In essence, people are being asked to match the term (number) with the (example) letter.
Silence (1)
Repetition (2)
Avoiding saying negative things (3)
Changing the subject (4)
Deferring (5)
Eliciting (6)
Suggesting (7)
Compromising (8)
Taking a break (9)
a. If you don’t know something or you don’t want to commit to something, you can put off your response. Example: ‘How much will this cost’? ‘Can I get back to you on that one? I need to talk to my doctor’.
b. Not saying anything exerts pressure on the other person. Often, they will feel forced to keep talking or change their offer.
c. Asking lots of questions will keep the other person talking and will help you work out any weaknesses in their position. Meanwhile, the other person does not get to learn about your weaknesses. That way, you are in the strongest position.
d. When you’re happy with a particular possibility, saying the same thing again and again will stop the negotiation from destroying that possibility.
e. If you use the words ‘no’, ‘cannot’ or ‘don’t’ a lot, you close down a lot of possibilities and lose room to manoeuvre. Then, you will be in a weak position.
f. If you are inflexible, no negotiation will be successful (unless you have a truly dominant position). So, if you want to see benefit from most of your negotiations, you will need to flexible. ‘I’ll scratch your back if you scratch mine’.
g. Just telling someone what you want directly (using the present simple) limits the possibilities and your room to manoeuvre. It is better to use modal verbs or questions to put forward possibilities. So, ‘We want a cheaper price’! is bad. Better is, ‘Maybe you could give us a discount if we buy more’ or ‘What is your policy on discounts’?
h. If the negotiation is not going well on one particular issue, don’t continue the discussion on that issue. Move onto a new issue instead. You can always come back to the problem issue later.
i. If a negotiation is going badly or you have been surprised by some information, then you probably need time to think. Take a deep breath to try and relax and ask for a cup of tea or coffee.
Answers:
1. b 2. d 3. e 4. h 5. a 6. c 7. g 8. f 9. i
Based on the above, do you think you’re a good negotiator?
Pukul just raised the point with me that negotiation tactics are culturally based. For example, Swedish business negotiations tend not to be confrontational, whereas American negotiations are stereotypically forthright! According to Adam, presenters in Thailand are more likely to get respect if they’ve obviously paid attention to their appearance and look good.
Every society has a set of shared social beliefs. Those beliefs create stereotypes of people, and myths about people. Every individual stereotypes every other person and every group of people. Some people even stereotype themselves.
‘Societies inhibit / limit the creativity and innovation of individuals’. Professor Kendal, Truthorpe University.
I just asked Nader Houella from Lebanon what he thought about this statement. Click to download his response or press play below:
The group were asked why this is the case. Below feature some images of their thinking, taken from flip chart paper.
Click to see a larger version.
Quick summaries from groups include:
‘A good society has no conflict’…. Interesting one here. What do you think?
‘Generalisation makes things easier to deal with’… Is this true?
‘Society fears individual creativity because it leads to choice & alternatives’…
‘Inherent cultures and ideals impact of the functionality of society’.
‘Because we cannot always control all the elements, we can only limit the risks’.
OK, the video professionals are arriving on Tuesday evening, but here’s a very quick (albeit dodgy) test I just shot of the group at work, with a stills camera.
Adam then asked the group to comment on what the group have learnt from his talk / slide presentation.
Group feedback includes:
We agree on:
Working with mixed teams
Learning from failure
Companies need R & D to survive
Watching behaviour to understand buying patterns
We disagree on:
Surveillance is not always the best method to understand behaviours. There are moral reasons for not doing this. Importantly, if no diversity in the patterns observed, quality of research can go down.
Comfort zones induce creativity.
The customer behaviour approach won’t work forever. i.e People become aware of themselves being observed, and start to complain.
During the session, it became clear one of the groups was concerned about surveillance as a method for developing products and services. Sara Wingate Gray puts her views forward.
Adam poses a series of statements and asks the group to respond as to whether they feel the assumptions are true or false.
What do you think?
Creativity is about having a good imagination, so some people are more creative than others. (1)
Women are more sensitive than men so usually more creative. (2)
Children are more creative than adults. (3)
There’s not as much opportunity to be creative in business as there is in other areas of life. (4)
There are no right answers. (5)
It would not be wise for a company to develop only products and services that are radical and innovative, since innovation is risky. (6)
Some cultures and nationalities are more creative than others. (7)
Being innovative and creative scares some people because it usually changes the current situation, which can then threaten the power of the people who control the current situation. (8)
The group decided on the following:
1 = True (but based on opportunity, not birth)
2 = False
3 = True (based on opportunity)
4 = False
5 = True
6 = False
7 = False (but difference in opportunities)
8 = True
Quotes from the group include:
‘Some people have more potential than others, based on the opportunities given to them in their society’.
‘It’s a matter of philosophy and religion’.
‘Everyone has the capacity for creativity’.
‘Creativity is not the same as IQ. The skills can be learnt’.
‘Creativity is looking for new relationships between A & B’.
Right now, participants are considering ‘what type of innovator am I’? Using a series of multiple choice questions, people are beginning to understand how they relate to innovation.
For example:
My best ideas come to me when i’m:
at home
out socialising
in school, university or work
in the ‘zone’
To place innovation success into context, Adam tells the story of
