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Helping you to think – Go MAD About Negotiations with a download from 'How to win in negotiations' |
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Here are 6 tips on negotiations from the Go MAD publication 'How to win in negotiations – 130 ways to make a difference'.
Exploring possibilities and planning priorities
There is an old saying, fail to plan and you plan to fail'. This is particularly so with negotiations. The best negotiators plan and prepare thoroughly. They carefully research their opponents as well as their own case. They know how to be flexible; they explore possibilities as sticking rigidly to a plan can lead to predictability and this would give the other party the edge. Your plan is a framework within which you can manoeuvre.
1. Get to know the people you will be dealing with their organisation, its performance and results, what analysts say about them. Get their internal newspaper and learn their language what is important to them, how their values are expressed. Use the internet, talk to people who know them. This will give you important background, as well as issues of mutual interest which you may be able to talk about. Your genuine interest will shine through when you meet, which will help build rapport.
2. Work out the possible ways in which you might achieve your goals, before you enter into the negotiations themselves. Use the ten Go MAD ® generic possibility thinking areas: possible tasks, possible resources, possible reasons to involve others, who to possibly involve, possible ways to gain their buy-in, possible ways to communicate your goals, possible obstacles, ways to possibly overcome those obstacles, possible risks and implications, possible assumptions and self-limiting beliefs.
3. Reflect on the other parties' reason why. How strong is it? Imagine the conversations they are having. What are they attempting to achieve? What are their defined goals? What lies behind them? In your mind, walk through all the conversations you can imagine you might have in the negotiation. Anticipate every question you may be asked, and how you would respond. Work out what you could do in any given situation, and be prepared to mix and match when you get into the discussion itself drawing different elements from different imagined conversations.
4. Gather any hard data you may need either to support your arguments, or to respond to questions. Knowing you have this data provides great comfort, and helps increase self belief, even if you don't need to use it.
5. Hold one or more pre-meetings with your own side useful to gain buy-in or with the other side, to begin the process of influencing. Think about how such a discussion can be organised to achieve the best result.
6. Prepare for the pre-meetings be they formal or informal. Have a very clear goal in mind about what you want to achieve. Remember the power that pre-meetings and pre-positioning can have on achieving the desired outcome.
To download a further 22 tips about
exploring possibilities
and planning priorities
click here
If you found these tips useful, why not purchase the booklet
'How to win in negotiations' from our online shop
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Save over £350 on Go MAD About Negotiations Programme! |
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Buying or selling? Tangible things or concepts and ideas? Commercial or employee relations?
Do you want more profitable negotiations?
Everyone in business is looking to drive ever-greater results and so often this involves dealing with others through negotiations. Whether you are new to the world of negotiations or you are an experienced negotiator looking to break through the next barrier, how do you know you're going to get the best deal you possibly could? What if you and through you, your team, could be inspired to truly make a difference and leave your competitors standing?
Go MAD Research & Consulting Group and Townhouse Consulting will give you an inspirational, pragmatic and innovative negotiations skills programme.
You will learn how to apply the results of the latest research on negotiating and the Go MAD Solution Focused Thinking System to all your negotiations.
- Imagine being fully prepared for all your negotiations, with the confidence to handle any situation that might arise.
- Think how you are feeling when you and your team achieve startling results for your organisation.
- Visualise yourself thinking proactively and quicker than ever before in a solution focused way when negotiating, helping to reduce costs and increase profits.
In other words you will be planning for, conducting and reviewing successful negotiations. You will know how to keep negotiations on track and confidently handle all manner of difficult situations whether they are people, or events.
Throughout the programme you will be given valuable and pragmatic insights from one of the country's leading commercial and employee relations negotiators with over 20 years experience in FTSE 100 companies. Additionally you gain full access to all the powerful solution focused thinking tools as applied to negotiations.
By the end of the programme you will be able to:
- Plan, conduct and review win: win negotiations
- Apply the Go MAD Solution Focused Thinking System to your negotiations
- Develop techniques which work for you in achieving your objectives through negotiations
- Employ a comprehensive range of practical tools in negotiations
- Build greater confidence to work individually and with your team to break through barriers and difficulties
- Measure your success in every negotiation you conduct, and demonstrate your achievements to others
If you are seeking to make a difference and achieve greater business results, then reserve your place on one of the scheduled programmes at the special introductory price of £895 + VAT. (Normally £1250 + VAT)
Dates:
25 26 September 2006
19 20 October 2006
27 28 November 2006
Venue: Go MAD Offices in Leicestershire
To reserve your place on any of the above programmes please call
01509 891313 and speak with a member of the Go MAD Team or
email us at info@gomadthinking.com
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Helping others to think – 3 powerful questions |
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When coaching others to help them move forward or to engage their imagination to generate further possibilities, an effective technique is to ask the individual to generate their own questions.
3 powerful questions to choose from are:
'What is the real question you need to answer before you move forward?'
'What is the important question you have avoided asking yourself?'
'What is the one question that, if you answered it, would help you the most?'
Watch out at this point, because there is usually a huge silence. The reason for this is that in answering your question the individual has to generate and evaluate several questions in their own mind and probably start to consider the answers to them. This will take more than a couple of seconds.
The above is adapted from 'Go MAD About Coaching' by Andy Gilbert & Ian Chakravorty. If you are interested in seeing the full range of Go MAD publications go to our publications page
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Helping teams to think – latest learning |
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In each MAD About Thinking
we will share with you our latest thinking and learning about projects, meetings and team development.
Here are 3 top tips for team development based on our learning from recent work with a variety of organisations.
1. Develop a culture of personal responsibility. How often have you heard 'we don't have a blame culture'? So if it isn't a blame culture what is it? If you really don't want a blame culture encourage others to take personal responsibility which will include, a willingness to be accountable, owning up and taking responsibility for mistakes, recognising choices in actions taken and being a role model to others.
2. Help team members develop helpful thinking habits. Ask "What's going through your mind" to help them be more aware of their thinking. If their thinking is hindering their actions encourage them to think about: others ways they could see the situation, things they have learnt in the past that will help them, the abilities they have that help them achieve results and what a successful outcome might look like.
3. Gain buy-in to goals. Rather than just imposing your or the organisational goals on the team, consider how you could get their buy-in. Think about what will appeal to the team as a whole and what might be the benefits to each individual.
If you have a team that would benefit from applying solution focused thinking to their development contact a Go MAD Thinking Engineer on 01509 891313.
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