Do we have an accord?

This scene is from Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl. Captain Jack Sparrow and Will Turner make a deal so that Will gets Jack out of prison in exchange for Jack taking him to the Black Pearl.

This negotiation is reciprocal, but the main reason that this negotiation works is that Jack knows Will’s intentions in the deal, but Will doesn’t know Jack’s plan fully.

Notice how Jack only agrees once he knows who Will’s father is. An important part of negotiation is knowing your values, also whilst estimating the value of the negotiation to the other party involved. Will wants to save Elizabeth from Barbossa (and therefore needs to know where the Black Pearl is), whereas Jack wants to get out of prison (but himself wants to find a crew and commandeer the Black Pearl using Will as leverage because he is Bootstrap Bill’s child).

On the surface, the negotiators have identified opportunities to make mutually beneficial trade-offs (Weingart, Thompson, Bazerman & Carroll, 1990). Jack helps Will locate the Black Pearl in return for Will getting him out of prison. However, from the transaction, Jack has learnt vital information about Will which he can use to further make use of this deal.

Weingart et al. (1990) demonstrated that the greater the amount of information shared, the higher the integrativeness of the outcome. Information exchange appears to lead to a problem-solving atmosphere which allows negotiators to make tradeoffs. I think in this case Will perhaps gives away too much information, which becomes his downfall.

Just like star athletes who are “in the zone,” wise negotiators are centered, energized, and resilient in the face of strong feeling (Leary, Pillemer & Wheeler, 2012). But in this case, Captain Jack is one step ahead of Will Turner.

References:

Leary, K., Pillemer, J., & Wheeler, M. (2012). Negotiating with emotion. Harvard business review, 91(1-2), 96-103.

Weingart, L. R., Thompson, L. L., Bazerman, M. H., & Carroll, J. S. (1990). Tactical behavior and negotiation outcomes. International Journal of Conflict Management, 1(1), 7-31.

Gemma Waters - Blog 5