Focus on making connections to ensure smooth negotiation.
The use of force in ensuring successful negotiations today is overrated, says Professor Stuart Diamond, Google’s top negotiator.
Instead, the world-renowned negotiator says that it is better to focus on making personal connections to ensure a smooth negotiation.
Diamond, who is a professor at the Wharton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania, was speaking at an event at the Khaleej Times offices, ahead of his two-day workshop organised by events management company, Innoverto.
Diamond said that conflict models can be found everywhere today, even in cartoons, and that is responsible in part for the problems “we face in interacting with each other”.
“Conflict models are ineffective and the costliest way to solve problems. The most common tactics used in a conflict model include issuing threats and enforcing deadlines. Negotiations are very sensitive to the words you use, so be careful that what you say doesn’t become perceived as a threat. Force is overrated as a negotiation tool, and deadlines just reduce creativity,” he said.