Congetture

«An important difference between good and bad negotiators is that bad negotiators tend to think of a negotiation as a zero-sum game.

Imagine we’re negotiating over a cake. In a zero-sum negotiation if I get one more slice, you get one less. Any gain I make comes at your expense.

This seems obviously true with cake, right? So what makes other negotiations any different?

Ah, but it’s not actually true for cake. What if I hate corner pieces and you love them? What if I really like the cherries? What if I’m full and you’re starving, but you’ll agree to treat me to my favorite cake next time?

Of course, when I posed the question I didn’t mention anything about cherries or my feelings on corner pieces. It might seem like I just made it all up.

But this is exactly what good negotiators do. They bend the rules. They question assumptions and ask unexpected questions. They dig to find the core what everyone values and look for creative ways to widen the terrain of negotiation.»

— Haseeb Qureshi @hosseeb