The_Negotiation_Society_magazine_issue_10

ISSUE 10 

The Negotiation Society 

BRINGING THE ART AND SCIENCE OF NEGOTIATION TO LIFE 

THE CONFIDENCE 

CONUNDRUM 

Gender and power’s 

impact on performance 

PSYCHOLOGICAL 

SAFETY 

Creating a safe and 

effective culture 

A BALANCING 

ACT 

The truth behind 

having it all 

SHOP TILL 

YOU DROP 

The products that 

defy recession 

DEFINITELY MAYBE 

Meet Ann Marie. A perfect paradox.

INSIDE THIS ISSUE 

05 

14 

The confidence 

conundrum 

How insecurity can 

risk the outcome of 

a negotiation. 

16 24 

Definitely 

maybe 

Our Chief Strategy 

Officer discusses her 

quest for excellence. 

28 30 

Culture in 

negotiation 

A Dutchman in APAC 

explores facets of culture 

and negotiation. 

A balancing 

act 

High achiever LaWanda 

Burns talks candidly 

about life. 

Psychological 

safety 

The importance of 

feeling supported 

as a negotiator. 

Shop till 

you drop 

What we buy when 

times are tough, 

and why. 

WELCOME FROM GRAHAM 

This edition of The Negotiation Society magazine 

has two themes: the impact of the economic downturn, 

and how psychology influences commercial outcomes. 

We often state that negotiation is a science and an art, 

so here we give coverage to both perspectives. 

The Gap Partnership’s strategy underpins 

everything we do to add value to our clients. Inevitably, 

we shifted direction during the pandemic. Now, we 

are crystal clear on where we are going. To keep us 

honest in that goal we have a Chief Strategy Officer, 

Ann Marie Costelloe, who graces this issue’s cover. 

A pragmatic perfectionist with an eclectic background 

that will surprise many, even those who know her, 

Ann Marie’s achievements are broad, and now she’s 

helping our business take the next steps in our evolution. 

Other highlights include PepsiCo’s Dr. LaWanda 

Burns opening up about how she negotiates the 

pressures of leading in business and being a parent of 

four. Kelly Harborne explores why some consumer 

brands ride a recession better than others. And Maxim 

van Meeteren and Robert Geijsel discuss how 

negotiation training helps overcome social expectations 

of how men and women behave. 

A final thought: How is your business dealing with 

the volatility and uncertainty all around us today? 

Does your commercial capability cope sufficiently in 

such a confused and ambiguous world? If not, now is 

the time to take action to address this. The headwinds 

we can all feel in our faces just keep getting stronger. 

Graham Botwright 

CEO, The Gap Partnership 

SUBSCRIBE TO OUR 

DIGITAL EDITION 

Scan the QR code for a free subscription to the 

digital edition of The Negotiation Society magazine. 

2

THE NEGOTIATION SOCIETY 

OUR CONTRIBUTORS 

Judy Hendrick 

Judy Hendrick is Chief Financial 

Officer of travel management 

company CWT. She has 20 

years’ hospitality and banking 

experience including roles at 

Aimbridge Hospitality, Wyndham 

International, Chase Manhattan 

Bank and First Republic Bank. Judy 

holds a Bachelor of Science degree 

from Kansas State University and 

an MBA from the University of 

Texas at Dallas. 

Michael Padro 

Michael Padro began his career 

at Univision and then spent 

eight years in tech at companies 

including Yelp and Justworks. 

Michael is now a consultant at 

The Gap Partnership where he 

partners with clients to solve 

their negotiation challenges. 

Michael holds a Bachelor 

of Business Management 

and an Associate of Science 

in Business Administration 

degrees from Iona University. 

LaWanda Burns 

Dr. LaWanda Burns is PepsiCo’s 

Global Sales Learning and 

Development Manager, creating 

and delivering curriculum for the 

global sales team. She has 15 years 

of director-level retail and supply 

chain experience at companies 

including Aldi and Save-A-Lot. 

LaWanda holds a Bachelor’s 

in Communication, a Master’s 

in Education and became a 

Doctor of Education in 2019. 

Eelco Modderman 

A Dutchman who has lived in Asia 

for over fifteen years, Eelco brings 

together the best of East and West. 

Initially Hong Kong-based, he now 

heads up The Gap Partnership’s 

Asia-Pacific region from Tokyo. 

Eelco believes passionately that 

creating impact for clients goes 

hand in hand with the personal 

growth of everyone in the team. 

Ashley Barrett 

Ashley is a Tampa-based 

negotiation consultant who joined 

The Gap Partnership in 2022. She 

has international retail experience as 

both a vendor and supplier within 

the furniture and apparel industries. 

Ashley led negotiations across B2B 

and B2C suppliers specializing 

in creative solutions that drove 

long-lasting partnerships and 

category growth. 

Brian Denning 

Brian is a lifelong learner with 20+ 

years in sales, marketing, strategy 

and management. He founded 

two startups and worked for large, 

billion-dollar corporations. His 

work on board leadership has been 

cited by 5000+ authors. Brian is 

based in Chattanooga, Tennessee, 

and as a consultant at The Gap 

Partnership he is passionate about 

helping clients maximize their 

negotiation skills. 

3

MY HEAD 

LAWANDA BURNS 

SENIOR GLOBAL LEARNING MANAGER AT PEPSICO, TALKS FRANKLY 

ABOUT HER CAREER, NEGOTIATION LEARNINGS AND THE SECRETS 

BEHIND HER TWENTY-YEAR SUCCESS STORY. 

How did you make it to where 

you are today? 

I grew up in a town with a population 

of less than three thousand. Not many 

people went to college. I was the 

product of a single-parent household 

and became a first-generation college 

student. I had the benefit of a loving 

and supportive family, and then I made 

amazing friends in the industry who I 

could have candid conversations with, 

which helped support my career. 

What’s the best thing about your role? 

Being able to impact teams from a 

developmental aspect: building critical 

competencies and skills in this dynamic 

market. The pandemic changed the 

marketplace and I’m able to give people 

the tools to do their jobs effectively. 

It’s incredibly rewarding. 

What role does psychology play? 

It’s critically important to understand 

what learners need and what motivates 

people. Having a sales background 

helps me understand the psychology 

of sales learners, and the implications 

of their role. 

Is negotiation important in 

your career? 

Yes. I’ve learned you have to give to get 

something. I’ve often been the only 

African American woman in the room, 

and as I climbed the career ladder some 

of my tactics were to take on extra 

projects to get to the next level. After 

twenty years, I am still negotiating 

growing up the ladder, trying to bring 

my authentic self to work – I’m still 

not 100% there. 

What is PepsiCo’s approach to 

supporting their peoples’ 

learning journey? 

We are very forward-thinking about 

the capability our people need in the 

ever-changing markets, because how 

we sell today is different to how we 

sold two to three years ago before 

the pandemic. We are constantly 

re-evaluating skills and offering 

solutions so that people have the 

tools to be successful. 

Any negotiation disasters 

along the way? 

That I am willing to share..?! Early in 

my career I was working on a contract 

negotiation where price was critically 

important. The negotiation got very 

contentious. I got the contract price 

that I was looking for, but I gave up a 

good working relationship for it that 

would have helped in the future. I 

learned it’s important to have good 

working relationships whenever you 

are negotiating. 

How about when you negotiate 

outside of work? 

I’ve been married for almost twentyfive 

years and have four kids, so there’s 

lots of negotiation! Recently my son 

went off to college, and we had to 

negotiate with him to find a college 

where he could get a good education 

but also be able to manage financially 

– so not necessarily his first choice. 

My kids and I also wrote and signed a 

social media contract, with parameters 

over how much time, what platforms 

and how much access, as parents, we 

could have. The result was a mutually 

agreeable contract we could all 

work towards. 

Any negotiation tips that you would 

pass along to your four kids? 

To have a wide-eyed approach to what 

it is you are trying to get, and to be 

aware of what you may be giving away. 

Don’t always follow the status quo. 

What advice would you give your 

old self? 

Think of yourself as a lifelong learner 

and stay open to feedback and criticism. 

As a working mother, I am always 

juggling balls in the air. Work out what 

the glass balls are – family, mental 

health, physical health – understand 

them and don’t let them drop. TNS 

To hear LaWanda's interview 

in full, search The Negotiation 

Society on your favorite 

podcast platform, or access via 

www.thenegotiationsociety.com 

4


THE 

CONFIDENCE 

CONUNDRUM 

Gender-aggregated data from our workshops adds 

compelling weight to a seemingly familiar story of 

insecurity, gender differences and the role of power 

in negotiation performance. The implications can 

be big, the solutions so simple. Maxim van Meeteren 

and Robert Geijsel report. 

You need to be more 

confident!” When hearing 

this, does the recipient 

instantly grow in selfassurance, 

shedding insecurities as 

though some firm words were all 

they needed? Of course not. But 

can lack of confidence impact the 

outcome of a negotiation? 

Yes, undoubtedly. 

At The Gap Partnership, we 

are obsessed with the question: 

what makes a great negotiator? 

As we spend much time facilitating 

negotiations through training and 

consultancy, we’re able to gather 

data that can help us answer it, 

through analysis of performance 

pre- and post-training, comparing 

distributive and collaborative 

negotiations and identifying 

differences between men 

and women. 

We have a rich data-generating 

session that takes place on the 

final day of The Complete Skilled 

Negotiator workshop in which 

delegates negotiate with each 

other and bond as a group. They 

think of an adjective for their 

fellow delegates that describes 

them as negotiators. We use this 

to compare their actual negotiation 

performance (evidenced by results), 

with the perception of their 

performance from their peers. 

What we have found is the 

cliché – you never get a second 

chance for a first impression 

– carries some truth: there’s a 

correlation between negotiation 

outcomes and peer feedback on 

confidence levels. Confidence is 

an important asset for negotiators. 

When we feel insecure we may 

not put our proposals on the table 

firmly, potentially giving the 

other party a clue there is space 

to move, thus risking not achieving 

the optimum deal. 

A DEEP DIVE INTO 

OUR DATA 

We analyzed feedback and 

negotiation outcomes of 304 

delegates – 210 men and 94 women 

– from over 40 workshops, across 

608 negotiations. The two cases 

were distributive, with only a few 

variables, and involved haggling 

over price. Delegates enter case 1 

with less negotiation knowledge 

than when they enter case 2. 

We found a striking gender 

difference in outcome for case 1 

and 2. On average in case 1, men 

took 55% of the bargaining range, 

compared with women’s 45%. 

For case 2, men took on average 

52% and women 48% of the 

bargaining range. These outcomes 

only include negotiations of a man 

versus a woman (140 delegates). 

