One-Man Teams

For a lot of business and personal negotiations—say with your kid over bedtime—negotiation is a one-man or -woman gig. A single woman buying a house on her own can’t and shouldn’t rent a husband just to negotiate the deal. But it’s the concept of separation that’s important here, not the game card. Negotiating and decision making can be separated in a multitude of ways, not just by using physically different people. A one-man team simply has to adopt strategies to make sure the roles stay separate.

These strategies are not rocket science. You can go with the ol’ “Let me sleep on it” tactic, which lets you step away from the table and change roles. “Sounds like we’re almost there,” you tell the other person. “But let me just take a day to think it over.”

A slight variation is the time-honored “Let me discuss it with my spouse/partner/parakeet” line, used even when the spouse/partner/parakeet is the last person in the world actually making a real decision.

Let me sleep on it. . . .

I have another appointment but I think we’re almost there. . . .

You get the picture.