Most effective negotiations use the three key principles behind the Power of Nice—the 3Ps. One negotiation may exemplify the value of the 3Ps with the emphasis on preparation, another on utilizing probing and, in particular, listening skills, another on the best way to propose, and another on how to deal with difficult negotiators, each with various combinations of these tools. But once in a while, a negotiation comes along that highlights the application of all of the principles of The Power of Nice. The following is a case history, which illustrates and utilizes all the power of The Power of Nice.
What's a negotiator's worst nightmare? Too high a price? Too low? Bad terms? No, it's when your negotiation strategy literally self-destructs. Not only does the deal blow up, but so does all of your negotiating leverage and perhaps even the viability of your negotiation team. What do you do? Give in? Give up? Or take an entirely different approach?
In the summer of 1999, the negotiations between the Major League Umpires Association (the “Association”) and the Major League Baseball Owners backfired so badly that, in a matter of days, the Association lost virtually all of its bargaining power. In fact, the Association was instantaneously so crippled, the umpires would first have to negotiate with themselves to regain a measure of unity and a fresh start just to get back to the table with the owners.
It couldn't have begun worse, a textbook case of how not to negotiate, a win–lose strategy deteriorating into a lose–lose outcome (a loss for the umpires of their bargaining leverage and an eventual loss of umpire talent for baseball). But later, through an eleventh-hour adoption of the Power of Nice philosophy and its systematic approach, it became a case study in how to negotiate, putting the umpires back into a position to bargain effectively.
The triggering event occurred on July 14, 1999, with the Association Executive Director Richie Phillips' attempt to force early renegotiation of the umpires' collective bargaining agreement. Phillips followed the ill-fated strategy of 12,000 air traffic controllers in 1985—when they struck illegally, President Reagan swiftly dismissed them and immediately ordered the hiring of replacements.
When Phillips, a renowned hardball negotiator, advised members of the umpires' Association to tender their resignations to Major League Baseball, the umps met a similar fate to the one meted out by Reagan. Sandy Alderson, then Major League Baseball's executive vice president for operations, responded: “This is either a threat to be ignored or an offer to be accepted.” Baseball took the latter option and began hiring replacements.
Many of the 50-plus umpires who resigned tried to rescind their resignations, but sadly 22 were left without jobs. Suddenly the Association, which Phillips had helped build, was practically powerless. Although he worked to obtain many benefits for umpires through the years, he may be most remembered for this faulty strategy.
My relationships with umpires went back a long way, both on and off the field. After spending 25 years in baseball and attending hundreds of games, I not only watched the “men in blue” call balls and strikes on my baseball clients, but I got to know and respect them as human beings. In late 1991, I became deeply involved with umpire Steve Palermo. Steve had been shot and paralyzed while coming to the aid of two waitresses who were being mugged in Dallas. Steve's heroism cost him the profession he loved. Without adequate compensation or benefits, Steve struggled financially as well as physically. On behalf of Steve and his wife, Debbie, I negotiated with then Acting Commissioner Bud Selig to hire Steve as a special assistant in the Commissioner's Office and provide him with needed benefits and compensation. With this professional stability, Steve was able to focus on his physical rehabilitation. Steve's professional role grew to his being a supervisor of umpires for Major League Baseball and his physical rehabilitation progressed to the point where he could walk without crutches.
Several years later, the personal side of umpires became even clearer during the infamous Roberto Alomar–John Hirschbeck “spitting incident.” I knew John Hirschbeck, one of the most respected umpires in the game, having interviewed him on my television show on Baltimore's NBC affiliate. He talked about the loss of his son, John, to adrenoleukodystrophy (ALD), a rare genetic brain disease, and the challenge he and his wife, Denise, faced knowing that their other son, Michael, was also afflicted with the disease.
Sometime later, an unfortunate on-field incident brought John and me together again. After disputing a call, the perennial All-Star Roberto Alomar shocked the baseball world by spitting on John Hirschbeck. Having dealt with superstar athletes for many years, I fully expected the media feeding frenzy that followed. John asked for my advice. He made it clear, from the beginning, that he wanted to put the incident behind him and I encouraged him to do so. Rather than holding a lifetime grudge and treating each other with animosity, John and Roberto both ultimately practiced the Power of Nice, extending their hands to one another when they next met on the playing field and maintaining their mutual respect thereafter. These experiences emphasized to me, not only an umpire's dedication to the game, but the human dimension of these “men in blue” that few see when they are on the field.
