cooperative-negotiation

Read [runtime](../../content/RUNTIME.md) and [advisory rules](../../content/policies/advisory.md) before applying this skill. Other Foreman layers and the catalog are in `../../content/`, relative to this SKILL.md. # Cooperative Negotiation POSITIONS TO INTERESTS -- two people fighting over an orange. One wants the peel, the other wants the juice. Same position ("I need the orange"), different interests. The negotiation fails because nobody asks why. This parable, worn smooth by repetition in every negotiation textbook, persists because its lesson remains almost universally ignored. Most business negotiations collapse not from bad faith or insufficient leverage but from a far simpler failure: both sides argue about what they want without ever surfacing why they want it. Fisher and Ury's principled negotiation framework (covered in the `win-win-negotiation` skill) provides the theoretical architecture -- separate people from problems, focus on interests, generate options, use objective criteria. That skill teaches the blueprint. This one teaches what to say when you sit down across the table. --- ## The Framework ### The Anatomy of a Deal Every negotiation begins with an issue -- a problem or opportunity that requires agreement. Each party arrives with a position: a concrete statement of how the issue should be resolved. When positions collide, the instinct is to argue harder, concede reluctantly, or walk away. This is the positional death spiral. It escalates tension,...