The bargaining range (or zone of 

possible agreement – ZOPA – as 

Harvard likes to call it) is the price 

range within which the buyer and 

the seller are willing to conclude 

the deal. A buyer has a maximum 

amount they’re willing to pay and 

the seller a minimum amount they 

want to receive. In between those 

points is the bargaining range. 

THE FEAR OF BACKLASH 

In The Negotiation Journal of 

Harvard, Catherine Eckel et al. 

reported that women care more 

about others’ outcomes than men 

and are more generous, even in 

anonymous interactions. In the 

same journal, Muriel Niederle 

and Lise Vesterlund showed that 

women tend to back away from 

competition, particularly with men, 

whereas men are more likely to 

welcome it. 

5

In 2019, The Gap Partnership 

conducted research into gender 

and negotiation and found, 

similarly, that women are more 

motivated to find joint solutions, 

work together with others, and 

seek a win-win – not necessarily 

the optimum mindset for 

distributive cases. 

What’s behind these marked 

gender differences in negotiation 

approach and behavior? 

Niederle and Vesterlund suggest 

socialization may contribute: at 

an early age girls are taught to be 

agreeable and social, while boys 

are encouraged to be resolute. A 

related hypothesis is that women 

are deploying a self-protective 

strategy against “the fear of 

backlash.” Research from Emily 

Amanatullah and Michael Morris 

showed women are aware they 

“Both women and men perform 

significantly better after they 

have been trained, practiced, 

and told to be more firm. 

could be socially punished for 

negotiating assertively on their 

own behalf, while women who 

negotiated someone else’s salary 

were untroubled by such a fear – 

and men not at all. This fear is not 

unwarranted; research has shown 

men and women penalize female 

job candidates who initiated 

their own salary negotiations, 

while women who negotiated 

for themselves countered with 

a significantly lower offer than 

women who negotiated for a 

friend, due to the fear of backlash. 

These findings challenge any 

theory that women are naturally 

less skilled or tough negotiators. 

Rather, women are aware of a real 

possibility of social punishment if 

they behave differently than the 

stereotypically expected behavior 

of their gender. 

This could also explain why 

when women in The Complete 

Skilled Negotiator workshop were 

told to negotiate more firmly, they 

were released from this fear of 

backlash. Given carte blanche 

to be tough, women had increased 

confidence and achieved a better 

result, taking on average as much 

of the bargaining range as the 

men do. 

CONFIDENCE AND 

FEEDBACK 

In the feedback sessions of 

The Complete Skilled Negotiator 

workshop, we noticed a 

remarkable amount of responses 

were about insecurity. Since 

behavior and appearance is one 

of the pillars of negotiation, and 

discussed during the workshop, 

this is to be expected. However, 

many delegates also give and 

receive feedback on other 

qualities and 

development 

areas. They are 

entirely free 

to give any 

feedback 

they want. 

Of the 304 

delegates, 81 

people (26.6% 

of total) 

received literal 

or indirect feedback on their level 

of confidence. 43 were men 

(20.5% of all men) and 38 were 

women (40.4% of all women). 

This finding highlights that 

women are perceived as more 

insecure than men in negotiation 

situations. Linking that to the 

outcomes of their negotiations in 

case 1 and case 2, it’s impressive to 

see how insecure women and men 

improve their performance compared 

to their less insecure peers. 

Delegates that receive feedback 

they are insecure also achieved 

a lower outcome on average 

than not-insecure people, with 

insecure women and men scoring 

respectively 41% and 51% of the 

bargaining range. Both women 

and men perform significantly 

better after they have been 

trained, practiced and told to 

be more firm. Women get, on 

average, an astounding +8% 

better results in case 2, which 

in commercial business has 

huge potential! 

By improving confidence 

levels through training, practice 

and coaching, and increasing 

the awareness of the appropriate 

behavior given the set of 

circumstances (a distributive 

negotiation), thereby taking 

away the fear of backlash, 

women significantly improve 

their negotiation performance. 

In our own gender research, 

we asked respondents to rate their 

confidence in negotiation. Only 

29% of women rated themselves 

in the top quarter of a 100-point 

scale, compared to 42% of men. 

Women shared that they worry 

about coming across as too soft or 

emotional, and of receiving a “no,” 

and prefer to be more certain that 

their ask is reasonable. Reaching 

an agreement is great, but not 

getting what they wanted is often 

seen as a personal failure to them. 

In fact, 36% of women say they 

would negotiate more if they were 

more confident, compared to only 

20% of men. This leaves us with 

a chicken and egg situation, as we 

just discovered that practice makes 

them less insecure. 

THE ROLE OF POWER 

A complementary view 

comes from Margaret Neale, the 

Adams Distinguished Professor 

of Management, Emerita, at the 

OUTCOMES CASE 1 CASE 2 

INSECURE MEN 51% 52% 

INSECURE WOMEN 41% 49% 

NOT INSECURE MEN 56% 52% 

NOT INSECURE WOMEN 48% 47% 

6


Stanford Graduate School of 

Business, who posits that differing 

behavior and attitudes are a 

function of “power difference.” 

She found that, in general, 

negotiators with low power 

are more likely to listen and be 

collaborative. But when there are 

individuals with high power, they 

are more interested in claiming 

value. At The Gap Partnership, we 

say that power is the overarching 

factor that allows you to choose 

what type of negotiation you want 

to be in. “Power systematically 

affects how people negotiate,” 

says Neale. As we connect the 

dots here, we see that personal and 

external perception of having high 

power, and the confidence that 

comes with it, can support your 

goal of claiming value. 

Research from Amanatullah 

and Catherine Tinsley supports 

this, as they reported that a 

request for salary increase from 

a low-status woman was perceived 

as unwarranted, while, by contrast, 

participants evaluated a high-status 

woman’s request to be justifiable. 

This corroborates that high-power 

and high-status women do not 

experience the backlash suffered 

by low-status women. 

Research from Tilburg 

University, The Netherlands, 

adds that mere encouragement 

from a position of high-power 

can improve women’s outcomes 

in negotiations significantly. That 

leaves us with an easy task: either 

put women in a position of power 

or create the perception of it, to 

benefit women greatly. 

CONCLUSION 

Henry Ford said: “Whether 

you think you can or think you 

can’t, you are right.” Women 

can be tough negotiators, but to 

improve their performance we 

need to improve their mindset and 

confidence levels from the start. 

Whether that’s through training 

and practice, or encouraging them 

into a position of high power, it 

will remove the warranted fear 

of backlash and release them from 

unwritten gender norms that 

influence their behavior. The idea 

is simple: confidence generates 

results, and in time a position 

of power, which in turn creates 

better negotiators. 

Managers can support this 

learning curve with an awareness 

that women can be hampered 

by the fear of backlash, and by 

helping them improve their 

perception of power and 

confidence. They should assess 

who needs coaching to be more 

firm, and who to hold back to 

minimize the risk of deadlock. 

With this approach and over time, 

the unhelpful directive – “You need 

to be more confident!” – should 

become a distant memory for 

female negotiators. TNS 

DEADLOCKS: 

AN IMPORTANT CAVEAT 

There is an important caveat to improving 

confidence. When delegates were encouraged to be 

more firm in case 2, relatively ALL delegates became 

more confident. So on the other side of the spectrum, 

the not-so-insecure men also gained more confidence 

– but this resulted in more deadlocks! 

In total, 49 negotiations (15.4%), divided over case 

1 and case 2, ended up in a deadlock. Deadlocks are 

defined as not reaching an agreement within the given 

set of time. Where we experienced that in case 1, it is 

more an uncontrolled time management rather than 

competitive behavior that causes deadlocks. While for 

case 2, clearly a more competitive environment, set by 

both delegates, caused more negotiations to deadlock. 

TOTAL % CASE 1 % CASE 2 % 

MAN – WOMAN 22 15.4% 5 3.6% 17 12% 

MAN – MAN 24 16.3% 3 2.1% 21 15.3% 

WOMAN – WOMAN 3 10.3% 1 4.3% 2 8% 

TOTAL 49 9 40 

When you look at the data, it becomes apparent 

that whenever men were involved, whether it be 

against another man or a woman, more deadlocks 

would occur. The women that were given the 

feedback that they are insecure were also the women 

that drastically improved their outcome after being 

trained. And the men that were already not-insecure 

overdid it, holding on firmly and being unwilling 

to give anything away anymore. So, a warning: 

be careful who you encourage to be more firm. 

7

When negotiation expert turned novelist 

Sib Law met a war correspondent with 

a string of thrillers already under his 

belt, the conversation was bound to 

be learned, lively and surprisingly 

relevant to commercial negotiators. 

Humphrey Hawksley 

is an award-winning author 

and BBC foreign correspondent, 

who for decades has worked 

on the frontline of crises around the world. He has 

also been a guest lecturer at universities and think 

tanks such as the RAND Corporation, The Center 

for Strategic and International Studies and 

MENSA Cambridge. 

Sib Law, 

a negotiation professional 

for 20+ years, helps global 

companies improve their 

negotiation skills and strategies, leading innovation, 

quality and excellence in the Americas for The Gap 

Partnership. His plays have been featured on stages 

throughout America and he has helped debut 

hundreds of works by new playwrights. 

When I first met Humphrey at a convention 

for thriller writers, and we hit it off, I 

was struck by two things. The first and 

most immediate was how much I could learn 

from him, a successful published writer, as I look 

to have my first novel published. The second was 

more unexpected, and it was that his day-to-day 

life, much like mine, had been spent negotiating – 

although in his case, the negotiations took place in 

war-stricken countries in which his own personal 

survival was at stake. 

While these circumstances are far removed in 

many ways from the cut-and-dry of the negotiation 

table in the commercial world, I recognized that 

Humphrey’s experiences contained valuable 

learnings for commercial negotiators, as well as 

being a genuinely fascinating insight into a world 

of jeopardy. 

So, we sat down and discussed everything 

from negotiating with captors, to transferable 

negotiation skills, and finally what his latest 

book can teach us about negotiation. 

8


SL: You’ve faced many life and 

death situations working as a 

foreign correspondent. What 

critical circumstances have you 

been confronted with, and what 

does negotiation look like in 

these situations? 

HH: There is no set pattern, but I 

commonly come across three types 

of confrontational situations. 

The first is at a roadblock, where 

you have little idea who is behind 

the weapons pointed at you, what 

they want, and what will trigger 

them to either fire at you or let you 

through. It’s usually best to stay 

quiet and let the local producer 

handle the situation calmly, with 

humor and probably some bribery, 

while everyone else remains a 

hundred percent situationally aware 

that in a nanosecond, things can 

change. The most dangerous point 

of conflict is at the beginning, 

where territorial hold is undefined, 

and the various sides have yet to 

gauge each other’s characteristics 

and strengths. 

