Interests are the building blocks of lasting agreements. Be Creative . Anyone can do things the same old way. Using brainstorming techniques, listening to outlandish proposals and opening up to unanticipated possibilities expands agreement opportunities. If you respond with new ideas and do the unexpected, you can open doors to far greater gains than when you behave predictably.
Creativity can make everyone look good.
Be fair . If people feel a process is fair, they are more likely to make real commitments and less likely to walk away planning ways to wriggle out of the agreement. Sometimes things are helped when a neutral, external authority is used to measure fairness - a dictionary, a lab test, or an academic article, for instance. Be prepared to commit . You shouldn't make a commitment unless you can fulfill it.