More Negotiating

I had a few moments before a public review committee meeting recently and saw it as a chance to empower the committee to feel and act as if they had more control of the situation than they appeared to think they did.

More than three months after he imparted his wisdom, Jack Kain's talk on negotiating to my Vistage group still sticks with me. I shared my memory of Kain's imparted wisdom like something extracted from a fortune cookie.

"There's an old saying" I found myself saying.  "When a person's mouth conflicts with their feet, believe their feet."

I went on to explain that if the people are saying they don't like the deal or vigorously saying it doesn't work for them, but they are still standing there and still coming to talk to you, you have a conflict of body language verses verbal language.

Which do you believe?  The verbally-stated unwillingness to deal or the body language fact that they are still standing there talking to you.

Kaine would say, believe the body language.  They still want to make the deal, even if the terms are not perfect to their liking.

Behold. 

I don't believe in coincidence.  It was the most productive meeting of this committee in 5+ years of watching them function.

Thanks, Jack Kaine.