Yeah...

I used to run classes in conflict resolution and was on too many labor/management negotiation teams to remember. More than once, during "coffee breaks" I would take one side or the other aside and suggest some small thing they might be interested in. Often, they would like the fact that someone was actually suggesting a "tactic" to them, they would bring it up and some more serious matter would just "go away".

It is only when one side or the other becomes totally intractable (all too often today) that things become "unpleasant".

True. If one side of the table thinks they don't need the other, then there is no way those discussions are going to close gracefully. This is where somebody gets hurt badly and the attorneys add wings to their homes.

Or worse, they quit and enter politics.