The second is being detained 

by a hostile militia or government. 

Instructions for your release come 

from a higher authority. For simple 

things like food and comfort, it is 

far wiser to win over your captors 

than antagonize them. It is also 

worth asking if you could call 

someone. They will probably say 

“no” but it opens a wider channel 

of communication and negotiation. 

The third is negotiating with 

yourself and your team, to establish 

and agree when to make a dash 

through danger to safety, or into 

danger to get a particular shot, 

story or interview. Negotiation with 

yourself may be the most important, 

to get right in your mind the risks 

you are taking and why. 

SL: What negotiation skills would 

you say have served you best in 

these situations? 

HH: Understanding the point of 

view of others and identifying 

shared strands of humanity, from 

trying to get inside the head of an 

insurgent leader who has massacred 

thousands, to that of an illiterate, 

hungry child at a roadblock holding 

a machine gun. Most people want 

to feel good about themselves 

and their achievements. You have 

nothing to lose by helping them 

identify those thoughts. It’s also 

useful to have an insight into 

sociopathic and psychopathic 

mental tendencies when dealing 

with people who get a kick out of 

cruelty and killing, as there is little 

maneuver here. 

SL: What transferable negotiation 

skills have you learned in the field 

that you’ve been able to use in 

business negotiations? 

HH: Understanding different 

cultures. For example, American 

business culture is based on the 

contract. You can state what you 

want and what you are willing to 

pay for it without things getting 

personal. Although business and 

trade are meant to be part of a winwin 

system, American narrative 

often prefers a win-lose narrative 

or, at least, the courageous fight 

like a Clint Eastwood movie or 

the Alamo legend. In the West, 

seeking contradiction and a sense 

of fight could be beneficial in 

getting more and winning respect. 

In Asia, I would go out of my 

way to seek common ground over 

contradiction. Chinese business 

is based on trust and “face” – the 

contract comes later because the 

judicial system is not independent. 

SL: On a trip to the Bering Strait, 

where Russia and the U.S. are 

separated by only 2.4 miles of 

water, you wrote your latest thriller 

novel, "Ice Islands," which features 

the character Rake Ozenna. What 

negotiations have you drawn on 

from personal experience and used 

in the book when your characters 

have had to negotiate? 

HH: In my new book, I examine 

thorny issues that run through 

governments today, and how 

solutions are negotiated or, when 

all else fails (it’s a thriller after all!), 

the guns come out and things get 

settled that way. It begins on the 

Åland Islands in the Baltic Sea, 

which back in the 1920s were 

a flashpoint between Finland 

and Sweden. The Åland Islands 

have a predominantly Swedish 

population but are a Finnish 

sovereign territory. Sweden was 

threatening an insurgency but 

Britain brokered a peace deal. There 

is now the Åland Peace Institute on 

the island which teaches negotiation 

and conflict resolution. 

"Ice Islands" also tells the story 

of unresolved tensions between 

Japan and Russia over the Kuril 

Islands which the Soviet Union 

captured from Japan at the end of 

the Pacific War in 1945. There is 

a ceasefire, but no peace treaty, so 

Japan and Russia remain officially 

at war today. 

A third theme is an examination 

of the role that organized crime 

plays in modern democracies, as 

highlighted in a 2011 Obama 

administration Presidential 

Executive Order, which names the 

Japanese Yakuza as a threat to the 

American democracy and economy. 

The driving political narrative of 

"Ice Islands" is Japanese organized 

crime influencing the government 

to end its strategic alliance with the 

United States, thus throwing the 

world order into chaos and the 

hard pros and cons within the U.S. 

administration on Japan becoming 

a nuclear weapons power. Rake 

Ozenna is skilled at negotiating 

his way through competing U.S. 

agencies and bureaucracy, but when 

it come to the gangsters you don’t 

want Rake to be your enemy. TNS 

"Ice Islands" is available to buy 

now from all good booksellers. 

Sib’s debut thriller, "Hale Storm," 

is currently doing the rounds of 

reputable publishers. 

9

What is the impact of pressure on our 

ability to express ourselves confidently 

and precisely? Michael Padro reports 

on the intriguing connections between 

language, stress and negotiation. 

I 

don’t mean to be rude, but...” 

After reading those words, what’s 

the first thing to come to mind? 

Something negative I imagine. Similar 

phrases such as, “I don’t mean to be the 

bearer of bad news, but…”, or, “I don’t 

mean to interrupt, but…” are often 

used in conversation when one party is 

about to say or do something the other 

may not like. The first few words are 

designed to forewarn, and so cushion, 

the negative impact of what follows. 

This begs the question: who is 

the beneficiary of these statements? 

You might think it is the individual 

receiving the message. But what if 

I told you it’s actually the person 

delivering the message who is 

benefiting from this cushioning? As the 

bearer of bad news, they’re likely to be 

stressed, so they use such phrases to try 

and reduce the shock the other party 

feels when the news is communicated, 

and in turn any adverse reaction it may 

elicit. It’s just one example of how we 

use language in an attempt to reduce 

or at least limit the stress we feel in 

a situation. 

So what else happens to language 

when we experience stress? It generally 

manifests itself in two ways – the things 

you do and the things you say. In times 

of conflict and stress people look for 

ways to cope in an attempt to buy back 

their comfort. So in the cushioning 

example, our news-bearer is expecting 

a negative response, which makes them 

uncomfortable. In an attempt to ease 

the tension, they say things they believe 

will make the situation easier. 

Researchers have looked more deeply 

into how language is affected when 

we’re under stress. A 2014 study by 

Saslow et al., which had subjects giving 

a speech in stressful circumstances, 

found evidence linking a positive 

emotional reaction to stress to higher 

levels of cognitive complexity. They 

reported that, “the more participants 

responded to [giving] the stressful 

speech by feeling higher levels of 

positive emotions (“happy,” “interested,” 

“satisfied,” “pleased,” “content,” “glad” 

and “inspired”), the higher their levels 

of linguistic cognitive complexity.” 

And, vice versa – so, the more 

participants became distressed in 

response to the stressful event, the 

lower their cognitive complexity. 

In other words, the more stressed 

you are, the simpler your thoughts 

become. The impact of this in 

conversation – and negotiation – could 

be significant. Someone who is feeling 

confident will be able to articulate their 

thoughts more effectively than someone 

feeling more stress – who, as a result, 

may then say more than they intended. 

With talk of a looming recession, we 

are gearing up for intense rounds of 

negotiations with all parties looking to 

secure the best deal possible. We must 

not be tempted to buy back our comfort 

during these negotiations. So, we must 

say what we mean and mean what we 

say. It is critical that your language is 

firm and concise during such times. 

Because the reality is, if you speak 

with language that allows you to appear 

moveable, your counterpart will pounce 

on the opportunity and run with it. 

How do we ensure that we speak 

more firmly, more precisely and more 

concisely? This simple, four-point 

checklist should help: 

For starters, avoid thinking and 

speaking at the same time. By taking 

the time to stay silent and actively 

consider what you want to say next, 

you’ll allow yourself the opportunity to 

eliminate the moveable language from 

any statements or proposals you plan 

to make during the negotiation. 

Second, don’t attempt to sell 

your position – it’ll only serve to 

undermine it! 

Third: do the prep work. The more 

prepared you are for your negotiations, 

the more confident you will be. 

And finally, keep calm. Negotiations 

are uncomfortable. No one will be able 

to change that. But you can control how 

you choose to manage that discomfort. 

The sooner you accept it, the better off 

you will be! TNS 

10


PROOF OF 

THE POWER OF 

PLANNING AND 

PREPARATION 

Bruna Fell Lautert shares insight from two clients on how 

they are negotiating in the current challenging climate, 

including how to defend against the increasingly common 

“crying wolf” tactic. 

O 

n my most recent round of travels, I had 

the opportunity to have conversations 

with two of my smartest clients, one based 

in Brazil and the other in Canada. It 

struck me that the insights they shared with me 

around how they are planning for their upcoming 

strategic negotiations during these uncertain 

times were relevant and useful to both other 

professionals in the same geographies, 

and elsewhere. 

I was particularly interested that the crying 

wolf strategy, an old tactic that has different 

translations around the world, came up. As 

another client told me, “Your counterparty will 

use the current unsettled situation to ask for 

something, even if they don’t need to.” We have 

seen a lot of this in the ever-evolving world of the 

pandemic, supply chain disruptions and inflation, 

to name just a few. 

Here then, in their own words, are pearls 

of wisdom and frank observations from two 

senior executives who are living and breathing 

the commercial reality of uncertainty every 

single day. 

11

Brenda Branco, 

Commercial Director, 

VEM conveniência 

“Preparation is everything when it 

comes to negotiation. We represent 

large corporations and being diligent 

when it comes to preparation, gathering 

background facts, data and numbers, is critical. 

This way, the negotiation is achieved with 

much more security and clarity, in addition to 

facilitating internal alignment on ranges, extreme 

opening, break points and so on. Preparation 

also helps us to try to decipher the counterparty's 

mind. What is value to them? Exercising scenarios 

and trying to understand how they will position 

themselves, and what our alternative paths are. 

The sense of fairness should not influence 

either the preparation or the negotiation table. 

With good preparation, we must behave 

appropriately, with an open position compatible 

with the point we want to reach and without 

giving in to unreasonable last-minute requests. 

Not letting the sense of fairness influence 

proceedings is something that will, at the end of 

the negotiation, avoid feelings of frustration and 

exploitation. I firmly believe that negotiations 

with good preparation and appropriate behavior 

lead to mature dialogues, good deals and longlasting 

relationships.” 

Milena Trentadue, 

Head of Commercial 

Deployment, Philip Morris 

International 

“A fundamental rule to remember 

in any negotiation is that it is never 

personal. While it may go without saying for 

some, it is a critical reminder during times of 

systemic economic pressures which may cause 

those involved in the negotiation to overly 

empathize, tempting us to be weary in winning. 

What may seem like a reasonable variable can be 

second guessed or conceded too soon. Advanced 

preparation for the negotiation process is 

always a crucial step to maintaining progressive 

movement and satisfaction in outcomes closest 

to expectation. There are three pillars of focus 

that can be leveraged in creating an appropriate 

mindset before going in: 

Be attentive 

Every organization is under pressure to cut 

costs and make more. Each may be faced with 

their relative version of supply chain impact, 

for example, labor shortage or inflation. These 

may appear to be the same problem areas on the 

surface, however, paying attention to the details 

below the surface may offer clues as to what the 

true priorities or weaknesses are. For example, 

have there been any organizational shifts within 

the stakeholder matrix which can influence 

outcomes indirectly? Is there someone who 

may have previous success that they can bring 

forward in this new role? If they are not a direct 

contact or unknown they may be overlooked, 

but could have influence over the long-term 

strategy. Look beyond the obvious and blueprint 

the surrounding relationships which can 

provide easier wins with broader reach, which is 

beneficial to the third pillar. 

