Theresa May and EU Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker have agreed to ‘accelerate’ Brexit negotiations - but there is still no sign of a breakthrough.
Like most people in business, I have been
involved in my fair share of negotiations over the years, some lasting just a
few weeks and some an entire year. Some have gone very well, some quite well,
and occasionally there has been a poor outcome for both sides. The
priority in negotiation, in my humble view, is recognising what is important to
all parties (as there are often more than two parties involved), and working
out how to ensure they all get what is really important to them. I have
not been involved in a significant negotiation where these have been utterly
incompatible, and normally they can be aligned, once they are understood.
But this requires a mindset of seeking a shared outcome that is good for all
parties, what has famously been called a ‘win/win outcome’.
Brexit negotiators are currently
deadlocked on issues relating to the UK’s ‘divorce bill’ and with serious
issues remaining over the Irish border and citizens’ rights. We see
turmoil around the UK government cabinet table, with Home Secretary Amber Rudd describing the prospect of Brexit happeningwithout a deal being reached between the UK and the EU as ‘unthinkable’
while Brexit Secretary David Davis is
committed to keeping the ‘no deal’ option open. It is a slow-moving and uncooperative approach to negotiations from the UK
team. I am a little embarrassed to be British right now, as I watch our
politicians seek to ‘win’ the negotiations with Europe, to play a clever game
where the UK gets what it wants at the expense of the European Union.
I believe that if the UK government took a
more win/win approach, seeking to work with their European counterparts to
explore how to achieve what each side needs, we would see accelerated
progress. The Prime Minister’s speech in Florence last week set a more
conciliatory tone, but it lacked substance about such matters as the scale of
the ‘divorce bill’ that the UK would find acceptable, and a deep recognition of
the concerns of the European Union nations. As the UK continues with this
disconnected approach I fear that progress will continue to be slow and that
the outcome will in the end be a lose/lose, with neither party getting a really
satisfying outcome. The pragmatist in me thinks that we will get over it,
and that economic interests will eventually cause reasonable trading and
migration policies to be adopted, but it feels like a sub-optimal approach and
one that does not reflect well on the UK government or the UK nation.
What do you think? Please tweet @SimonJHayward and let me know.
