Ten Tips for Busting Impasse

• Author: Victoria Pynchon/Joe Kraynak (With)
• Profession: Mediator, author, speaker, negotiation trainer, consultant, and attorney with 25 years of experience in commercial litigation practice/Professional writer who has contributed to numerous For Dummies books
• Pages: 317-322

Chapter 20

Ten Tips for Busting Impasse

In This Chapter

▶ Using bracketing, arbitration, and other tactics to break through impasse

▶ Looking at disputes as business opportunities and justice issues

U

ltimately, mediation is an exercise in breaking through impasse — a

period during which the parties have lost hope that they can resolve

the matter on that day and in that place. Impasse isn’t the end of negotiation;

it’s actually the beginning of the end, the starting point for the negotiation

process. Your job is to keep the parties at the table and get them to start talk-

ing again. This chapter offers ten tips to accomplish this goal.

Harnessing the Power of Bracketing

Bracketing allows the parties to test the waters without dropping an anchor

there. Without asking the parties to reveal their bottom lines, ask each party

the question, “If your opponent came down to $X, would you come up to $Y?”

Bracketing enables the parties to play with hypothetical numbers in order to

narrow the distance separating their positions without having to make a con-

cession. Narrowing the gap with hypothetical offers and counteroffers allows

the parties greater room to maneuver and also permits them to save face if

their “last and final” offer or counteroffer is just another bargaining position.

Although bracketing, per se, applies only to disputes over money, you can

use the concept of hypothetical offers and counteroffers to similar beneficial

effect when the parties are fighting over something less material, like a bark-

ing dog in one apartment and noise from hardwood floors in the other. A

hypothetical proposal in that situation would go something like this: “If Mr.

Dog Owner is able to ensure the dog’s silence after 10 p.m. and before 7 a.m.,

would you be willing to take off your own shoes and ask guests to take theirs

off during the same hours?”