rotate it 90 degrees (view result on next page).
* adapted from a virtual mini-course lecture entitled: Online Negotiation - Interest Valuation and Outcome Efficiencies: The Fourth Party: Theory and Practice of Online Dispute Resolution held Dec 3-7, 2001 at the University of Massachusetts Center for Information Technology and Dispute Resolution. 
Last Updated ( Monday, 18 February 2008 11:23 )
 

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February 2008—Demonstrations of Smartsettle One and Smartsettle Infinity are available now. Please contact us today to see how Smartsettle can fit into the workflow process of your operation. 

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