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Here are the interests behind those positions: <br />1) we need to protect our environment <br />2) we need to have enough water for people <br />We have a lot more room to negotiate and to have a meaningful <br />dialogue with this second list than with the first. <br />We can battle our positions til the cows come home. But we have a <br />much higher chance of success if we set aside our positions and <br />work together exploring our interests. Trying to work with this <br />conflict through positional bargaining or compromise doesn’t bear <br />as much promise as tackling it by using the interest based <br />negotiation framework. <br />In interest-based negotiation, we lay down our positions long <br />enough to understand what the interests are behind those <br />positions. Positions are hard, cold inflexible, but they are nothing <br />more than our own best judgment of how to get what we want. So <br />instead of looking at our position, let’s look at what we want. <br />Furthermore, let’s all of us—both sides—try to look at what each <br />of us wants. Let’s work really hard at seeing what we all want. <br />Let’s drop the judgment for awhile, and really try to understand <br />each other. After all, we are all fairly reasonable, fairly <br />intelligent people. If I can truly understand where you are coming <br />from, and you can truly understand where I am coming from, we <br />are much more likely to see that we have several interests in <br />common, several interests that are different but not really in <br />conflict, and yes, some interests that definitely are in conflict. <br />But seeing all of this quite clearly, and being on the same side <br />against the problem, not each other, we have a much more likely <br />possibility of solving the problem—the dilemma—coming up with a <br />decision we can all live with. <br />