My two kids occasionally try the divide-and-conquer strategy on my wife and me. First my daughter asks my wife for something (and it’s usually our daughter now as our son is in college). If she gets a lukewarm response or a no, she will then approach me and ask for...
I sat down with our general contractor and went through our house remodel agreement term by term to ensure he understood everything. It was a balanced agreement given our relationship. He had completed several smaller projects for us previously but those were...
I apologize to anyone who doesn’t like Mel Brooks (is this even possible?) – but I found his negotiation stories irresistible. And we can all learn invaluable lessons from them. So here are 3 more in Part 3, the final chapter (I promise). For those who missed Part 1...
I know Mel Brooks did not make a History of the World, Part 2 – but I found too many great stories illustrating negotiation lessons to leave his own history of negotiations at Part 1. So here are three more from his autobiography All About Me! My Remarkable Life in...
Blazing Saddles. Young Frankenstein. The Producers. History of the World, Part 1. Spaceballs. High Anxiety. Mel Brooks created some of the world’s funniest movies, including several of my all-time favorites. But I never associated him or his movies with negotiation....
“How can we more effectively negotiate with these aggressive lawyers on the other side? They argue over every issue. I generally know how to deal with them, but is there a specific move or tactic you would recommend?” This question, posed by a potential client this...
We just returned from a family trip to Japan, and I couldn’t help but consider some of the culturally different negotiation approaches – and the lessons we can learn from them. Here are three. Of course, these are broad and general tendencies. And exceptions abound,...
We recently solicited bids to repaint our house from three residential painters/painting companies, all of whom came recommended by friends or family. We also requested bids for an upcoming home renovation. (Yes – our house needs some work!). Despite having gone...
Masayoshi Son had “earned a reputation as the Bill Gates of Japan” by making it big with the software distributor SoftBank. According to Sebastian Mallaby in The Power Law: Venture Capital and the Making of the New Future, while Son’s “childhood home was a squatter’s...
