Negotiating under Uncertainty

Negotiating under Uncertainty

Strategic decisions with incomplete information, functional trust and time pressure.

When information is incomplete, trust is limited and time is running out, negotiation becomes more than a matter of techniques.

Leaders must make strategic choices while managing competing interests, shifting power dynamics and pressures from stakeholders beyond the negotiating table. Waiting for certainty is rarely an option. Yet moving too quickly can be equally costly.

In this Vienna School Negotiator Lounge Sonja Rauschütz invites Ambassador Vaidotas Verba – Senior Strategic Advisor and former Head of an OSCE Mission in Ukraine to explore how experienced negotiators and decision-makers navigate uncertainty, build workable relationships without full trust, and maintain strategic judgment under pressure.

Drawing on negotiation practice, executive advisory experience and high-stakes international diplomacy, the discussion will focus on three questions: