Interest based negotiation encourages disputants to focus on objectives rather than alternatives. Positional bargaining embodies a strategy in which a series of positions are presented to other parties in a dispute in an effort to reach agreement. The positions are developed independently by each party in the negotiation, based on their interests and their perception of the other party's interests.
Agreement is reached when the parties positions converge.
In the figure above, this movement occurs along the right slope of the shaded triangle, with the best compromise half way between each disputants winner take all position. In interest based bargaining, the parties collaborate to meet each others needs and satisfy mutual interests. Interests of the parties are identified prior to the development of solutions, and solutions are developed and evaluated jointly to meet real, not perceived interests. The creativity of all parties can be brought to the development of alternatives. The solution drawn outside the shaded area in the figure above depicts the advantage of interest based negotiation, which is the increased probability of agreeing on solutions in which each party does better than the best compromise.