Be bold 

There may be a tendency to hold back or be 

cautious, not exerting too much force during 

a time when organizations seem sensitive 

or overwhelmed by underperforming areas. 

However, the concept of opening extreme must 

still apply, and being bold means to express a 

position early and firmly, remaining clear on deal 

breakers and setting an appropriate tone. This 

does not mean being rigid or insulting, but rather 

open and transparent in the interest of creating 

space for reciprocity. 

Be creative 

As an extension of the first point of being 

attentive, you must look outside of the obvious 

for variables. Simple cost savings in dollar and 

cents alone will not suffice in credible strategic 

partnerships. Satisfaction can come in many 

forms and there are potentially stakeholders 

who may have greater influence in the long term 

that should not be ignored today. Creating value 

propositions which can meet the demands of the 

broader organization demonstrates that there is 

a willingness to invest in the future, by widening 

the scope and bridging gaps of cost savings, 

i.e., labor savings, efficiency or shared resources 

with a focus on diversity and inclusion can have 

compounded benefits. 

No matter what the psychology of the times, 

my counsel is rooted in keeping the principals 

of strong negotiation practice in check. Not 

doing so may not only jeopardize the immediate 

situation but set unintended precedence for 

when circumstances improve or change further. 

Keep in mind the expression, “Ships sink not 

because of the water around them but because 

of the water that gets into them. Do not let 

external circumstances today be a distraction 

for tomorrow.” 

12


Benjamin Franklin said, “By failing 

to prepare, you are preparing to fail.” 

It seems to be a common agreement that 

preparation is key, and at The Gap Partnership 

we say ninety percent of negotiation is 

preparation and planning and ten percent 

of negotiation is execution. You may be an 

excellent negotiator, but if you haven’t planned 

appropriately, then you will most likely suboptimize 

the deal. Equally, you can undertake 

significant planning, but if you can’t execute in 

the room, you will also sub-optimize the deal. 

So, what’s the best way to prepare during 

uncertain times? Although there isn’t a 

one-size-fits-all solution, here are some things 

to take into consideration: 

“ Ninety percent of negotiation is 

preparation and planning and 

ten percent of negotiation 

is execution. 

Set priorities that work 

for your organization 

We are seeing a lot of companies with too 

many priorities so that nothing is a priority. The 

dictionary definition is “The fact or condition 

of being regarded or treated as more important.” 

Therefore, the number of initiatives regarded 

as priority must be limited, some would argue, 

to a maximum of three. 

Develop negotiation skills 

How can someone identify, prevent or 

respond to the crying wolf tactic, or any other 

negotiation strategy? Recognize it is a tactic, 

then ask questions to probe how close to truth 

it is. Then the options are to prevent it from 

happening, ignore it or to counteract, depending 

on your strategy and what are you trying to 

achieve. Behavioral competence, managing your 

counterparty and rational decision making are 

some of the critical skills essential to negotiators. 

Scenario plan 

What does great look like? What is our plan A? 

What are the constraints? Is there something we 

can do to prevent those? If plan A doesn’t work, 

what are our alternatives? What is going to make 

us switch plans? 

Ask the right questions 

What are the products, services and 

experiences that will deliver value? What is 

important to us? What is important to them? 

How should pricing be managed? What 

capabilities will increase the company’s resilience 

and control costs? How is the new labor 

environment affecting compensation, benefits 

and workplace norms? How can supply chain 

be strengthened? What are the risks? How can 

those be mitigated? If they can’t be mitigated, 

how are they going to be handled? 

The wise counsel of Brenda and Milena is 

relevant to everyone negotiating in the 

commercial world today. If there is one final 

thought that I would like to leave you with, it’s 

to echo what they both said without apology 

about the importance of making a plan. 

With so much to do and so little time 

in which to do it, having an established 

process to handle preparation, planning, 

execution and follow-through saves 

everyone’s time, provides confidence 

to all stakeholders, minimizes risk 

and delivers consistent results. TNS 

13

A 

BAL 

ANC 

ING 

ACT 

This issue’s “Inside my Head” subject, 

PepsiCo’s Dr. LaWanda Burns, shares 

lessons learned from a high-achieving 

life as mom-of-4, high-flying executive 

and grad student. 

I 

f I had a quarter for every time someone 

gazed at me in awe and asked me, a recently 

minted Doctoral graduate, full-time corporately 

employed, wife and mother of four, how I was 

able to “have it all,” I would be so well off I could 

be sitting on the beach sipping cocktails with 

never a care in the world. The idea of having it 

all has been a fleeting ideal of yesteryear, as it was 

a concept I admittedly subscribed to during the 

early start of my career. It would take me several 

years to painfully discover that trying to achieve 

it “all” left me unfulfilled and wanting. 

In those days, I worked tirelessly to manifest 

a robust family life and career, only to find myself 

exhausted and feeling like I had come up short 

on both ends. What I did not realize at the time 

is that life often does not allow you to achieve 

mass accumulation unchecked. To get something 

you must almost always have to give something, 

which is often a component of negotiation. 

I have now learned undoubtedly that the idea 

of “having it all” is as elusive as regaining my 

svelte physique after having four kids, and the 

mounting disappointment of trying to achieve it 

ended up becoming an excruciating, self-inflicted 

wound that re-opened with every attempt. 

In the 25 years I have spent working, married, 

mothering and educating myself, I have come 

to understand the importance of give and take in 

the negotiation of all my pursuits. It is with that 

lens that I am able to reframe and renegotiate the 

idea of having it all into a postulation of worklife 

synergy that brings a sense of appropriate 

managed expectations to my life and work. I 

think it is critically important when applying 

a negotiation mindset to work/life integration, 

to have a clear process of proactively collecting 

wins and losses when examining opportunities, 

to present a clear picture of the situation before 

decisions are concluded. 

14


A great example of this was an early career 

opportunity when I went for my first corporate 

director level role. Candidly, during that time I was 

so focused on getting the role that I didn’t take the 

time to process what the wins and losses may be. 

I was able to put a tally in the “gain” column in terms 

of my career path and trajectory, but realized very 

quickly that the position, with as much advancement 

that it gave me, caused me a “loss” in the column 

tally when it came to sheer time with my husband 

and kids. In retrospect, I cannot say I wouldn’t have 

taken the position once I had the complete picture. 

I do think however, that employing a negotiation 

mindset to obtain a clearer picture of the opportunity 

(as best as one can) would have certainly gone a long 

way to minimize disappointment and appropriately 

manage expectations after the fact. Looking back, 

if I had completed that process, it would have allowed 

me an opportunity to address and come to terms with 

all the implications so that I could proceed in a more 

effortless way. Additionally, nearly ten years later, 

I would find myself needing to provide a supportive 

role due to a family health crisis, where it was critical 

to be in a position where I needed a more flexible 

schedule. Naïve at the time, I thought I could 

balance my career and expanded caregiver role, 

only to discover that if I had followed the process 

of examining wins and losses, that taking a position 

of a lesser role, was truly a gain to the overall 

“ Life has taught me that if I can 

live with what I am letting go 

of in order to obtain something 

new, that scenario minimizes 

regret and painful retrospection. 

situation. In the end I did take a position of a 

lesser role, but had I done the wins and losses 

process early on it would have allowed me to 

see the bigger picture: that taking the lesser 

role was not a definitive step back, but instead 

an important tally in the “gain” column. 

Reflecting on both situations, they were great 

lessons on experiencing one of the important laws 

of the universe: to get something you must give 

something. You must know what you are giving up 

when you acquire something and pull for a solution 

that makes what you are giving away worth what 

you are getting. That is an important element of 

negotiation—to have enough foresight to understand 

what the implications are, to derive at a solution that 

may not be perfect but is a solve you can live with. 

One final example of this was a role I took early 

on in my career (are you starting to see the pattern?) 

in which I was keenly aware that I was the only 

African American, and one of two women on the 

team. The pressure to belong was immense, 

especially during that timeframe when the 

employer buzzwords were around finding 

employees that were deemed “a good fit” for a 

role within a department or company. In my effort to 

exhibit my “fit” for the role, I ended up diminishing 

some of the unique qualities that actually could have 

been a value add for that position. In retrospect, 

I deeply regret the personal trade-offs I made, 

instead of embracing my authentic self and 

experiences to enhance my contributions to 

the position. Now that I have acquired space 

and hindsight from that experience, 

I know that is something I will 

never negotiate on again. 

As I move within my life 

and work, I try to proactively 

discern situations through the 

lens of negotiation by following 

the process of tallying my 

anticipated wins and losses. 

Before I embark on an initiative, 

I work to really understand what 

it is I am trying to accomplish, what 

I want the outcome to be and what 

scenario I can live with. Life has taught 

me that if I can live with what I am letting 

go of in order to obtain something new, that 

scenario minimizes regret and painful retrospection. 

Today, I can say that I have fully let go of the 

idea of “having it all.” No way around it, there 

is a cost to be a working mom, but positioning 

myself to know those things I am willing to 

compromise on and where I won’t is key. It’s up 

to me to recognize what outcome I will take and 

delineate what outcome I will walk away from if 

the parameters don’t suffice. In essence, 

I have transitioned from an accumulation 

mindset to a more balanced approach and the 

process of negotiation has assisted with that. 

Every initiative I embark on, whether career 

or family, I set the tone for my expectations and 

outcomes. I carry out my due diligence to understand 

the implications of a situation and where I draw the 

line, and because of this I find myself less likely to 

chase elusive ideals and standards. I can attest 

that I am not perfect – I am a work in progress 

every day, but my goals are more focused, 

and my conscience is clear. That is 

an agreement I can 

live with. TNS 

15

DEFINITELY 

MAYBE 

16


Alistair White meets The Gap Partnership’s Chief Strategy Officer, 

Ann Marie Costelloe, and discovers that the paradoxical facets of 

her philosophy and mindset hold the key to her many successes. 

After 90 minutes in the company 

of Ann Marie Costelloe, The Gap 

Partnership’s new Chief Strategy Officer, 

my impression of her was that she is 

composed of an array of intriguing, yet also very 

human and even logical, contradictions. During 

our conversation I learnt that she is a profound 

introvert who was trained to be on stage, a 

confirmed optimist who starts each new challenge 

by first envisaging “the worst thing that could 

happen,” a self-confessed perfectionist who can 

also recognize that sometimes “good enough” 

is “good enough,” and a dyslexic with a highly 

developed sense of language. Perhaps the most 

surprising thing was that I didn’t need to expose 

or surreptitiously elicit these contradictions; Ann 

Marie herself is keenly aware of them. 