My role of working with individual umpires like Steve and John actually evolved into a role of helping a larger group of umpires in the summer of 1998. Back then, when some umpires began to feel uncomfortable with their union leadership, Joe Brinkman, another highly regarded umpire, asked if I would lead an election challenge to Phillips. I declined to challenge Phillips for the post of Executive Director of the umpires' union. But I did offer to advise the group (Brinkman had been joined by John Hirschbeck, Tim Welke, and several other umpires) pro bono. I agreed with their feeling that they would be better served with nonconfrontational leadership and sent them copies of the first edition of this book, which had just been published.
In a meeting of the Association in February of 1999, Brinkman, Hirschbeck, and Welke were unable to garner enough votes to prevent the reappointment of Phillips as executive director. Brinkman and Hirschbeck were dejected. They felt that they had tried a new approach and failed. I comforted them with a bold prediction: Within six months, Phillips would do something “so outrageous and so negative, you'll find renewed strength for real opposition.” It took only five months.
When Phillips had suggested the “mass resignation” tactic in July of 1999, many of his troops obediently followed. As one umpire put it, “We drank the Kool-Aid.” But only hours later, the same ump thought, “What have I just done?” The uneasiness spread; the umpires put their careers in jeopardy. In one case, an umpire said that he signed the resignation because of the intense peer pressure at the meeting.
When he arrived home, he replayed the strategy and outcome with his most important advisor, his wife. She summed up the thoughts of families, fans, and experts around the country when she exclaimed, “What in the world were you thinking!” Within 24 hours of the mass resignation meeting, umpires were calling me for help.
Practicing what we preach, I began my own preparation. I called distinguished labor lawyers who represented both union and management perspectives in several industries. Their unanimous response was, “What in the world were they thinking!” These advisors told me the umpires' only hope was to rescind their resignations as soon as possible. I conveyed this advice to those umpires who called me, encouraging each to hire his own counsel, to pass the word to other umpires to do likewise, and for all of them to weigh the option of rescinding their resignations.
Further, we started to share ideas with other umpires and legal experts in a series of conference telephone calls. Each call became a mini-seminar in The Power of Nice negotiation principles: The 3Ps—prepare, probe, and propose—as well as lessons in dealing with difficult negotiators, listening, and bonding (all in contrast to Phillips's combative style).
On September 27, 1999, we conducted a call with a group of umpire representatives in my Baltimore law office and with more than 40 umpires on phones around the country. During that call, several labor lawyers agreed that the first step to rebuilding the umpires' strength would be to decertify the existing union. A new union was the only hope for dealing constructively with Major League Baseball and possibly helping the 22 unemployed umpires.
Thus began a new negotiation—a negotiation within a negotiation—by Hirschbeck, Brinkman, and their allies to obtain the support of enough umpires to achieve decertification of the union. If the previous strategy of the Major League Umpires Association was a case study in how not to negotiate, this new negotiation to decertify the union and start fresh would be textbook Power of Nice.
Initially, I led them through the use of the first of the 3Ps, Preparation. Learn everything about the current union: its rules, legal documents, and finances. Use the Preparation Checklist: Gather and analyze information about precedents for decertification, as well as the applicable labor law. Find alternatives to Phillips's leadership of the umpires' Association, as well as alternative approaches to waging a successful decertification campaign. Learn how the interests of the undecided umpires would impact the process. Become fully familiar with the timetable and deadlines governing the election process. Analyze the relative strengths and weaknesses of the existing umpires' union and of those of the group being led by Hirschbeck and Brinkman. And finally, set goals for the Hirschbeck–Brinkman group; establish team assignments for the leaders of the group while analyzing Phillips' team; map out a strategy for a successful election campaign; prepare scripts for meetings and conference calls.
Then, together, we practiced the second P, Probing—patiently asking every umpire for goals, objections, and worries, both rational and emotional. We instructed our leadership team in using the W.H.A.T. system to frame questions. Find out What is important to the constituents, What else is important, Which element is most important, and Why it is important. Hypothesize, by asking questions in the form of “what ifs” rather than direct or threatening questions. To gather additional information, Answer their questions with your own questions. And, in your never-ending quest for more and more knowledge, encourage respondents to Tell me more. From time to time, I would point out to Hirschbeck (emerging as a leader) the principles they were practicing. “Keep probing; keep asking, and don't hesitate to ask them to tell more and more.” “Learn what others want; understand their needs.” “The best way to get what you want is to help others get what they want.”
Another important call came on Sunday, October 3. Hirschbeck conducted the telephone meeting with me quietly offering advice. The subject was key; it involved asking the other umpires to fund the projected $100,000 expense of a decertification effort at a cost of $3,000 per umpire. If this Proposal, the third P, had been made earlier, it would have likely been rejected. However, because Hirschbeck, Brinkman, and their team had taken the time to Prepare, and because they spent countless telephone calls Probing the interests of the other umpires, when it came time to make this proposal, sharing the cost was not a bombshell, but, instead, a foregone conclusion.
