The Scarcity Mindset

You have probably been introduced to the idea of Abundance v. Scarcity from Stephen Covey's The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People. In the book a Scarcity mindset is characterized as viewing the world through a lens of limitation. Opportunities are few, most options are impractical and it's a battle to see who can take the most from whom.

For example, I was speaking to a friend recently about the pervasive scarcity mindset that exists in her workplace - This Is Yours, This Is Mine, This Is Non-Negotiable. This mindset manifests itself in the daily office "turf wars" to see who will get their share of the budget. This has had a trickle-down effect to most departments which has led to a high degree of unhappiness and dissatisfaction among employees.

Entering into any negotiation situation, it can be easy to get into a mindset of Scarcity. There are a lot of "things" out that drive that thinking: limited resources, limited money, limited time. You can be pretty sure that not too many people are walking around these days saying "Gosh, if I only knew how to spend more of this surplus cash I have laying around..." 

On the other end of the spectrum is the Abundance Mindset. Abundance doesn't mean that you are irresponsible or careless with the resources and opportunities that exist, rather, it is a mindset that seeks to do more these resources and opportunities than "what we've always done." 

Often times, you'll hear negotiators talk about Expanding the Pie. This involves brainstorming ways to take "what we've always done" to "what we should be doing." In essence, we are talking about creating value in negotiation - not always an easy thing to do. It requires negotiation counterparts to work together, to communicate their wants, needs, and interests.  For some amazing ideas to help you develop a framework for creating value in your next negotiation, See Negotiation Genius, by Deepak Malhotra & Max H. Bazerman, Chapter 2 & The ICON Negotiation model (explanation here). The strategies discussed in these resources will help you begin to see value in negotiations that are marked by a Scarcity Mindset.