Always Ask, Never Assume
This story caught my eye recently. A photographer on a local newspaper was dispatched to take some aerial photographs of a forest fire raging in the area. He was told a twin-engine plane would be waiting for him at the airport.
Arriving at the airfield, he spotted the plane warming up outside a hanger, pilot completing the pre- flight check. He jumped in with his bag, slammed the door shut, and shouted, ‘Let’s go.’ The pilot taxied out, swung the plane into the wind and took off.
Once in the air, the photographer instructed the pilot, ‘Fly over the valley and make a low pass so I can take pictures of the fires on the hillsides.’
‘Why?’ asked the pilot. ‘Because I’m a newspaper photographer ’, he responded, ‘and I need to get some close up shots.’
The pilot was strangely silent for a moment. ‘So………. you’re not my flight instructor?’
The point of the story is clear, but the implication for negotiators maybe less so. We are educated from the start of life to process ‘causes’ into most likely ‘effects’. As a baby, ‘sudden loud noise’ equals ‘danger ’. As a toddler ‘green vegetable’ equals ‘yuk’. As a teenager ‘advice from a parent’ equals ‘you just don’t understand’.
So as a negotiator, ‘we cannot do this deal on these terms’ from the other party equals ‘the price is wrong’. Why? There are a number of factors. Maybe it is what we were expecting to hear. Maybe we planned for a pricing problem. Maybe our experience tells us that price is the most likely reason why people reject our proposals.
Instead of jumping to conclusions, good negotiators ask questions. The questions often come from the statement they made. ‘We cannot do this deal on these terms’ prompts the following questions: