Collaborative Deal Making
Prior to the GFC and especially through the 1980’s and 1990’s the success of a deal was measured by who won and who lost. People like Donald Trump made it into an art form, and wrote a book on how to win, and if you can’t win, make sure the other side lost.
Believe it or not there is such a thing as Win/Win deal making…
Starting work in the 1980’s and building my career through the 1990’s, that’s how I saw things for a long time. But I grew tired of that way of living, and eventually I realised I just didn’t want to live my life this way, seemingly in constant conflict. There had to be a better way.
As I grew in my business career, things began to change. Early on I knew I didn’t want to be in constant conflict but thought that’s how business was done. Then I decided to change and become Collaborative and guess what…things got worse!!
It took me quite a few years more experience to realise that situations got worse not because everyone was an arsehole, but that I thought just because I was being collaborative, everyone else should be too.
Collaborative deal making has a few critical rules –
1. Where you can, deal only with people you trust and people who bring solutions not problems to the table.
2. Take the time to understand what is important to the person you are dealing with. If you can find out what it is that “floats their boat” then you have the key to the deal. BE VERY AWARE that the other person will rarely tell you what they really want because it is often intangible. You will be surprised time and time again when you get to the heart of what someone really wants.
3. Accept that not everyone shares your Collaborative vision. There are people who would like to do a Win/Win deal but don’t know how to get there and there are others who are simply looking for any advantage they can get. Accept that you can’t change them. Be aware of the beast you are dealing with and keep your cards close to your chest.
Even with the toughest opponent you should be able to reach a deal that meets your minimum requirements. If not…then be prepared to walk away, life’s too short to deal with arseholes.
John Rosel