TORC

Daniel Day-Lewis as President Lincoln in one of his negotiation moments

Multiparty negotiation is the essential framework when it comes to achieving agreement between multiple competing interests.

Hardly a day passes without we seeing it at work in the various high profile meetings that dominate our news screens.

On the international stage, the G8, G20, UN Security Council, Ecofin gatherings, are all characterised by multiple rounds of compromise – in establishing the needed consensus between members.

While, closer to home, much of the engagement we witness at the Labour Relations Commission, Constitutional Convention, North-South Ministerial Council, etc., involves a similar dynamic.

And what a timely coincidence that the movie that swept the boards at this year’s Oscars, should have drawn most of it drama from similar historical strands.

For the spine of Steven Spielberg’s Lincoln story is the wily negotiation manoeuvres the eponymous President uses to get the Slavery Abolition Amendment over the line in the winter of 1864 – in the face of opposing positions held by the different shades of Republicans and Democrats then holding sway in the Congress.  

He knows his only chance is to get it passed into law before the impending end to the civil war – so that when the peace talks begin he can present it as a fait accompli  to the Confederate leaders.

He and his able Secretary of State, William Seward, set about building a coalition to secure sufficient votes in the Congress.

To this end, they have to balance their negotiations with three disparate factions:

1. restraining the Radical Republican group who are opposed to any peace talks until the Slavery Amendment is passed,

2. approving the  Conservative Republicans, who want an immediate end to the war, with or without abolition, to initiate feelers to the Confederate side, and

3. picking off any lame duck Democrats – who, having recently lost their seats in the election to the next Congress, are open to trading their votes for federal jobs.

When it finally comes to a vote their shaky coalition just about holds together: the Slavery Abolition Bill passes with two votes to spare.

And, so the movie underlines that Lincoln’s idealism is more than matched by his pragmatism.

He certainly doesn’t flinch from having to trade and negotiate with all sides to secure his goal.

His philosophy is well captured is one of his many memorable quotes from the movie:

“A compass, I learned when I was surveying, it’ll… it’ll point you 
True North from where you’re standing, but  it’s got no advice about
the swamps and deserts and chasms that you’ll encounter along the way.
If in pursuit of your destination, you plunge ahead, heedless of obstacles, 
and achieve nothing more than to sink in a swamp …
What’s the use of knowing True North?”

PS. For details of a related Torc training programme, please leave a request for brochure in comment box below. Title: Learning From The Movies© – Negotiation Skills

PPS. For related negotiation blogs, please click on the following Torc links:
1. Pride as a negotiating pitfall
2. Cool Hand, Hustle & Sting
3. Women make better negotiators
4. The art of the haggle
5. Negotiating – eyeball to eyeball
6. Humphrey Bogart’s dual duel
7. Negotiating: when the stakes are high
8. Streetwise tactical negotiation
9. Stand-offs … & face savings