No doubt about it, Steve Jobs was a visionary that changed the trajectory of human society. It seems however, that in the course of disrupting the technology world, he also inspired the people in many different ways. We already discissed how Mr. Jobs showed one person how to use the fundamental secret of all negotiations. Today, I will use his interaction with Mr. Ed Catmull (Pixar cofounder and Walt Disney President) to show you how to be patient, clear-headed and non-reactive when bargaining with even the most stubborn negotiator.
As Julie Bort reports, Mr. Catmull and Mr. Jobs had a 26 year working relationship. Despite Mr. Jobs being notoriously stubborn, Mr. Catmull said they never had a disagreement that devolved into a shouting match. In his own words, this is how Mr. Catmull described how their hard-nosed negotiations played out:
“I would say something to him and he would immediately shoot it down because he could think faster than I could. ... I would then wait a week ... I'd call him up and I give my counter argument to what he had said and he'd immediately shoot it down. So I had to wait another week, and sometimes this went on for months. But in the end one of three things happened. About a third of the time he said, 'Oh, I get it, you're right.' And that was the end of it. And it was another third of the time in which [I'd] say, 'Actually I think he is right.' The other third of the time, where we didn't reach consensus, he just let me do it my way, never said anything more about it."
Think about it… is this something you could do? I am an incredibly impatient person with a fiery temper so my answer is a definitive and emphatic “NO!!” But if you look closely at what Mr. Catmull is doing you see that he is:
- taking the time to clear whatever habitual emotions and preconceptions that may have arisen from Mr. Jobs’ arguments;
- giving himself time to look at the situation from all angles, i.e. trying to understand things just from his own perspectives but that of Mr. Jobs
- taking the time to develop a counter-argument based on the reality of what is happening now not what he wants things to be or how he presumes things should play out.
In the book, ‘Getting Past No: Negotiating Your Way From Confrontation To Cooperation’ a similar technique is called “Going To The Balcony”. During difficult negotiations, it implores you to use mental imagery to “leave that stage and go onto the theater balcony”… in essence your role is changed from an actor to a spectator. In so doing, you get a broader perspective and you can see what’s really going on from all angles. At this point, you can then choose to take a more ‘proactive’ (forward looking approach) instead of using a more instinctive or emotionally ‘reactive’ (past looking) response.
Similarly, Jim Camp, a professional negotiating coach teaches his clients to have a ‘Discovery-Vision-Insight’ mindset during negotiations. Mr. Camp believes that thinking and analyzing are the enemies of successful negotiations. Instead you should still “the movements of [your] restless minds, memories, imaginations, and emotions... [you should] perceive without judging, evaluating, assuming, guessing, hypothesizing, or expecting anything.” The best way to do this is to continuously ask yourself 3 questions:
“1) What problem(s) am I trying to solve in this negotiation event/engagement?
2) What do I see now?
3) Who must see what, now?”
So, if you find yourself in a negotiation with a rigid negotiation partner, before the situation devolves into a shouting match, simply “go to the balcony” or take advantage of your “discovery-visionary-insight”. Like Mr. Catmull, you’ll be able to keep your emotions under control and make clear-headed adjustments as you continue with your negotiations. The only difference is that these techniques DO NOT take months! They are most effective when you are doing them right there at the negotiation table…
