Summary of Lessons Learned from the Matt Harrington Article

Summary of Lessons Learned from the Matt Harrington Article

 

Matt Harington’s case is considered as the saddest case in hardball negotiation history. The botched baseball negotiation, which was brokered by his super agent, saw Matt entering the annals of history as the player that was drafted five times and he never signed the contract. Mr Tanzer, who was Matt’s agent, turned off most of the top draft by asking for high signing bonuses. Bill, Matt’s father turned opted to hire an agent to take care of the negotiations between Matt and baseball teams that wanted to sign him up. Tanzer turned down many Rockies on behalf of his client. Finally, Matt lost all the offers and he was forced to join an independent baseball league for him to keep playing baseball.

Sadly, Matt was not the sole loser in the deal. His family was the hardest hit by the failed negotiations. The family became a laughing stock of the whole county and beyond. Matt was seen as being greedy and an idiot by his former funs and neighbours. Sue and Bill faced public humiliation and they were forced to seclude themselves in order to avoid confrontations. The negative vibe that the failed negotiations left behind forced the family to relocate to a different neighbourhood. However, the regrets of the missed opportunities still haunts bill to date (ESPN.com, 2014).

This case scenario is a cautionary tale, which brings to the fore critical decision-making errors that affect most negotiations. Some of the errors in this case include the viewing of the negotiation as a win-lose situation. Tanzer attempted to play hardball so that he could earn his client higher signing bonuses. He made his client to look at the offers made by the Rookies with suspicion. The second mistake lies in the fact that the Harrington based all their subsequent negotiations on the first offer. This was wrong because every Rookie comes with different demands and different offers. Third error was occasioned by the escalating commitment. Matt dwelt so much on the past and this saw him miss the subsequent four signings (ESPN.com, 2014).

There are several take away lessons that can be drawn from this cautionary tale. First, players should not place too much confidence on their agents. It is a grave mistake to entrust ones whole future to an agent, whose only drive is money. Second, negotiations should not be viewed as win-lose undertakings. Instead, the negotiating parties should seek for avenues by which more value can be created. Third, the client and his agent should not base their subsequent offers on the failed negotiations of the past. Instead, the negotiators should work on changing confrontation to cooperation.

William Ury shares some insight that can be applied to this scenario. He says that one needs to take a step back during a negotiation and look at the whole scenario from a different perspective. This would have helped Matt and his family to re-analyze the deal being offered by the Rookies. Second, the agents should have applied Ury’s insight on listening and respect. This would have allowed the client to mend any bad relationship that might have arisen from the initial negotiation. The Harrington family would also have applied Ury’s third tool by reframing that offer and in turn shift the negotiations from confrontation to cooperation. This would have helped the negotiators to focus on the underlying issues. Maybe by applying Ury’s tools, Matt’s case would have yielded a better result (UCTV, 2014).

 

References

ESPN.com. (2014). Otl: dream on a shelf. [online] Retrieved from: http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/eticket/story?page=090423/harrington [Accessed: 18 Jan 2014].

University of California Television (UCTV)·. (2014). William ury: negotiating for sustainable agreements.

Available at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e1NHqPDzqoU [Accessed: 18 Jan 2014].

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