Building and Maintaining Coalitions and Allegiances
Throughout Negotiations
By
Lisa Bracken
Allegiances and coalitions can provide incredibly powerful leverage in negotiations. They are usually comprised of members with complimentary interests and, through their numbers, can collar the attentions of public officials and members of the media even when other efforts have failed to produce results. As helpful as they can be in negotiation, you’ll want to be wary, however, of certain inherent aspects of coalition building and their maintenance that can become challenging under certain circumstances, and find ways of hedging against such occurrences. This article examines the dynamics of coalition building and offers tips on ways to start strong, stay strong and position yourself in a manner which preserves your influence within an alliance.
Thinking of building or joining a coalition? Consider these six essential aspects first.
In decidingwhether to build, lead or simply participate in a coalition, the following six considerations can help guide your decision-making process, clarify your position within the coalition and manage the factors which drive coalition objectives.
1) Identify the common objective.
Does there appear to be a compelling and therefore, driving force behind the coalition which can act to unify its components as it moves forward toward its collective goal? Do you share in this objective? Do you share in the means and methods to achieve it? These can be points of contention among participating members, so isolating these issues and providing potential solutions for them in the beginning can help assure long range success.
2) Determine how much influence you will have within the coalition.
When your stake in the outcome of coalition objectives is high, you will want to exercise as much influence as possible, while participating in a cooperative manner and maintaining an objective perspective. This can be a difficult balancing act; yet, establishing yourself as a cornerstone whenever possible can make your participation in a coalition that much more valuable in negotiations. As a cornerstone, you will represent an anchoring and stabilizing presence within your coalition, and your participation will likely be consequential to any eventual outcome.
3) Will you lead the charge, or are others willing to trumpet the common cause?
Even if you have built or lead the coalition, and even if you are a cornerstone presence, to make it an effective power you must participate as a member and encourage others to bring their ideas, concerns, actions and resources to the process. This helps veil outside focus upon your involvement, which may be desirable in a high-profile situation. Further, mobilizing others behind a common ideal increases others’ investment and participation in the group. To function effectively, coalitions must have real workers mobilized and active.
4) Will you recognize if other participants have retreated behind you?
By over-playing the role of cornerstone, you may fail to recognize when other members of the coalition have effectively edged you out or moved on without you. A failure to realize you are leading an army of one could be not only embarrassing but devastating to your negotiation position, and it’s a development you definitely don’t want to learn from your adversary. Although potentially fruitful time commitments, coalitions, nonetheless, require careful management to stay on target and remain effective.
5) How will you control the communication of information?
In all coalition meetings, it’s wise to prepare for disclosed information to find its way into the mediawithin 24 hours. If you have any information which is highly sensitive to public exposure, a coalition meeting is probably not the best place to disclose it. Determine initially what information is expected to be shared and judiciously manage it.
6)Appreciating the coalition as a fragile and imperfect design.
Coalitions are by their natures bound only by a few mutual objectives, and because individuals possess many interests and complex motives, it can be difficult to predict when unity has begun to weaken. Never depend upon a coalition to sustain cohesion. They have a habit of disintegrating at precisely the most personally vulnerable moment. If you know this at the outset, you can better prepare for the eventuality.
When the greater good ceases to be good for you also … it’s time to restructure your relationship.
If you attempt to create or join a coalition, examine your reasons for doing so – and examine the motives of those who comprise the coalition. Unless other participants perceive they may be impactedequally by the results of coalition action,they are not necessarily truly aligned. Some, in fact, may find themselves believing they can benefit from your injustice, or aim to further their own cause rather than that of the alliance. This situation may be acceptable as long as the relationship matrix remains one of mutual benefit.
As a member of a coalition, I once grappled with the complexities of compromising my own interests in an effort to aid others. Seeing my obvious discomfort, a friend offered this profound advice: “Remember that their objectives can be very different than yours. If it came down to choosing between your family’s wellbeing or this group - who cannot even decide where to sit around the table, let alone what is really important – how civic- minded do you want to be?”
You need to ask yourself if you are willing to throw away whatever may make you whole for the benefit of those who may squander your gift for their own selfish objectives. Few people are willing to truly give something for nothing. If you are one of these, you are noble. But realize, you may fight the fight and, in the end, win something so elusive that others may neither appreciate nor benefit from those efforts. And worse, you may not even recognize your own victory.
Coalitions, therefore, require that you keep who and what you’re fighting for front and center at all times. When the greater good ceases to be good for you also, or acts to compromise your objective, it’s time to restructure your relationship.