As I reflected on the conversation and read 

through my notes, something struck me. Let 

me explain with an analogy from my own world. 

My son puts up 

tents for a living: 

whopping big 

500m 2 marquees 

for hospitality 

and sporting 

events. He’s 

explained to me 

how it’s vitally 

important that 

the ropes and 

poles on opposing 

sides of the tent 

are rigged to the same degree of tension. These 

competing tensions ensure the tent is stable and 

capable of withstanding the elements. If there is 

an imbalance, the mildest gust of wind could push 

the structure in one direction, and it could 

ultimately collapse. 

It seems to me that this concept of competing 

tensions explains how some of the contradictory 

elements of Ann Marie’s character actually work 

as elegant counterbalances to each other, enabling 

her to achieve things she might otherwise not 

accomplish. And make no mistake, Ann Marie is 

in possession of a very impressive CV – one that 

the most exacting of perfectionists would be proud 

of. In her eight years at TGP she has delivered a 

comprehensive global rebrand as well as innovated 

and produced half of our digital product portfolio 

– our global online community for negotiators, 

The Negotiation Society; The Negotiators, 

a pioneering digital negotiation competition; and 

N365, an automated email embedding program. 

And, in the six months since joining the executive 

leadership team, Ann Marie has co-led and 

delivered a global culture and values project and 

reengineered our client segmentation strategy, 

firmly cementing herself as one of the most 

respected leaders in the business. 

So where did it all begin? Ann Marie had an 

unusual education which she reveals to me early 

in our conversation, and which she identifies as 

a formative influence. In her childhood, she was 

a gifted dancer and, aged 12, was invited to join 

The Royal Ballet School. For those who don’t 

know, that’s a big deal; the school is a global 

center of excellence for ballet training. Students 

are selected after a rigorous audition process and 

then live in school accommodation for the whole 

academic year, as they not only train to be ballet 

dancers but 

also complete 

a standard 

“If I say I will deliver something, 

not delivering it, or delivering it 

poorly, are the worst outcomes 

I can imagine. 

education 

curriculum. 

“The pursuit 

of perfection 

was a constant 

in our lives,” 

reveals Ann 

Marie. “Every 

Easter our 

dancing would 

be assessed and we were then informed by letter 

whether we had qualified to return to the school 

the following year. This was, as you can imagine, 

quite intense. But I loved the school – it was 

my home and where my friends lived – and we 

were all motivated to work hard to make sure 

we weren’t in the bottom cut and could stay.” Of 

course, Ann Marie stayed there until she was 19. 

How does the legacy of this demanding 

environment live on in Ann Marie today? She 

is very clear on this, explaining, “The drive to 

succeed, and for perfection, has stayed with me 

ever since. If I say I will deliver something, not 

delivering it, or delivering it poorly, are the worst 

outcomes I can imagine.” 

But does this constant striving for excellence 

ever stop you getting things done, as you seek to 

avoid the potential for disappointment? “No,” 

17

eplies Ann Marie. “Just because you strive for 

excellence, it doesn’t mean you are a slave to it. 

In the commercial world it is important to deliver, 

but sometimes ‘good enough’ is just that. The key 

is trying to figure out what ‘good enough’ is.” 

I ask if she grew up in a competitive 

environment outside of school. “I have two older 

brothers,” she tells me, “and I wanted to match 

their achievements. Being younger, a girl, a dancer... 

that didn’t come into it. We played on an even 

playing field as far as I was concerned.” She goes on 

to tell a story 

“Just because you strive 

for excellence, it doesn’t 

mean you are a slave to it. 

It's important to deliver, 

but sometimes “good 

enough” is just that. 

that beautifully 

illustrates this 

point: “My 

brothers got 

top marks 

in their 

Geography 

course work at 

the age of 16, 

but only after 

they’d initially 

been scored 

slightly lower by their teacher and the examiners 

re-marked it. When it was my turn, I got top marks 

at the first pass.” So presumably, in a competitive 

family, she has never allowed her brothers to forget 

this? “I may occasionally remind them,” she admits, 

with a smile. 

Being as gifted academically as she was a 

dancer, Ann Marie won a place to study history at 

Cambridge University, one of the most prestigious 

universities in the world. As she tells it, the 

university took a gamble on giving her a place – 

on paper, because of her unconventional education, 

she wasn’t the typical Oxbridge type – partly 

because one of her ballet school contemporaries 

was already there and had demonstrated that 

discipline and focus was hardwired into alumni 

of the school. How did Cambridge pan out for 

Ann Marie? Well, if you’re following the storyline, 

you’ll have guessed correctly: by the end of her first 

year she had become a scholar, a title only given to 

those awarded a “first” in their summer exams. 

Post-university, the shiny world of advertising 

caught Ann Marie’s eye, and after a stint in a 

graduate role she applied for a job at global agency 

Bartle Bogle Hegarty – at that time in its heyday 

and responsible for iconic campaigns for brands 

like Levi’s and Audi (for those of a certain age, 

Nick Kamen’s Launderette ad for Levi’s is just one 

of many famous examples of BBH’s output). I ask 

how she got into such a sought-after business, and 

Ann Marie tells another wonderfully revealing 

anecdote about her recruitment into BBH. After 

multiple grueling rounds of interviews, she finally 

had an hour in front of the head of the account 

management department. At the end of the 

grilling, he asked how he could be sure she could 

cope in the uber high-pressure and competitive 

environment of the agency. Ann Marie’s response? 

“I guess you haven’t met many ballet dancers.” 

By this point in our interview, I hadn’t needed 

to channel Sherlock Holmes to identify a theme 

of Ann Marie thriving in environments in 

which excellence is revered. I wonder aloud how 

important external recognition is to her, as part 

of that package? Ann Marie leans forward to 

respond. “I’ve never been especially motivated by 

external praise. What has always been important 

to me is knowing I have done a good job. I know 

when I feel I’ve done something well, and that’s 

enough for me. I know it’s a cliché, but I am my 

own harshest critic. The important thing is to feel 

in control. If I can control how or when 

18


a project is delivered, then I am comfortable that 

I can commit to delivering a good result. It’s when 

things are outside of my control that I feel 

more uncomfortable.” 

So, I venture, you are, to resort to another 

cliché, a control freak? She hesitates. “No, that’s 

the wrong choice of words. Being in control of 

things is not the goal in itself, it’s a means to an 

end; it enables others to perform without having 

to worry about the logistics. Even at home, as a 

parent, if I can be on top of which of my three 

kids needs to be at which event at which time 

then that frees them up to achieve things.” 

Let’s go back to The Royal Ballet School for 

a moment. How does a self-confessed introvert 

embrace an education that involves performing 

on stage for all the world to see? “I was trained 

to be good at what I did and to do it in front of 

others. In some ways it suits my introverted nature 

because the audience didn’t see ‘me’, they saw a 

dancer, and I was comfortable with that. 

“It’s similar at work. If I present a business 

case or share a presentation, I don’t feel personally 

under scrutiny because I trust that whoever I am 

presenting to will judge the work, and not me. 

I am always happy to get into a robust debate 

about the intellectual merits of something, 

but I don’t like it if it feels personal.” 

Ann Marie enjoys a reputation within The 

Gap Partnership as someone who delivers every 

project she embarks on to a high standard, within 

the deadline and on budget. Is it merited? “By 

definition, the word ‘reputation’ is something that 

others create, it’s not something that I ascribe 

to myself.” OK, but how do you think you have 

earned that reputation? 

“Delivering a concrete result has always been 

important to me. I start each project by imagining 

what the worst outcome would look like.” This 

startles me, and I repeat it back for clarification: 

You pride yourself on always delivering a result, 

yet you begin by imagining what failure would 

look like? How pessimistic is that? 

“It’s not pessimistic at all, it’s actually quite 

liberating. I am fundamentally an optimist, but 

by imagining the worst-case scenario and making 

peace with it, I can take fear out of the equation. 

If I’m clear that the worst outcome is not the end 

of the world, it frees me or my team up to use 

their energy to focus on how to deliver the project. 

Fear holds us back. Facing into it sets us free. 

“I imagine a project as a series of challenges and 

obstacles to overcome. I need that narrative, that 

sequence of events leading to a concrete outcome, 

to be clear in my mind before I can start work. 

I don’t like ambiguity or uncertainty.” 

Which brings us neatly to her new job, Chief 

Strategy Officer at The Gap Partnership. Why do 

we need a CSO anyway? Isn’t that the job of our 

CEO, Graham Botwright? Despite my attempts 

to goad her, Ann Marie doesn’t rise to the bait. 

“It’s not about being the sole author of the 

company strategy, that is the job of the leadership 

team collectively. It’s about ensuring that people 

across the business understand the strategic vision 

and are working in ways that are consistent with it. 

My job is to communicate the strategy, embed 

a common understanding, and help people execute 

in ways that will deliver the plan.” 

Our conversation draws to a close and 

I consider the contradictions, antitheses and 

incongruities that Ann Marie has revealed in our 

time together. I point this out, and Ann Marie 

concedes, “Yes, I can see there are tensions there.” 

It is the word “tensions” that reminds me of my 

son and the tents he puts up, and prompts a final 

question: Is it precisely these competing 

motivations and abilities that drive your 

achievements, both at work and at home? Her eyes 

drift towards the ceiling, as if seeking an answer 

there. “Maybe there’s something in that. Maybe 

it’s what makes me, me.” TNS 

19

NEGOTIATING 

WITH YOUR 

STRENGTHS: 

A CUSTOMIZED APPROACH 

“A leader needs to 

know their strengths as 

a carpenter knows their 

tools, or as a physician 

knows the instruments at 

their disposal. What great 

leaders have in common is 

that each truly knows his or 

her strengths – and can 

call on the right strength at 

the right time. This explains 

why there is no definitive 

list of characteristics that 

describes all leaders.” 

Dr. Donald O. Clifton, 

psychologist and inventor of 

the CliftonStrengths Finder. 

Analytics and advice 

business Gallup’s model 

of individual strengths can 

help negotiators optimize 

their performance. 

Think about your recent client interactions: 

somewhere in the process you engineered, 

convinced, connected, accomplished or 

negotiated things no one else could. And 

you may not have even realized how remarkable 

it was. 

That’s not unusual. Your most exceptional 

abilities are such an intrinsic part of you, you may 

not even notice them. But the innate patterns of 

thought, feeling and behavior that Gallup calls 

CliftonStrengths – categorized by four domains: 

Executing, Influencing, Relationship Building 

and Strategic Thinking – are the lens through 

which you see the world, the basis of your 

expectations and the source of your excellence, 

even as you negotiate. 

