Gavin Kennedy
Founder & Creator of the 8-Step/Four Phase Approach
I watched people argue for hours, only to walk away without agreement, or worse, with a deal they’d regret
Founder & Creator of the Kennedy 8-Step/Four Phase Approach
The year was 1969. Gavin Kennedy was a young economist assigned to observe labor negotiations at the Shell-Haven refinery in the UK.
He expected logic, structure, maybe even professionalism. Instead, he saw chaos: long-winded speeches, positional posturing, emotional stand-offs — and no real movement.
He watched deal after deal spiral into deadlock or collapse altogether.
It was frustrating. It was avoidable. And no one was doing anything about it.
That moment sparked a transformation.
Kennedy began breaking negotiation down to its core mechanics. He mapped what actually worked — not in theory, but in practice. And in 1980, he published Managing Negotiation — a full year before Getting to Yes hit the shelves — laying the groundwork for a modern, behavior-driven negotiation method before Harvard even entered the conversation.
Traditional Negotiation Problems
Arguing Over Positions Instead of Exploring Priorities
Most negotiators walk into the room knowing what they want — but not what they’re willing to trade. They defend positions, repeat demands, and miss the real opportunity: uncovering where mutual value exists.
Using Power Plays Instead of Process
Conceding Without Trading
Confusing Toughness with Rigidity
A Better Way Is Born
Between 1969 and 1971, he was granted unprecedented access to observe live union-management negotiations at Shell-Haven — a front-row seat to the tension, breakdowns, and breakthroughs most only hear about secondhand. It was a rare and raw look into how deals are really made — and lost.
Over the decades that followed, Kennedy and his colleagues observed and analyzed thousands of negotiators across industries — from oil and gas to healthcare, education, and finance. What emerged wasn’t a set of tactics — it was a repeatable, evidence-based system built from behavioral patterns seen in the real world, not the seminar room.
He introduced the revolutionary concept of tradables, the Purple Principle of Conditionality, and a simple phased model that worked in any negotiation setting.
The Kennedy Negotiation Model
Other negotiation programs teach you how to win arguments.
The Kennedy Method teaches you how to move — confidently, clearly, and without giving ground.
It’s built around four universal phases designed to bring structure and clarity to every deal:
The Kennedy Method doesn’t teach you how to push harder. It teaches you how to negotiate smarter — with structure, movement, and confidence.
Gavin Kennedy
You will get absolutely nothing from me unless and until I get something from you… That is the only genuine toughness in negotiation that counts
Gavin was one of the founding faculty members of the Edinburgh Business School at Heriot-Watt University
