Huthwaite negotiation specialist, Neil Clothier, writes for the Daily Express on the negotiation learnings to be had from this difficult negotiating scenario

The 2015 Iran nuclear deal is now dead in the water, Trump has announced a unilateral sanction on banks financing Iran’s oil industry, and Europe is up in arms. Add to this that North Korea has just announced that it may pull out of a summit with the US President if pressured to abandon its nuclear program – and it’s easy to draw the conclusion that, in this instance, Trump’s negotiation techniques have reached a dead end.

Begging the question, why? Why has Trump seemingly irritated his European allies and abandoned a program designed to reduce the threat of developing nuclear weapons from Iran? Why has Trump taken such a bold negotiation stance and put his summit with North Korea at risk? Is it a case of ‘the President’s lost his mind’ or are there strategic and beneficial reasons that quantify such action?

The importance of planning in negotiation

As with any bold decision in politics or indeed business, it can be easy to assume it is the former, when perhaps there is weight in the latter. The simple matter is that skilled and prepared negotiation is key – one assumption or poor move and you may find yourself back to square one.

In business, we need have a plan of action when negotiating complex deals. First and foremost, we should research the deal in hand, who we are negotiating with and what they hold valuable to them. This involves everything from cultural consideration, to verbal behaviour and how this will be perceived. There could be a danger that Trump appears unreasonable in the rhetoric we’re hearing. Ask yourself, how does this appear to the outside world, particularly Eastern Culture where the influence of Confucian ideals is very evident?

Eastern culture places great importance in showing humility and respect to elders or people with higher titles. Respect and humility are evident and expressed daily, including business, through a variety of ways including head bows, hand gestures and social etiquette across the East, including China, one of the key players on this world stage. Those words, respect and humility, are not easily associated with the Trump regime.

It’s OK to act tough and defiant, if you have all the power and are prepared to act upon your threats and don’t care about the relationship. However, if you’re not prepared to carry out those threats the danger is you may have to back down, or, to save face, you’re forced act out those threats. Middle Eastern culture would find it very shameful to lose face and telling someone they are wrong means they’re unlikely to want to do business with you at all.

And all this happening on a world stage where every dictatorship and those with nuclear ambitions are watching and assessing what will happen next. Let’s hope President Trump’s negotiation team have other workable options and can start trading their way out of a very tricky situation. The message, intended or not is we don’t really care about our relationships outside the US. Something skilled negotiators always plan and work to preserve.

What if the negotiating plan fails?

In this instance, it seems that any plan to preserve the relationship in the interest of a good deal has failed. On the face of it at least, this is a classic case of negotiation gone wrong. Trump has taken a bold approach, using a ‘power play’ for which he is now famed for, to create an advantageous position. However, whilst Iran may be forced to toe the line due to wider political matters, North Korea is in a very different position.

To save face, Trump must re-consider his approach with North Korea and head back to basics. He needs to consider what he’s looking to achieve from the North Korea summit – and perhaps more importantly, what will Kim Jong-Un be expecting out of it.

Getting the negotiation back on track

Whilst accused by North Korea’s vice-foreign minister of making reckless statements and of harbouring sinister intentions, Trump needs to flip and reverse the narrative, and focus his commentary on what mutually beneficial agreements can be made with North Korea, away from conversation around Iran.

The platform for negotiation has already been set with North Korea. The summit’s location and date have even been set. The need for bold and brash aggressive language has passed. It is vital that the language and verbal behaviour used from here on in as part of these negotiations remains nuanced, open and flexible. In simple terms – this is akin to setting up a business deal, and then deliberately irritating the individual you’re looking to negotiate with ahead of the deal. It’s counterproductive and places the negotiation at risk.

Rather than creating an opportunity for war, Trump can open more opportunities to negotiate with careful and strategic negotiation techniques. Now that the tone has been set, the Trump administration needs to spend the next few weeks researching exactly what North Korea wants from these discussions, and how they can use this as leverage as part of the negotiation process. In other words – less brash talk, more intricate research!

What can we expect next?

As ever with the headline-grabbing politics of Trump, there is more going on than meets the eye. Love him or loathe him, the President is a natural born deal maker, and many of his ‘lost his mind’ moments are about securing leverage, and improving his negotiation position in other areas.

However, the likely best move to success now is for Trump to re-group, consider the new circumstances, re-focus on the negotiation priorities for North Korea and press ahead with a strategic, considered and focused negotiation stance.

Failing to do so would see the President taking one step forward, only to take two steps back towards the risk of a nuclear war that nobody wants.

The time has passed for brash behaviour. It’s time for Trump to assume a diplomatic, considered and strategic approach.

Whether that will happen – only time will tell.