Back to Vienna today to give a course on Advanced Negotiation to a distinguished international organisation. Away all this week, so blogging may well be light.

One of the points I make is that issues are like Shrek – they have layers. So part of any negotiation is working out what layer is being discussed and how to make trade-offs between one layer and other layers.

Another is to point up the range of outcomes of any negotiation, including these:

Everyone is  more or less happy – hurrah

Everyone is equally miserable (see EU Budget negotiations passim – no-one can readily gloat at the expense of the others)

You win – they lose, but for now can glumly accept the outcome (OK, but what about next time – will they want revenge?)

You win – they think they’ve won, but they’ve lost (nice work, until they find out)

You win – they do badly, but you help them present the outcome as a success for them. This is an important option – sometimes the main issue for a negotiating partner is not the outcome of the negotiation but wider reputational concerns; you can trade substance for presentation. Here is a super example of Robin Cook helping Republika Srpska leader Biljana Plavsic (later sent to prison for war crimes) manage her media problems.

This is just another way of looking at the layers point, which in turn is all about helping parties identify and articulate their real interests, which is at root all about Good Listening plus Imagination. Then skilfully Reframing issues in a way which encourages progress towards a deal.

And so on. Good stuff.

The key thing about Vienna is that it is impossible to stroll past the classy cake-shops and high-end boutiques in the city centre without thinking about the way it used to look.

And then there’s always … this (after the ad):