So here’s a question for you negotiator: just exactly what is a mutually beneficial agreement?  

Sure, we all think that we’d like to be able to use our negotiation  styles and negotiating techniques to reach one of these in our next  negotiation, but would we recognize it if we saw it? One way to define  this is to view a mutually beneficial agreement as being one in which  each side grabs as much as it can from a finite pot of resources.  Hopefully you don’t view it this way. A much better way to view it is as  competitive value-claiming with collaborative value creation. 

Now the  big question becomes just exactly how to go about doing this.