Focusing on promoting success rather than preventing failure can be a powerful tool for achieving one's goals at the bargaining table. Across two studies, the authors find that 'promotion-focused' negotiators pay greater attention to their goals than do 'prevention-focused' negotiators. Attending to goals not only leads negotiators to strive for and achieve them, and thereby accrue more advantageous distributive outcomes, but it also prevents them from simply settling for minimally-acceptable outcomes and compromises. A 'promotion regulatory focus', defined in the article, leads negotiators to discover mutually beneficial trade-offs and achieve solutions optimal for both parties.
Riding the crest of recent artistic and organizational successes, this self-governing symphony orchestra now confronts the challenge of engendering a culture in which, in the words of the managing director, "everyone in the orchestra is constantly thinking, how can we make this better?"