Self Help

It is clear that, for an agreement to be upheld by both parties and for both parties to be satisfied with it, both must feel they have come away with their goals satisfied. This becomes especially true as the importance of the particular situation that is being resolved increases.

Many of you would agree with the old adage that if the deal was that bad, the other party would not have agreed to it. If you think about it, however, you would probably agree that this is not always the case. Many times, someone is compelled to accept a bad offer out of desperation. It is usually in this kind of stressed win-lose situation, which is resolved out of duress, that adherence to the agreement is most in jeopardy.

If the agreement which has been reached is not very important, this problem may not be very significant. However, if this agreement is important, you should be very concerned about the viability of the agreement.

While each party is certainly not going to achieve each and every one of its goals, there should be some meeting of the minds which allows both participants to come away with something that they do want and that they have set out as a condition of agreement.