Looking for a range of deception clues gives us the capacity to distinguish fact from fiction, truth from lies but how we deal with them once...
How can third parties be managed? Impossible, you might say?
Rather than calling on the 'fifth amendment' right to remain silent, wide use has been made of what negotiators recognize as the concept of 'plausible deniability'. Most commonly this tactic masquerades as the 'I didn't know – no-one told me anything'. An attempt to negotiate their way out of an awkward situation.
More than ever in this fast-moving world, it's critical that we stay focused on ensuring our negotiation strategies are developed systematically in a disciplined, step-by-step manner. This is definitely not the area to think you can ‘save’ time and money.
In any negotiation both sides potentially have a finite amount of time available for preparation, and we certainly are not advocating spending more time through rehearsal. The difference between the parties is not the amount of time spent in the preparation, but rather the quality of how the available time is used.
Fundamental to managing a business crisis effectively is our ability to remain calm and in control, and to continue to trade while the crisis is managed. Although the crisis may be very big for us, customers and stakeholders want to continue to do business and our capacity to meet their needs while we negotiate the crisis is a major measure of our effectiveness.
As negotiators we need to know how to protect ourselves from aggressive behaviour. Yet we also need to appreciate that in certain negotiating contexts aggression could be a necessary action. Such contexts include dealing with crisis situations.