Inception in Real-World Business Negotiations

On the movie "Inception" the writer presented the possibility to implant an idea through manipulating dreams, this could be put into good use in the real world, except that it’s all fantasy. The concept intrigued me and begs the question on how to apply such implanting of ideas in business negotiations.

I have seen and conducted my fair shares of negotiations. I have read lots of written literatures around negotiations and in real world we see such negotiation strategies being used. The most common are tied to capitalizing one's strengths and exploiting the other's weaknesses, another common method is good cop - bad cop, and influencing the other party. There are various techniques, methods and strategies and in business one employ's the strategy best suited for their needs. James Borg nicely summarizes this various techniques, methods and strategies in 5 simple ways (1) Competition, (2) Accommodation, (3) Compromise, (4) Avoidance and (5) Collaboration.

Of the 5 I like Collaboration the best since it means all parties win. However is it possible to implant an idea to the other party so they adopt your lines of thoughts during the negotiations? I believe this can be done. Have you ever been on a situation when you are suddenly preaching what the other party is negotiating for instead of your own? If you have then the most common excuse is that you have understood the other party and got the point. Although looking from the outside you were influenced, you were given an idea and you adopted it to the benefit of the other party. The question is how can such influence or implanting of an idea be achieved in a short period while you are fully conscious?

A collaborative approach is a win-win approach since the negotiation is for mutual benefit of both parties. This can easily be recognized during the start of negotiations by observing the other parties body language, the existence of a common interest, the desire for a long-term business relationship. Go on take the plunge and find a way to instill that idea while at the same time collaborating to achieve a win-win solution.