Mandela’s lessons in how to negotiate; You don’t need to be friends with the other side but you do need to keep talking

July 31, 2013 3:22 pm

Mandela’s lessons in how to negotiate

By Michael Skapinker

You don’t need to be friends with the other side but you do need to keep talking

Assessments of Nelson Mandela’s achievements rightly focus on his talent for the conciliatory gesture and South Africa’s relative post-apartheid peace and institutional stability. (If you contest the last two, compare the country with Syria,Egypt or even Russia.) Less often discussed are the long negotiations that produced a political settlement. They are worth recalling as Israelis and Palestinians return to tentative talks. And, although similarities between politics and business should not be overdone, anyone involved in negotiations, whether between unions and management, or over a corporate merger, or even an office desk reshuffle, should consider the lessons ofSouth Africa’s transition. What are they? ● Know your pre-negotiation strengths and weaknesses. In his autobiography, Long Walk to Freedom, Mr Mandela recalled evaluating his position and that of the African National Congress from his prison cell. A military victory over the white government was “a distant if not impossible dream”.

So where did his negotiating strength come from? What could he offer that would persuade his adversary to concede?

We get the answer from that adversary’s autobiography. In The Last Trek – A New Beginning, FW de Klerk, South Africa’s last apartheid president, outlined what persuaded him that a deal with the ANC was necessary. He, too, realised outright military victory was impossible. South Africa’s international isolation was holding back growth. Its companies needed access to world markets. The advent of democracy would bring international legitimacy. “The government had the power and the authority and the ANC the numbers,” Mr de Klerk wrote.
● You don’t need to be friends with the people on the other side of the table, but you do need to keep talking. A startling feature of Mr de Klerk’s autobiography is his constant complaint about how little of Mr Mandela’s famous forgiveness and reconciliation he felt were directed towards him. The two argued frequently over the violence that plagued the country between Mr Mandela’s release in 1990 and the first democratic election in 1994.

After one acrimonious exchange, Mr de Klerk slammed the phone down on Mr Mandela. Yet they made sure that contact, between themselves or their teams, continued. “We would both frequently have to rise above our personal antipathy,” Mr de Klerk said.
● Don’t pay too much attention to what the other side says in public.Negotiations, whether in politics or business, are often accompanied by posturing, designed both to reassure supporters and to put pressure on the other side. In a speech in Cape Town immediately after his release, Mr Mandela upset many whites by reaffirming his commitment to armed struggle and to the ANC’s alliance with the South African Communist party.

There was a reason for that. Mr Mandela knew many in the ANC were suspicious of his talks with the government while in prison. “I was aware that they had heard rumours that I had strayed from the organisation, that I was compromised, so at every turn I sought to reassure them.”

For his part, Mr de Klerk said that Felipe González, who became Spain’s prime minister after fighting the Franco dictatorship, had warned him the ANC “would say one thing at the negotiating table one day, and something completely contradictory the next day in public”.
● Focus on the other side’s bottom line. Mr de Klerk knew that democratic elections would almost certainly bring the ANC to power. Mr Mandela understood that Mr de Klerk needed to assure whites that they wouldn’t be crushed in the new South Africa. The key to an agreement came when the ANC proposed a power-sharing government for five years and the honouring of the mostly white civil servants’ contracts.

Mr de Klerk said he was happy to have ensured that the new South Africa ended up with a liberal constitution and a free-market economy. But he did not achieve his hope of a rotating presidency.

Once elections had happened, Mr Mandela saw the need to ensure that whites and other minorities felt secure. “From the moment the results were in and it was apparent the ANC was to form the government, I saw my mission as one of preaching reconciliation.”

This is the final negotiating lesson: 
● Try to ensure the other side doesn’t feel it has lost.