People don’t know that they should learn to negotiate.
They think negotiation is something that only people in business suits do, or something that involves large sums of money. Or even an activity involving hostages and camouflage!
But, at the heart of negotiation is, simply, the desire to get something from someone else.
Negotiation means working out what you want; asking the other party for it; understanding their needs; anticipating and responding to any setbacks; and confirming what you’ve agreed.
We do this in our homes every week when we have the discussion about which takeaway food to order. This is no less a negotiation than what goes on at the UN. Maybe the stakes are higher at the UN and the issues are more complex … but the discussion about whether tonight should involve sushi or pizza is still a negotiation.
Regardless of negotiation’s image problem, we can’t escape the fact that we are all negotiating all the time … don’t you think it’s time you learnt more about it?