20


Your strengths 

differentiate you 

and can help you be 

your best self. In fact, 

the odds that you share the same 

CliftonStrengths in the same order as 

someone else are one in 33 million. 

That differentiation is crucial to succeeding 

in any highly-charged scenario. And you can 

leverage that difference by understanding your 

strengths within the four domains. 

To understand how you can fully use your 

strengths, it’s good to understand the domains. 

The four domains define how you show up 

in the world – your brand, your contribution 

and your unique value. They explain what’s 

behind everything you do. To get the most out 

of it, ask yourself: 

• How do I build relationships with others? 

• How do I influence my audience? 

• How do I think strategically to advance 

the negotiation or sale? 

• How do I get things done to execute 

for others? 

Maybe you build relationships by creating 

trust or through a genuine connection. Perhaps 

you influence others by taking charge of the 

agenda or by developing advocates. Strategic 

thinking might show up as a drive to learn about 

someone else’s history or visualize their future. 

You might get things done through organizing 

chaos or by fixing what went wrong in a 

negotiation. Everybody pulls the levers of their 

strengths in their own way. 

Whatever your answers may be, they 

demonstrate that you don’t operate like anyone 

else. And if you tried, you wouldn’t get the same 

results. You succeed in your own way. 

That said, sometimes you have to apply your 

way differently to succeed. 

Managing weaknesses means depending on 

others. No one is great at every part of the sales 

process, and negotiating is no different. Everyone 

has weaknesses to manage. For example, in a 

sales negotiation, some people can’t stay focused 

on the close, others may get bored learning 

product specs, and some pay way too much 

attention to prospects’ purchase potential 

and not enough to their actual problems. 

Unfortunately, the things you’re not great 

at may be necessary for the sale. 

If you know who you are (and who you aren’t), 

you can position your strengths in ways you 

hadn’t thought about and better navigate the 

areas that need managing. 

Take, for instance, a sales rep who loses sight 

of the close. She can leverage her relationship 

with her manager to align her actions toward the 

goal better. Salespeople who dislike memorizing 

product specs need relatable, enthusiastic 

teachers. The salesperson who is over-focused on 

the buy can regulate himself by asking probing 

questions and conducting deeper inquiries. 

That’s the key to leveraging strengths: 

own where you offer something powerful and 

unique and manage around your weak points. 

By articulating what makes you different, you’ll 

know where to put your energy: where you’re at 

your best. 

So, how do you set better goals using 

your strengths? 

Negotiating is a vital skill, and to increase 

your effectiveness in it, you’ll need to decide 

which of your strengths will be the most helpful. 

For example: 

If Learner or Analytical are in your top five, 

you could use these strategic thinking themes as 

motivation to stay on the cutting edge of roleor 

industry-specific information that would help 

you negotiate better. 

If you have high Harmony or Empathy, you 

might consider capitalizing on your ability to 

detect others’ emotions by creating goals that 

help you reduce conflict. 

If you lead with Communication or 

Significance, it might be helpful to set goals that 

focus on influencing others because you have a 

natural ability to speak concisely about topics 

that are important to your audiences. 

And if you are strong in themes such as Focus 

or Achiever, consider goals that are a roadmap to 

your desired outcomes – ones that highlight your 

desire for productivity and results. TNS 

AS GALLUP’S REGIONAL BUSINESS DIRECTOR 

CLAIRE DE CARTERET, SUMMARIZES: 

“If you fully understand your own strengths and blind spots, then 

self-awareness, self-regulation and self-efficacy become part of each 

interaction that you have, from leading strategy and teams, to creating 

influence and building relationships. Knowing your strengths will 

allow you to show up in every interaction in an authentic way and 

harness your talents (whilst managing your blind spots) – and THAT 

is what will enable you to win and be the best version of yourself.” 

Visit www.gallup.com to find out more. 

21

HE 

RE 

LUCTANT 

NEGOTIATOR 

Negotiation may push someone out of their comfort 

zone so much that they refuse to engage with you. 

How can you coax an unwilling counterparty back 

into the fray? Adam Frampton explains. 

Y 

ou may be familiar with the 12th 

century proverb, “You can lead a 

horse to water, but you can’t make 

it drink.” In other words, you can 

give someone an opportunity, but you 

can’t make them take it. 

Now let’s imagine you’re trying 

to engage with a commercial partner 

in order to discuss a conflictual but 

opportunistic part of a deal, but you 

can’t get the engagement you need. 

The other party just won’t come to the 

table. This predicament is one that has 

come up a lot, particularly of late where 

I’ve heard many clients talking 

about cost price increases they are 

having to run due to rising costs. 

You can provide someone with 

an opportunity, but you can’t force 

them to do something they don’t 

want to do. Still, are there things 

we can do to encourage the 

engagement we desire to help to 

push through the deal that has 

importance to us? 

In a word, yes. There are, broadly, 

four areas to consider: power, trust, 

risk vs rewards and stakeholders. 

22


POWER 

In negotiation, power 

governs the value of 

everything. It can turn 

a conversation into a 

demand, or a demand into 

a conversation. It has the 

ability to shift the course of 

any negotiation. But power 

is never static and while there 

are many examples of “real” 

power moving mountains, in 

negotiation it can come down 

to the counterparty’s perception 

of power. If they perceive that 

you are more desperate than 

them in the negotiation due 

to your behavior, then that will 

be how that deal concludes – 

with the other party driving 

the narrative on their terms. 

So how can we impact the 

perception of power? Well 

firstly, we have to believe it 

and live it. The first person you 

need to convince is yourself – 

that you are needed by your 

counterparty. From that point 

on you will start to try more 

challenging and value-creating 

conversations. You also need to 

act like it. I often say to clients, 

“Why do you think they feel 

that way? It’s as a result of your 

behavior.” So you see, how your 

counterpart perceives your 

behavior becomes their reality. 

TRUST 

In many ways trust is 

thought of as an intangible 

measure, so how can you 

quantify how much trust you 

have in your partnership? 

As we begin to examine our 

commercial relationships, 

we can think about the scale 

of trust being like walking 

a tightrope with balancing 

buckets either side. One bucket 

represents the amount of trust 

you invest and the other the 

amount you withdraw. 

When you examine the trust 

in your partnership, do you 

think that you invest highly in 

this trust bucket? Are you able 

to engender trust from your 

counterpart? Or are you lured to 

believe that trust simply exists 

because of the romantic nature 

of partnerships? 

If the trust paradigm exists 

as a tightrope, how do you 

maintain balance? There needs 

to be a stability between using 

this trust and offering this 

trust. In terms of negotiation, 

this means that to keep the 

stability of trust we have to 

offer it outside of the times 

we need it, which means we 

don’t just demand the use of 

this partnership when we need 

to conclude 

a deal. So, 

think about 

how you can 

engender 

trust 

throughout 

the time 

of your 

partnership, 

for example 

by offering 

insights, commercial support 

and outside the line of work 

support. There will be numerous 

ways in which a relationship can 

be built. 

RISK VS REWARDS 

This is always an interesting 

part of any partnership. In our 

contracts, do we put in the 

terms and conditions what is 

at risk if they don’t come to 

the table (conclude the deal), 

or what will the rewards be if 

they do? To begin to consider 

the appropriate action here we 

need to truly understand the 

person sitting opposite us. This 

means getting inside their head: 

what are their drivers, their 

motivators? Are they driven by 

the need to achieve or are they 

driven by the need to avoid 

loss? If we continually throttle 

a counterparty who doesn’t 

come to the table with risks, and 

they’re unmotivated by it, you’ll 

end up losing their interest. 

So ask yourself, if you are 

struggling to get someone to the 

negotiation table, do you think 

you know what motivates them? 

STAKEHOLDERS 

Mapping of stakeholders 

is an even more crucial part 

of negotiating in modern times 

due to the transient nature 

of business. Frequently your 

commercial contacts in one 

business may have moved on 

to another one. This affects 

a number of different parts 

of your relationship with the 

“ If the trust paradigm exists 

as a tightrope, how do you 

maintain balance? 

business in question, but in 

the area we are considering 

today, how could that impact 

your ability to negotiate with 

reluctant negotiators? Should we 

understand all the stakeholders 

in our counterparts – who sits 

where, who reports to whom? 

What falls under each person’s 

role and responsibilities? Should 

they move on and not have an 

immediate replacement, who 

would step in to pick up their 

workloads? The exercise of 

mapping stakeholders can be 

painstakingly long, but the 

value you can derive from it 

will support you in your strategy 

planning, particularly if your 

negotiations are timebound. 

In negotiation, there will be 

times where you have a reluctant 

party you need to work with. 

But there are steps that you can 

take and areas that you can 

consider that should help you 

to encourage the engagement 

you need. TNS 

23

PSYCHOLOGICAL 

SAFETY 

AND NEGOTIATION 

Freddy Burgess explains how creating a supportive 

environment in which negotiators feel backed will 

generate the most effective results. 

P 

sychological safety is a term I’ve come 

across a lot recently. It seems to have 

crossed over from the academic world 

of organizational psychology, to a more 

populist and mainstream audience who are 

interested in what’s currently occupying the 

business zeitgeist. I would hazard a prediction 

that it’s only a short matter of time before an 

even broader population begin to confidently 

use it when canvassing for their rights at work. 

But what does it mean and where did it originate? 

It’s widely agreed the term was coined by Edgar 

Schein and Warren Bennis in their paper Personal 

and Organizational Change Through Group 

Methods: The Laboratory Approach. In it, they 

defined psychological safety as a group’s effort 

to reduce interpersonal risk, while increasing the 

individual’s sense of self and belonging. Much 

research since has confirmed the benefit to morale, 

performance and creativity that psychological 

safety provides. 

So, with that in mind, what does it mean to be 

a negotiator with, or without, psychological safety? 

Every seasoned negotiator has felt it: that 

moment of indecision and uncertainty, and of 

wondering, what happens if I get this wrong? 

The reason that’s so common is because there 

are myriad scenarios that could bring this on: 

the negotiation may have taken an unexpected 

turn, the counterparty hasn’t responded in the 

way you expected, the total value of the deal is 

larger than you anticipated, or maybe you’ve 

received further information mid-way through 

the discussions. Any one of these scenarios can 

and do happen regularly when we’re negotiating, 

and that moment’s pause is arguably the sign of 

a responsible approach to negotiation. 

The critical consideration from a negotiator’s 

point of view is what happens next: what happens 

after the moment comes? Well, that depends on 

one’s own psychological baseline and resilience 

at the time. To put it bluntly, you are either 

consciously and subconsciously safe, or unsafe, 

regardless of the outcome. 