Hirschbeck, following a script, which we had devil's advocated, asked for questions and concerns. A novice at the start of this process, John was becoming a seasoned negotiator, utilizing the lesson of Listening by encouraging his leadership team to “let others vent opposing views,” “diffuse anger,” practicing the lesson that “listening isn't just waiting to talk.” Because the conference calls extended to three hours, some umpires became frustrated with the apparently slow movement. John counseled them to be patient with another Power of Nice principle, “Negotiation is a process, not an event.” Ultimately, the Sunday call was a huge success. The umpires were becoming comfortable with decertification and creation of a new union.
Support was growing. Forty-nine of the 93 umpires joined with Hirschbeck, Brinkman, and the rest of our core group on the next call. The $100,000 decertification fund had been raised. On October 16, the petition to decertify the old union was submitted to the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB). The issue would be put to a vote. All umpires were invited to a meeting in Baltimore on November 2.
On the evening before the meeting, our team met until 10 p.m. The preparation session was interrupted with news that Phillips had filed a defamation suit against Hirschbeck and others. I advised the group that the suit was probably without merit, simply a part of Phillips's strategy of intimidation. When dealing with difficult people, “Don't take it personally and don't get personal.” Rather than take the bait and get distracted by the lawsuit, I told the umpires, “When people are under pressure, they revert to habits. Richie's habit is to intimidate. Let's make sure our habit is Preparation.”
We then reviewed 21 questions, ran our lead umpires, Brinkman and Hirschbeck, through their drill, playing devil's advocate, preaching, and practicing, “prepare, prepare, prepare.” At midnight, Hirschbeck and others were still up making notes.
At a Days Inn Hotel in Baltimore the next day, 52 umpires appeared in person. They walked past a banner reading: “Vote for Our Future—Vote Right,” referring to the fact that the new union they were forming, the World Umpires Association (WUA), appeared on the right side of the ballot in the coming decertification election. The atmosphere was highly charged. One staunch opponent fired a steely glare at me and refused to shake my hand when I extended it to him. Looking me in the eye, he told me, “Go **** yourself.” Despite the emotions in the air, we reminded ourselves to neutralize our emotions, to maintain self-control, and not to take any of it personally.
Hirschbeck conducted a democratic meeting. He went through 21 different questions; he listened; he probed; he patiently waded through disagreements; he let everyone have their say regardless of their point of view. To umpires who were accustomed to meetings where dissent was squelched, where the floor was owned by the few who could shout the loudest, Hirschbeck's open, approachable, and fair style was a welcome change. Even some of those who vehemently opposed the new union were the first to agree that this meeting had demonstrated the integrity of the people behind it. At the end of the meeting, the umpire who previously would not shake my extended hand, found me, reached his hand toward mine, and said, “Nice job.”
The preparation paid off. Skeptics and several opponents were won over. The official vote finally came on November 30. In a crowded hearing room at the NLRB in New York, the umpires' ballots were counted. In an overwhelming victory, the tally was 57 to 35 and the World Umpires Association replaced the Major League Umpires Association as the certified bargaining agent for all major league umpires. The umpires would once again be in a position to negotiate effectively.
Phillips appealed, but the NLRB's decision stood. By this time, I had stepped aside from my volunteer advisory role. The World Umpires Association and its team of lawyers took on their first task, negotiating a new collective bargaining agreement that was completed on September 2, 2000. Phillips and the Major League Umpires Association filed a grievance on behalf of the 22 umpires who lost their jobs and would not relinquish its control to the new umpires' union. Despite the fact that in May 2001, an arbitrator reinstated 9 of the 22, the lives of these umpires and their families had been profoundly altered because of an ill-advised, and ultimately failed, strategy. With that sad exception, the World Umpires Association had achieved its objective—a sound collective bargaining agreement with Major League Baseball. The umpires had learned and practiced one more principle of the Power of Nice: Building (or, in this case, rebuilding) relationships for more deals and better deals in the future.
Speaking to the New York Times shortly after the election victory, John Hirschbeck summed it up: “We learned from Ron Shapiro and from his book, The Power of Nice. We were prepared in all respects, from every angle, in every phone call.”
Thanks, John. We couldn't have said it better ourselves.
Think WIN–win rather than Win–Lose—The best way to get what you want is to help the other side get what they want.
Remember the Three Ps (Prepare, Probe, Propose)—A systematic approach empowers you.
Dealing with a difficult negotiator—Neutralize your emotions. Don't take it personally and don't get personal. When people are under pressure, they revert to habits. Make sure your habit is preparation.
Script—For crucial conversations, draft your proposal and find a devil's advocate—someone with whom you can practice your strategy and scripts.
Build relationships—Leads to more deals and better deals in the future.