Value Reframing in Adversarial Collaboration: Shifting Power, Building Alignment

Abstract: Adversarial collaborations within negotiating teams may be as significant as differences between negotiating parties. Using a case study of a sales negotiation between Wells Fargo and PowWow Mobile, a Silicon Valley startup, we extend our prior work on adversarial collaborations to discuss how, under conditions of power asymmetry, internal human agents can prompt stalemate. Wells Fargo’s legal counsel insisted on IP ownership of PowWow’s customer-configured “software connectors.” Their professional mandate was to minimize risk and preserve potential upside to their organization. By challenging legal agents’ perception of their own goals, specifically by reframing the value of IP, PowWow was able to realign their mandates. This led to a subsequent process change at PowWow: framing the value of IP up front, and adopting a standard contract. We see intentional reframing as a key tactic to mitigate incompatible goals within enterprise negotiation teams to reduce time, cost, and conflict.

Keywords: B2B sales negotiation; negotiation framing/value reframing; intra-organizational negotiation; qualitative case study