Chapter14.Negotiating

Chapter 14. Negotiating

Why is it that sometimes even the simplest things seem to go wrong?

My guess is that if you go to the root of the problem in these situations, you will more often than not discover the classic "failure to communicate." "Oh, is that what you wanted? Why didn't you say so?" Exasperated, we try to control our frustration. But unless we begin to understand what is breaking down here, we will be doomed to repeat the exercise over and over again.

Now what is curious is that these miscommunications rarely happen when a negotiation takes place. As soon as there is "give and take" and resolution occurs, the odds of getting it severely wrong go way down. So perhaps there is a key there. The trick may lie in conducting a negotiation without having a negotiation, because, as we all know, negotiations are fraught with tension, and we don't want every interaction to have that flavor.

In this chapter, our friend Roscoe Leroy gives us his slant on how this might work.^[1]

^[1] Roscoe has previously appeared in Chapters 5, 10, and 11. You can refer to these chapters for background material on him.