There are two clear physiological and 

psychological paths that will be followed at this 

point. Firstly, let’s assume we are psychologically 

unsafe. In this scenario we are unplanned, we have 

24


DO YOUR NEGOTIATORS HAVE PSYCHOLOGICAL SAFETY? 

YES 

IF THEY CAN: 

• Ask for help and receive a positive 

proactive response. 

• Align with stakeholders early 

and without struggle. 

• Make and learn from mistakes, sharing 

those insights with the wider team. 

• Make decisions in the room. 

NO 

IF THEY CAN’T: 

• Learn by doing because asking for 

help is seen as a sign of weakness. 

• Squeeze preparation in where they can 

and fight for time with stakeholders. 

• Justify mistakes rather than owning the 

opportunity to learn. 

• Seek approval for all negotiation decisions. 

not aligned internally with stakeholders, 

we don’t feel empowered and we may even 

be worried about returning with a poor result 

and the ramifications that will follow. When 

this moment occurs it creates a threat response 

which is similar to that produced in response 

to external influences that could cause us harm. 

In these scenarios, our body reacts in a 

predictable manner. The threat response releases 

cortisol and adrenalin into our systems, with 

the adrenal glands reacting to our traditional 

impulse of fight or flight. Cortisol promotes 

the reinstatement of fear into our system, blood 

pumps faster, our amygdala increases in activity, 

and we are ready to fight, fly or freeze, depending 

on our psychological bent. 

None of this is particularly beneficial for a 

negotiator – an instinctive emotional reaction 

could manifest as competitiveness or argument, 

deadlock, the inability to make a decision, or 

maybe even capitulation to the easiest point of 

agreement just to get out of the room. So, clearly 

not ideal. 

But what about those that are psychologically 

safe? In this scenario, ample planning has gone 

into the negotiation. Not only that, the negotiators 

are secure in the knowledge they have the backing 

of their peers and organization, and that any 

mistakes will be embraced and learned from. 

A constructive review is part of the process and 

people are empowered to take responsible risks 

and encouraged to build creative, novel proposals. 

In this scenario, when that moment arrives and 

adrenaline is released, this time its accompanied 

by dopamine rather than cortisol. Dopamine 

enhances our recall and cognitive function and can 

improve focus, and even our willingness to make 

decisions. Rather than the instinctive emotional 

response, we have an instinctive cognitive one that 

allows us to manage that moment of uncertainty 

with calmness and thought, not emotion and panic. 

Negotiators today are dealing with 

unprecedented socio-economic upheaval. The 

pressures they face are enormous, with resilience 

tested at every turn. Whether it is a buyer with 

mounting CPI requests, an account manager 

under pressure to manage prices while building 

sustainable products, or a procurement manager 

trying to mitigate energy costs, everyone is facing 

a challenging market. No matter the field or 

product, having a sense of psychological safety as 

a negotiator will not only foster a culture in which 

results are enhanced and negotiations are more 

efficient, it will also create a space that individuals 

want to be a part of during a period where 

employee satisfaction is hard to come by. And if 

you don’t have the luxury of such an environment? 

Without a sense of security when negotiating, you 

and your teams will be more hesitant, less creative 

and less likely to gain positive outcomes. 

The benefits of building an environment of 

psychological safety are clear, but in a time-poor, 

priority-heavy world, that’s easier said than done. 

But it’s easier to achieve with a shared purpose 

and culture of inclusivity and support, as well as 

an effective negotiation culture underpinned by 

trust with open dialogue, constructive feedback 

and prioritisation on preparation. This is exactly 

what The Gap Partnership helps to build with 

our partners. 

For me, as the leader of a negotiation team, 

psychological safety is simple. It comes down 

to the unequivocal knowledge that you are 

prepared and you are backed. If you want your 

negotiators to be more creative, more ambitious 

and more effective, give them the armor of 

psychological safety and embed it throughout 

your negotiation culture. TNS 

For more information on how The Gap Partnership 

can work with you and your teams to instill a 

psychologically safe and high-performing negotiation 

culture, please get in touch at 

www.thegappartnership.com 

25

THE ONLY WAY IS 

UP 

As inflation takes hold and potential global 

recession looms, so price increases have 

become an unavoidable part of commercial life. 

How can you face them with equanimity, 

whatever side of the negotiation table 

you are on? Brian Denning reports. 

26 

When you hear “upcoming price 

increase” before a commercial 

negotiation, what emotion does 

it evoke in you? If you’re on the purchasing 

side of the equation perhaps it’s dread, 

anger or fear of eroding margins impacting 

your bonus. If you’re a supplier maybe it’s 

guilt, rejection or you’re thinking, “Here 

we go again, more paperwork.” 

Inflationary pressures drive frequent and 

volatile price increases. Both suppliers and 

purchasers must prevent margin erosion. 

Emotions can run high with price increases, 

especially if the purchasing entity is unable 

to pass the increase on to their customers. 

And modern psychology’s understanding 

of the role of emotion in decision making 

is unequivocal, with a 2015 study led 

by Harvard professor Jennifer Lerner 

concluding that, “Put succinctly, emotion 

and decision making go hand in hand,” 

and, “Emotions are the dominant driver 

of most decisions.” 

But to counter this, a 

proactive price increase strategy, 

coupled with high levels of emotional 

intelligence, can reduce the inference 

of emotion and increase profitability. 

The benefits of EQ are articulated in 

Travis Bradberry and Jean Greaves' book 

“Emotional Intelligence 2.0.” They point 

to evidence that shows that delaying 

emotion places new information in the 

logical frontal lobe in your brain, rather 

than triggering the ‘emotional’ limbic 

system of the brain, which can 

sub-optimize negotiations. 

Account managers and purchasing 

agents must be internally aligned to map 

out pricing strategy moves, before the 

dreaded ‘price increases’ words are uttered. 

Preconditioning is essential to increase 

acceptance. Suppliers typically have a 

formal process, consisting of a stern letter 

informing their purchasers of a price 

increase. In the past, suppliers provided 

sixty- to ninety-day notices. These days, 

thirty-day or even immediate increases 

are commonplace, due to supply line 

constraints and price fluidity. Suppliers fear 

price increases because competitors might


not follow suit, reacting with a smaller increase, 

or using the pending increase to generate BATNA 

sales. Some suppliers proactively send a justification 

letter to precondition with the ‘social smell’ of 

current industry pressures. 

Purchasing agents typically use a ‘one to two 

punch’ – two quick requests in rapid succession – for 

a price increase. In the first instance, the response 

is an automatic ‘No!’, with a question around the 

justification for the increase, in the hope that the 

supplier will rescind their offer. As we know, ‘hope’ is 

never a strategy in business. The justification arrives, 

purchasers succumb to the social proof provided and 

revert to a higher authority, delaying compliance. 

Keep in mind, “The problem comes when we 

begin responding to social proof in a mindless and 

reflexive fashion – being fooled by partial or fake 

evidence.” (Cialdini, 2021, p.130) To counteract, 

delay tactics are used, and suppliers provide specific 

dates and larger percentage increases to offset 

implementation losses, ramping up emotional stress 

levels. Again, emotions can start to run high, and 

‘ripple effects’ in the market can be felt. 

Regardless of tactics used, a high level of trust 

must be maintained between long-term partners. 

To foster trust, personalize communications and 

speak frequently. Customize standard processes 

based on the level of your relationship, strength 

and length. A price increase process must include 

preconditioning; getting inside the other party’s 

head, mapping moves and frequent meetings to 

discuss the increase. In the formal letter, express 

the price percentage increase as a range to facilitate 

negotiation. A simple percentage increase in 

a standardized letter can back the supplier into 

a corner, erode relationships and be perceived as 

inflexible. Account managers might ‘leak’ price 

increase information to select customers prior to the 

formal legalistic letter to soften the negative impact 

and reduce emotions. Be aware that unsanctioned 

‘leaks’ lead to customers increasing purchases prior 

to the price increase. 

So, how can you improve your 

efficiency, effectiveness 

and speed 

when proposing or reacting to price increases? 

Implement a non-emotional proactive price 

negotiation process, get inside the other party’s 

head and remain vigilant during inflationary 

periods. You have much more power in your 

negotiations than you think! TNS 

PRICE INCREASE NEGOTIATION TIPS 

FOR SUPPLIERS 

• Precondition customers using market trends, 

economic factors and potential increases. 

• Plan regular price increases in a measured manner, 

regardless of market conditions. 

• Communicate ‘worst-case’ price increase range 

to customers. Negotiate to provide satisfaction. 

• Structure contracts linking price increases 

to economic and environmental events. 

• Increase in small, but credible increments. Do not 

try to recover multiple years of increases in a 

single, double-digit increase. Double-digit increases 

‘shock’ purchasers, increasing emotion, pushback 

and reducing compliance. 

• Create an internal and external price negotiation 

plan. Be proactive and creative. 

• Embed negotiation planning skills into your culture. 

PRICE INCREASE NEGOTIATION TIPS 

FOR PURCHASERS 

• Professionally flinch during the first face-to-face 

conversation about price. Communicate difficulty 

in implementing immediate increases. Request 

detailed justification. 

• Negotiate that if it’s the case that supplier inputs 

decrease, then a price decrease must also take place. 

Be specific. 

• Re-cost inputs (using all departments) to 

proactively implement a price increase to your 

customers. Create a virtual ‘war room’. This process 

minimizes margin erosion. 

• As for suppliers, Create an internal and external 

price negotiation plan. Be proactive and creative. 

Embed negotiation planning skills into your culture. 

27

Eelco Modderman, our managing partner of 

APAC, takes on the mantle of The Traveling 

Negotiator in the first of a series of articles 

that grapple with the fascinating topic of the 

role that culture plays (or not) in negotiation. 

Over the summer 

(European) months my 

family and I were lucky 

to spend a considerable 

amount of time back home. Covid 

restrictions meant we hadn’t seen 

family and old friends for almost three 

years, so this was a special time for us 

all. But when I say, “back home,” what 

does that mean? 

Let’s look at this through the eyes 

of my children. Both my kids, a 10 

and 7 year-old, were born and raised 

in Hong Kong. They are Dutch 

passport holders. They 

go to an Americansystem 

international 

school. They are 

native Dutch and 

English speakers, 

with a smattering 

of Mandarin 

Chinese and 

Spanish. They 

have never 

lived in the 

Netherlands or 

Europe apart from summer holidays 

(who else thinks that it never rains 

in the Netherlands?!), yet they have 

experienced much of the world. For 

instance, they spent six months with 

their travel-mad parents in Central 

America pre-Covid to study Spanish. 

To make matters worse (or better?) 

for them, this extended summer 

break was part of a detour for us 

relocating to Japan. 

