Mr. Pink: A Negotiation Guru?

There is a reason he got away, you know.  And it wasn’t just dumb luck.… Read More

I Have Something To Tell You

One of the harder things to figure out during a negotiation is when to share information and what information to share.

I regularly insist that negotiation is just problem solving in a different context and you need to involve your counterpart to find a solution.   That doesn’t mean that I think the other side is completely trustworthy and should be treated as if they were … Read More

I’m back!

London was fantabulous and we had a blast.  There were museums and historic walks and pubs and Tubes and plays and tea and not a whole lot of complicated negotiating.  I haggled over a tchotchke in a market once and that was about it (saved about $12, thankyouverymuch).

As I reenter the world of posting regularly, I thought I’d start out with a bit of … Read More

I have not melted into the sidewalk.

It was touch and go there for a while, to be sure, but it looks like I’ve survived the Portland Heat Wave of 2009.

Sadly, all of my writing time has been focused on other endeavors; work, mostly.   And looking at the next few weeks, it doesn’t look like I’ll have a ton of time to update the blog as frequently as I’d like.  For … Read More

It’s not just you; everyone is stupid.

Have you ever wrapped up a big conversation, gotten up to clear your head, and realized you forgot to discuss one of the most important things you wanted to talk about?

Have you ever said something stupid during a stressful interaction that you wish you could take back later?

How about regretting that you agreed to a particular term in a negotiation and your only … Read More

Opposite Day

A while back I wrote about how people hate losing.  It is a quirky little nit in our psychological make up that causes us to dislike losing more than we like winning.  As a result, we put a lot more energy and effort into avoiding losing than we do into winning.

I got a gentle reminder recently of how powerful fear can be.  Especially … Read More

Questionable Behavior

If you’ve been reading for a while you know that I’m sort of obsessed with you getting, using and sharing information when you negotiate.

Interest based negotiation is only effective when you know what one another’s true interests in the deal are.  You can only know what those interests are if you have information.

So how do we get more information?  By asking questions.… Read More

Stuff & Stuff

Huzzah!  It is Friday!  I’m very excited about this.  So excited I wish there were an easy acronym I could use to express my excitement.  Like “HIIF!” or “HCILF!”  or “YF!”  Too bad there isn’t.

In other news:

I used to link to a nifty little book called The Graphic Artists Guild Handbook of Pricing and Ethical Guidelines that is published by the Graphic Artists … Read More