> I have never read a single book on negotiations. I can always tell when someone else has.
My dad used to talk about negotiations from later in his career and I think he would have more or less agreed with the sentiment. I remember him talking about being tickled when someone would come in taking a particular tack, and you could more or less tell them "yeah, sure book x chapter y, how about we just talk?" and then everybody had a chuckle and got down to business. I'm sure it was more of a vibe he picked up than any particular incident. The idea reminds me of the Gervais Principle's[1] idea that different subgroups within an organization speak different languages to each other.
In support of reading books, I think there's a difference between being familiar with what everybody else has probably read vs working directly out of a playbook.
Edit:
The first link is the start of the blog series. The one about languages groups speak is [2].
> and you could more or less tell them "yeah, sure book x chapter y, how about we just talk?" and then everybody had a chuckle and got down to business
Well my particular tack is never never never tell someone you know what their game is let them play their game. And never back them into a corner. People (I have found) go against their own interests if only for pride reasons. (I am sure that is in some book somewhere buried ..)
It would be hard for him to "have never read a single book on negotiations" and still be able to tell them "yeah, sure book x chapter y, how about we just talk?"
My dad used to talk about negotiations from later in his career and I think he would have more or less agreed with the sentiment. I remember him talking about being tickled when someone would come in taking a particular tack, and you could more or less tell them "yeah, sure book x chapter y, how about we just talk?" and then everybody had a chuckle and got down to business. I'm sure it was more of a vibe he picked up than any particular incident. The idea reminds me of the Gervais Principle's[1] idea that different subgroups within an organization speak different languages to each other.
In support of reading books, I think there's a difference between being familiar with what everybody else has probably read vs working directly out of a playbook.
Edit:
The first link is the start of the blog series. The one about languages groups speak is [2].
[1]: https://www.ribbonfarm.com/2009/10/07/the-gervais-principle-...
[2]: https://www.ribbonfarm.com/2009/11/11/the-gervais-principle-...