People refer to negotiation as both a science and an art; and it is both. There is a pure logic to every negotiation and there is an art to it because you negotiate with people. This results in a need to truly understand the subtleties of human communication surrounding nonverbal messages, soft exposing language, instinct and intuition, in order to get inside the other party’s head.

However, what if the science and art of negotiation are forced to occur in the virtual world where the bandwidth for communication is greatly reduced, sometimes down to zero? What happens when many negotiation norms no longer apply, and how do we virtually negotiate when communication cues are minimized? Virtual negotiations are neither better nor worse; they are simply different, and once we understand the science behind why they are different we can adjust our approach and excel in the arts of virtual negotiation appropriately.

COVID-19 and social distancing have made the need to negotiate remotely an imperative, and have also made in-person negotiations difficult to impossible in the short term. This short thought piece will explore the science and art of virtual negotiations, and what you as a negotiator should consider when engaging in negotiations without the benefits of sitting at a table.