In most negotiations there are four major obstacles that inhibit the creation of options.

1. Premature Judgement

Inventing options does not come naturally. Not inventing is the normal state of affairs, even when you are outside a stressful negotiation.
Nothing is so harmful to inventing as a critical sense waiting to pounce on the drawbacks of any new idea. Judgment hinders imagination.
Under the pressure of a forthcoming negotiation, your critical sense is likely to be sharper. Practical negotiation appears to call for practical thinking, not wild ideas.

As a negotiator, you will of necessity do much inventing by yourself. It is not easy. By definition, inventing new ideas requires you to think about things that are not already in your mind. You should therefore consider arranging a brainstorming session with a few colleagues. Such a session can effectively separate inventing from deciding.

2. Searching For the Single Answer

If the first impediment to creative thinking is premature criticism, the second is premature closure. By looking from the outset for the single best answer, you are likely to short-circuit a wiser decision-making process in which you select from a large number of possible answers.

3. The Assumption of a Fixed Pie

The third major block to creative problem-solving lies in the assumption of a fixed pie: the less for you, the more for me. Rarely, if ever, is this assumption true. Both sides could be worse off.

Even apart from a shared interest in averting joint loss, there almost always exists the possibility of joint gain. This may take the form of developing a mutually advantageous relationship, or of satisfying the interests of each side with a creative solution.

In this situation, each side sees the situation as essentially either/or: either I get what is in dispute or you do. A negotiation often appears to be a "fixed-sum" game; $100 more for you on the price of a car means $100 less for me. Why bother to invent if all the options are obvious and I can satisfy you only at my own expense?

4. Thinking that "Solving Their Problem is Their Problem"

A final obstacle to inventing realistic options lies in each side's concern with only its own immediate interests. For a negotiator to reach an agreement that meets her/his own self-interest s/he needs to develop a solution which also appeals to the self-interest of the other. Short-sighted self-concern thus leads a negotiator to develop only partisan positions, partisan arguments, and one-sided solutions.