We tend to enter business negotiations full of enthusiasm and optimism, only to be frustrated and surprised when a promising agreement collapses after hours, days, or even months of hard work. Consider the following negotiation impasse examples:
- A CEO of a struggling manufacturing company asks the HR department to try to recruit a talented turnaround artist as COO. As the negotiations unfold, the CEO puts pressure on HR to close a deal quickly. The candidate withdraws from consideration and tells the CEO that the company seemed too desperate to do a deal. The CEO blames HR for the “missed opportunity.”
- A trainer puts together an ambitious proposal for a new course at the request of a prospective client in a market that’s unfamiliar to her. After the client balks at the price, she narrows the scope of the proposal. The firm tells her it’s still beyond their budget and wishes her well.
- An established technology firm makes a bid to purchase a training start-up to develop content. The start-up is attracted to the larger firm’s financing and stability. But, nervous about losing its decision-making autonomy, the start-up ultimately turns down what seemed like an otherwise excellent offer.
In these cases, the negotiation process stalled before reaching a resolution—not because agreement was impossible, but because key interests were left unspoken, misunderstood, or undervalued.
What Is a Negotiation Impasse?
In a 2022 Journal of Management article, ESMT Berlin professor Martin Schweinsberg and his colleagues defined a negotiation impasse as a situation in which “parties discontinue the interaction, either because one or both… prefer no agreement, or because they could not reach an agreement despite them benefiting from doing so.”
These types of breakdowns are more common than we think—but also more preventable than many leaders and trainers realize.
Why Is Negotiation Impasse So Common?
Impasses can emerge for a variety of reasons, particularly in people-centered roles like HR, training, and talent development. Here are three common culprits:
- Extreme offers. When you make an extreme offer in negotiation, you risk seeming overly competitive and aggressive—or perhaps just naive and uninformed. Either way, a very aggressive offer runs the risk of antagonizing your counterpart, as the trainer in our opening anecdote may have done. Unfortunately, we often aren’t aware that our offer is too extreme because we haven’t considered how the other side is likely to perceive it.
- Unidentified interests. An impasse can occur when one party feels its goals and interests aren’t being met in the negotiation, as was the case for the training start-up in its acquisition talks with the large tech company. This often happens because negotiators fail to communicate the needs and interests underlying their stated positions.
- Pressure and complexity. The tighter the deadline, the more stressed negotiators are likely to be. And when negotiators are stressed, they are more prone to making mistakes and coming across as anxious or desperate. Impasse can also be more common in multiparty negotiations than in two-party negotiations, perhaps because of the added complexity and greater number of opinions and preferences involved. In our last example, the CEO’s involvement and time pressure may have sabotaged negotiations with the prospective COO.
How to Avoid a Negotiation Impasse
Fortunately, HR and training professionals are well-positioned to lead by example and equip others with tools to overcome impasses. Here are four strategies to keep negotiations moving:
- Consider the other side’s BATNA. Many negotiators understand the importance of determining their BATNA, or best alternative to a negotiated agreement. When you know what you’ll do if negotiations with your current counterpart don’t work out, you can calibrate your offers and responses accordingly. It’s just as important to try to assess your counterpart’s BATNA—but negotiators often overlook this step. Having a sense of their outside alternatives will help you determine how badly they want to do a deal with you and, thus, how high you can aim.
The trainer who made an ambitious proposal didn’t consider the possibility that the hiring firm might have had other options or that pricing might differ in this market. To assess a counterpart’s BATNA, you can ask them direct questions, research the market, or reach out to your network.
- Reveal your interests. Negotiators often worry about giving away information that the other side might exploit, such as their bottom line. As a result, they might avoid sharing information about why they’ve made—or turned down—a particular offer. Yet such information can be crucial to reaching an agreement. If the start-up in our opening example had shown a strong desire to maintain its autonomy, it might have been able to negotiate to protect its independence in exchange for a concession on an issue valued by the tech firm. The best deals are formed through information sharing and trade-offs.
- Take a break. If a negotiation impasse is looming, suggest taking a break and regrouping another day. And if a deadline is stressing you out, discuss whether you can extend it. Taking time to cool off and regroup is often all that’s needed to move beyond impasse. Finally, if negotiations have gotten too big or complex, try meeting in pairs or small groups—or bring in a trusted facilitator whom all parties trust to add some order and perspective.
- Avoid the agreement trap. In our eagerness to avoid impasse, we risk consenting to a deal that’s worse than our BATNA—a phenomenon known as the “agreement trap.” After reaching a tentative deal, take all the time you need to ensure it meets your interests.
A Final Word for HR and Training Professionals
Impasse isn’t always a bad thing: Sometimes, a stalled negotiation highlights risks or mismatches that make walking away the right choice. Perhaps the trainer couldn’t afford to accept the prospective client’s desired price, for example. But research shows that many negotiation impasses occur even when both parties want to reach an agreement—a clear sign that miscommunication or missed opportunities are to blame.
In a survey by Schweinsberg and colleagues, 29 percent of negotiations ended in impasse. And in 44 percent of cases, both parties wanted to close a deal but failed to do so.
For HR and training leaders, these findings underscore the importance of negotiation literacy at every level of the organization. From hiring and compensation discussions to program planning and cross-functional collaboration, negotiation is everywhere. By prioritizing training that sharpens negotiation insight and builds communication skills, leaders can create a more agile and collaborative workplace—and unlock better outcomes for everyone involved.
