Negotiations are now underway, and both sides have made their first offers. While it’s possible that one party has made an initial offer that the other can accept, it’s far more likely that each party has rejected the offer the other has made. But even when there’s some distance between the parties’ initial offers, these offers act as anchors on each side of the bargaining range. They set the scene for the next stage of the negotiation process—exploring possibilities. It’s this stage that we...