In the latest HBS Ideacast, Harvardbusiness.org’s Paul Michelman talks with Danny Ertel, co-author of The Point of the Deal: How to Negotiate When Yes Is Not Enough.

The basic point is simple – negotiate deals with implementation in mind, don’t just focus on ‘Getting to Yes‘. Some examples of how this impacts the negotiations include:

1. Have the right people informed and involved in the negotiations – this includes those who will be responsible for actually doing what you are committing to.
2. Explore in an open manner the problems you see that the other party may have in meeting their commitments (rather than getting your lawyer to just add more penalties to the contract).
3. (Carefully), raise concerns about issues that may affect your implementation so that they are understood and dealt with up front.
4. Don’t close too soon. ‘Yes’ is good, but only if its the right deal and one that the parties will be able to implement.
5. etc

Does this apply to all agreements? No – but, as Danny says, it does apply to all that will require some form of cooperation between the parties.
That pretty much covers almost all intellectual property-related deals.