Squiggly Skill Sprint Day 13: Negotiation

Unlucky for some, it’s day 13 of the Squiggly Careers sprint, and today’s topic is Negotiation https://www.amazingif.com/listen/skills-sprint-negotiation/

The expert for this podcast is unsurprisingly Chris Voss. His book “Never split the difference” is rightly considered a bible when it comes to negotiation. I can also heartily recommend his MasterClass series, as a lot of his knowledge & advice comes across better when you can hear the tone of his voice. In fact, one of his strategies involves tone of voice, so hearing him talk is near essential.

He also has a lot of negotiation tactics that can be used in conversation, which can help maintain the flow. I find that these are especially useful for people who are not natural networkers, and maybe find a lot of pressure in having to think on their feet.

One of the great points he makes often is that the person on the other side of the table is not the problem, the situation is the enemy. If you can de-personalize a negotiation to remove the emotion from it, you can find that the whole thing is a lot less stressful and a lot more productive.

On a final note, I was at a talk recently where the speaker posed a question. She asked everyone to get into pairs, and each pair was given 100 euros. At the end of two minutes, you had to have a deal about what you would do with that 100 euros. If there was a deal, then you kept the money. If not, then the money was taken away. Two minutes isn’t very long, and at the end of it, around 80% of the pairs split it 50-50. A few more agreed that one needed the money more, so split it 70-30, 80-20, or similar.

My pair was different, in that I asked my partner what skills they had that were special. They paused and said that they were a good cook, especially with cuisine from their home country. We quickly agreed that they could have all the money, but they had to supply and cook a nice meal for me. This is a classic case of splitting the pie, and looking beyond what is on the table.

Especially as companies become more excel-driven, people often forget that not everyone is motivated by money alone. In work negotiations, money is easily the default currency people focus on. Many people are equally motivated by holiday time, training, titles, or being able to spend time on passion projects. Helen and Sarah talk a lot about being given time in their previous careers to work on AmazingIf as a side project, which was obviously such an obviously valuable thing for them.