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Negotiation Stage 6: Get it in Writing
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No, the expectation is not that you have to sign an agreement with your friends about where you will be going for a night out!
However, writing down an agreement in full can avoid disputes or misunderstandings later.
Ideally, each party will write down the agreement and then cross-check it before anyone leaves the negotiation.
And this has a bonus:
When someone writes something for themselves, their commitment to ‘stick to it’ is higher than if someone wrote it for them.
And success will only be achieved if the parties are committed to implementing the agreement.
Some agreements must be subject to contract or perhaps signed-off by others. Governments, for instance, might sign treaties subject to affirmation (or not) in a referendum. So be it – but it must still be written down when first agreed.