Guard against the potential of allies shifting their internal allegiances in order to swing the balance of power in their own favor. This is one reason why learning a perceived ally’s motive to join an allegiance is so important. Be wary, at all times, of coalition dynamics where there may exist the potential for a power cluster, particularly one which may come to outweigh or undermine your issue in the eyes of your adversary.
If you position yourself as a cornerstone -- most easily achieved by possessing the greatest damage, organizing and managing the coalition, and bringing greater resources to bear including multiple sources of information -- you will maintain greater influence over the vitality of the coalition. You will also, by design, bear the greatest risk. This places you in a position of being able to leverage the coalition to your advantage. Be mindful, however, that this advantage can quickly wane or altogether disappear within the mobile parameters which conceived it.
Be cautious of allying with those whose objectives are counter in the long or short run to yours. They will reflect upon you and could taint your adversary’s perception of you or allow your adversary to capitalize on this perception by wrongly exposing or taking you out of context to the pubic.
Strengthening the Adhesion of a Coalition
Beyond the possession of a common goal, there are four more important ways you can strengthencoalition adhesion:
Try and show mutual benefit through both short-term as well as long-term goals.
Progress towards the end goal needs to be regularly commemorated by acknowledging even small advancements in that direction. Member commitment to coalitions needs continual reinforcement and reassurance.
Members need to know, for example, why resources may be concentrated in such a manner that one member appears to benefit more than others. It is helpful at the outset to clarify the relative damagesor gains and involvement of each member of the coalition, so that if resources appear unevenly distributed there is explanation for it and expectations are in line. These and other reasons can work in dynamic concert to jeopardize the cohesion of any coalition at any given time, leading to the possibility of an individual or a cluster of influentialpersonsattempting to turn the tide in their favor, strike out independently, or form their own union.
A cost-sharing arrangement within a coalition may enable the group to retain attorneys and data-collection professionals otherwise beyond the capabilities of an individual. Even without cost-sharing abilities, a well-organized coalition committed to group objectives may encourage the interest of these experts on a contingency basis. Of course, this coveted advantage is not without risk. You will want a back-up plan in the event the coalition fails before a solution is accomplished and you find yourself holding a handful of bills and negotiating with your adversary on a one-on-one basis.
Communication is an important element of coalition strength.
Everyone should be thinking and behaving as a single unit. In order to achieve and help sustain this mindset, you will want to establish a network within which you can keep the coalition abreast of developments. Hosting regular meetings may be necessary – but know that convenient venues require careful security management.
If you find yourself, either by design or default, leading your coalition, be prepared to explain how developments may affect individual members and the group as a wholeUnless your group is exclusive, well controlled and practically sequestered, it will be virtually impossible to keep information quiet in such an environment, so there will be times you’ll have to weigh individual interest against disclosure. Never rule out that an adversary representative may be positioned within the organization. Even if you trust the individuals within the group to handle information with care, they will probably feel likewise about others outside the group who may actually possess other, more self-serving motives. At times, you may benefit by turning this natural phenomenon to your favor when you’d perhaps like your adversary to be a little more aware of your future plans.
Demonstrate true leadership. Effective leaders don’t lead – they inspire others to follow. A coalition represents many of the challenges and advantages of a true democratic process. By maintaining objectivity in your opinions; encouraging individual participation; avoiding favoritism among members; presenting sound, balanced solutions together with credible information; participating in group solution-seeking; and, soliciting resources useful to the group you will increase your chances of winning and maintaining coalition favor through leading by example.
You can help assure your own success
Coalitions possess the potential for both risk and benefit. Before you construct or elect to participate in a coalition, devote time and attention considering the coalition’s innate instabilities, and account for the appropriate design and level of management required to sustain it. These advance measures can fortify an inherently fragile design, keep it strong and viable throughout your negotiations process, and provide a uniquely formidable lever is structuring your success.
Lisa Bracken is a business communications specialist and owner of Accelerated Innovative Marketing Solutions. She is a real estate broker and paralegal (non-attorney) with specialized negotiation experience in toxic environmental issues and the corporate oil and gas industry. The information contained in this article by Lisa Bracken should not be construed or relied upon as legal advice. Please seek the advice of qualified counsel to address your specific situation and concerns.
Lisa Bracken is available as lecturer, neutral or spokesperson and may be reached through her web site at
Copyright Lisa Bracken 2005