Great negotiators embrace surprise. People are complex. We can never know everything. And so if we go in assuming that we know, then we might run into issues of unintentional disrespect where we aren't giving the other person an opportunity to be heard. So it's really important for us to start broadly and embrace those surprises.
Kwame Christian: American Negotiation Institute
Kwame Christian is a best-selling author, business lawyer, and CEO of the American Negotiation Institute. Following the viral success of his TED talk, Kwame released his best-seller Finding Confidence in Conflict: How to Negotiate Anything and Live Your Best Life back in 2018. He’s also a regular Contributor for Forbes and the host of the number one negotiation podcast in the world, Negotiate Anything, which currently has over 5 million downloads worldwide.
Under his leadership, the American Negotiation Institute has coached and trained several Fortune 500 companies on applying the fundamentals of negotiation to corporate success. He's also the author of the book How to Have Difficult Conversations About Race and the creator of Negotiable, an Online Community to Learn to Negotiate Anything.
We often think about questions as a way to discover more — but have you also considered how your questions might influence? Kwame Christian and I discuss three key steps in order to persuade better through your intentional questions.
Key Points
Rapport questions help you make a connection with the other party and establish a baseline for how they communicate.
A helpful place to begin on rapport is noticing something that you genuinely admire or are curious about in the other party.
When gaining information, start broadly and then pull the thread when the other party leads you down a path. Beware that your role/positions can cause people to say more than they otherwise might.
“What would it take?” is often a helpful way to illuminate a path forward.
Even if you ultimately are more directive, laying the foundation through questions allows the other party to be heard and understand.
Interview Notes
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Related Episodes
These Coaching Questions Get Results, with Michael Bungay Stanier (episode 237)
How to Ask Better Questions, with David Marquet (episode 454)
The Way Out of Major Conflict, with Amanda Ripley (episode 529)
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