Parallel universes – we’ve all heard the idea. Infinite similar worlds, with just a few changes. Maybe one in which you are the prime minister?
So let’s imagine the ‘best version of you’ has come to visit from another universe, using the newly built tech of the Teleporter 1000X (obviously discovered in their universe, because Elon has his hands full with rockets on ours).
The ‘best version of you’ (or BVY) to you – this is how the conversation might go…
Best Version of You: Looking a bit podgy… anyway, I hear you have a negotiation coming up.
You: Yep, a toughie. Difficult customer who wants the world. I mean multi-universe.
BVY: OK, so what are you doing to prepare?
You: I’ve started building the slides.
BVY: Slides?! This is a negotiation – PowerPoint is for presenting, not negotiating.
You: What? We always use slides.
BVY: Do you have the term in this universe – if you do what you’ve always done…
You: You get what you’ve always got. Yes. Oh, OK. Alright, smart aleck with the two-tie thing from Back to the Future, what should I do?
BVY: What’s ‘Back to the…’? doesn’t matter. You want to formulate a plan to win, not present a bunch of slides, hoping that what you show they’ll accept. They won’t. You need to add structure to your thinking.
You: I do, I have a think when I create the slides.
BVY: Surely you, I mean I, can’t be this stupid? You need to know your ‘negotiation compass’.
You: What?!
BVY: Negotiation compass. Here you call it a squaredance. In simple terms, north is what you want, south is your walkaway, east is your takes and west is your gives. And the middle is the negotiation tools you’ll use.
You: Oh! I see. Well, we sort of do that… maybe we don’t. OK, we don’t… No, we don’t do any of that. We do a lot of calculations, but none of that.
BVY: It’s the only way, because it structures your thinking. Forces you to consider your bargaining arena and what the gives and takes are, for when you get stuck. They are like the oil that keeps the negotiation engine moving forward.
You: OK, thank you. Great work, me! By the way, where can I get a Teleporter 1000X?
BVY: You’d be too dangerous with it. Bye!
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