And so it has come to pass that I 

am writing this article from the office 

of The Gap Partnership in Tokyo – 

another part of the world, again, for 

them and me. So back to the question, 

where’s home? It’s been fascinating 

over the years to watch my children 

operate in an alien environment 

with different rules of engagement. 

Despite their language skills, they 

occasionally do get lost in translation. 

Does the response, “Interesting,” 

really mean someone is loving your 

story? And to watch them choose 

the appropriate behavior in a new 

situation, like for example whether 

Culture 

in negotiation: 

Whose culture 

is it anyway? 

28


or not to unwrap a birthday present 

in front of someone right away, can 

become quite complicated. The fact is 

they may seem a bit odd at times in 

the eyes of their Dutch cousins, and 

also somewhat different to their new 

classmates in Tokyo. Yet they adapt, 

stay true to themselves, communicate 

openly and continue to have fun. 

This makes me wonder, how much 

do the surroundings we live and/or 

grow up in define how we behave in 

different circumstances? These pintsized 

chameleons of mine can read 

their surroundings and adjust their 

behavior accordingly, thanks to their 

experiences. But what if you haven’t 

been exposed, like them, to all this 

native contextualization? How do 

you deal with situations that are 

foreign to you? 

“ How much do the surroundings 

we live and/or grow up in 

define how we behave in 

different circumstances? 

There are many great books, 

articles, blogs and vlogs on the subject 

of communicating cross-culturally. 

The one I use as a benchmark is “The 

Culture Map” by Erin Meyer. First 

published in 2015, this book has 

since become the baseline for many 

people when discussing, thinking 

and advising on this subject. I highly 

recommend you read it, especially 

if you are someone who regularly 

operates in an international 

business world. 

Because I often get this question: 

how does culture impact negotiations? 

And mostly my answer is a question 

back: culture does play a role, of 

course, but is it relevant to your 

situation? The basics of negotiation 

behavior are the same in every culture 

because they are universal human 

behaviors, and we are all human 

after all. Flinching to a proposal in 

a hard bargaining negotiation is as 

important in the Netherlands as it 

is in China. But it may well look 

different. Equally, someone from, say, 

Germany, who’s doing business in 

India for the first time, could interpret 

the head movement from their Indian 

counterparty very differently to how 

it is intended because they won’t 

have the native contextual experience 

to understand its meaning, unlike 

another Indian person, or even my 

globetrotting kids. 

What I aim to do in future articles 

on culture is talk less about my 

children and more about what culture 

means for negotiation. Or what it 

doesn’t mean! I aim to challenge 

ingrained thinking and encourage 

a reexamination of what should take 

priority. If our people do most (if not 

all) of their negotiations in their own 

language in their own cultural context, 

then it’s likely not in their best 

interest to have negotiation training 

in another language they are less 

comfortable in, and with people who 

behave in a way they don’t understand. 

Because in that scenario, training 

becomes a language and culture 

obstacle course instead of one focused 

on negotiation skills development. 

More on that to come. For now, 

I encourage you to think carefully 

about the negotiation behaviors you 

adopt that translate globally, and those 

that may be culturally specific to your 

own environment. Which serve 

you well, and which should you 

consider adapting? TNS 

29

S H O P T I L L Y O U 

Kelly Harborne explores the 

psychology of spending when 

times are tough and ponders how 

learnings in this field have relevance 

to negotiation. 

A 

s the world faces the significant financial 

impact of a global pandemic, war and 

seismic shifts in trading relations, many 

of us are already tightening our belts. 

Spending of all kinds, national and personal, is under scrutiny like never 

before. Judgments are being made about our leaders’ economic shrewdness and, 

if we’re honest, perhaps that of our neighbors too. The “But they can afford flat 

screen TVs and twenty cigarettes a day” trope is a familiar one, certainly in the UK’s 

national debate around who should get what financial assistance when resources 

become scarce. And sharing any scarce resource has a profound impact on the 

human psyche; many of us still have the battle scars from the pandemic-stricken 

supermarket aisles of 2020 to prove it. So what impact is the downturn likely to 

have on us as consumers, and as negotiators? 

30


NO SMOKE WITHOUT FIRE 

Full disclosure, I am a reformed smoker. I loved 

it. I miss it still. I smoked as a poor student, and 

as a fitness fanatic, and I’ve promised myself if 

I get to 85, when I don’t have the luxury of time, 

I’ll indulge in this guilty pleasure again. Of course, 

I bargained with myself for many years before 

I gave up. I told myself I’d stop when a pack of 

twenty cost £4, then £5 and £6, until I stopped 

thinking about the price at all. 

Finally, it was my first pregnancy when time 

became a far more valuable variable – because I 

recognized its scarcity – that I finally stubbed it 

out. And I didn’t think about the price of a pack 

for years, until a friend of mine asked me to pick 

up 40 at the airport on the way out to meet her 

in France and I repeated, “No, just two packs” 

three or four times to the cashier in response to 

the price, like I was already regularly setting off 

the fire alarm in my assisted living complex. I 

was gobsmacked – and this was two years ago! In 

2022, according to Statista, a pack of 20 filtered 

cigarettes averages £12.67... £12.67! Sorry, I’m 

doing it again. 

In wealthier markets around the world there 

is a downward trend in the percentage of smokers 

per capita, but within those markets it appears 

that if you earn less, you’re more likely to smoke 

and to smoke for longer, despite much research 

that indicates the less you earn the higher the 

price-elasticity of demand for cigarettes – i.e., 

the more sensitive you are to price increases. So, 

as prices rise on almost everything we buy, what 

can this contradiction of factors tell us about the 

psychology behind the purchases we continue to 

make when times are tough? 

PLAYING TO TYPE 

In 2009, as we adjusted to the last economic 

crisis of this scale, John Quelch and Katherine E. 

Jocz of Harvard Business Review recommended 

that businesses disregard traditional demographic 

groups when trying to predict consumer 

behavior in favor of classifications based on a 

psychological response to the downturn. They 

proposed four distinct groups: comfortably 

well-off, live-for-today, pained-but-patient and 

slam-on-the-brakes. 

It’s worth thinking of your negotiation 

counterparty in the same way. All businesses will 

be impacted in some way by cost inflation, but by 

how much and when? How healthy are their 

margins? Are you simply trading profit points – 

yours for theirs? What’s their appetite for longterm 

versus short-term gains? Will strengthening 

your partnership help you shore up your boats to 

weather the storm together? And which of your 

counterparties is looking less than seaworthy, and 

what risk does that represent for you? However 

you think about your counterparty, the vital thing 

is to understand that circumstances have changed, 

and in many cases so will the evaluation of how 

important/unimportant your products, service or 

custom are to the other party. 

31

“ Shopping has been proven to help 

us feel less sad, which is arguably 

why we’re prepared to overspend 

by as much as % to make those 

feelings go away. 

RETAIL THERAPY 

If shopping was an entirely rational process, 

my partner would have far fewer drills in the 

garage than he does (it’s like a compulsion!). 

In reality, the value of shopping is greater than 

the sum of the Amazon boxes piled up in your 

recycling bin. Psychologist Joyce Marter describes 

how the process of buying something “puts you 

back in the driver’s seat when something happens 

beyond your control,” and that shopping has been 

proven to help us feel less sad, which is arguably 

why we’re prepared to overspend by as much as 

30% to make those feelings go away... all of which 

could explain why there are so many more of those 

boxes now than pre-pandemic. 

This is supported by another psychologist 

specializing in consumer behavior, Catherine 

Jansson-Boyd, who writes in the Economic Times, 

“Shopping allows us to make choices – which 

shop to go to or whether we like an item. It can 

bring back a feeling of personal control and reduce 

distress.” Of course, this very human need for 

control in turbulent times can be used skilfully 

in any negotiation strategy. Creating a range of 

options/proposals for 

the other party to pick 

from is a simple way of 

remaining in control of 

the value on the table, 

while empowering the 

other party to decide. 

For many, the 

response to global 

inflation will be all too 

predictable and stark in 

its reality. Many families 

are already deciding 

whether to heat or eat, so basket size is likely 

to reduce in value and volume. Trades from 

fresh to frozen and tinned will feel necessary 

for many and those who had just got back in 

the habit of eating out again are likely to be 

back in front of those box sets, perhaps with 

a meal for two deal to punctuate the week. 

However, Quelch and Jocz’s categories describe 

a response which is not one-size-fits-all, and 

certainly helps us understand some surprising 

products that have proven to be contrary economic 

indicators in previous downturns. Leonard Lauder, 

the chair of Estée Lauder, first coined the phrase 

The Lipstick Effect after the 9/11 terrorist attacks 

in 2001, when the company saw a significant 

uplift in lipstick sales. The phrase is now 

synonymous with the concept that when times 

are tough certain products become the accessible 

pick-me-up, or attainable luxury that help us feel 

good. If you sell a product or service, reevaluating 

your range in this context may mean its value has 

changed for the consumer and perhaps so too 

has your bargaining power. 

32


AMBASSADOR, YOU ARE 

REALLY SPOILING US 

It’s less surprising that in times of need we 

also turn to comfort food. TIME Magazine 

reported an uplift of 25% in ice cream sales 

in 2010 and again, those of us that developed 

an every 20-minutes grazing pattern during 

lockdowns will relate to the power of indulging in 

something (anything) for the luxury of distraction. 

But it seems there may be a deeper driver to us 

seeking out simpler flavor profiles like chocolate 

if we’re facing otherwise stressful circumstances. 

According to a study by Hildebrand, Rubin, Hadi 

& Kramer published in The Journal of Consumer 

Psychology, there is “a significant interaction of 

cognitive depletion and flavor complexity on 

enjoyment.” In other words, if I’m stressed, the last 

thing my brain needs is to exert the additional 

cognitive power required to process a complicated 

flavor. “Give me straightforward chocolate every 

day of the week!” it cries. And so, I do. 

Baiju Shah of Accenture, recently wrote about 

the 2022 consumer, “With external forces exerting 

more pressure, and a list of practical and ethical 

considerations that keeps getting longer, people 

are facing more complex and more frequent 

decisions than ever before.” And I believe this 

applies to commercial decision-makers too. 

Helping your partners cut through some of that 

complexity, be it in ways of working, by providing 

thought leadership or simply knowing your market 

better than anyone else, will be incredibly valuable 

and so very tradeable. You might ask yourself what 

your flavor profile is doing to their commercial 

cognitive function? 

LESS IS... LESS 

Perhaps what lies behind the resilience of 

spending on cigarettes in those that can least 

afford them is entirely connected to the fact that 

they have less. It seems that instant gratification 

is key. Shahram Heshmat Ph. D., in his article 

The Mindset of Scarcity says that increased 

feelings of being without makes you myopic, i.e. 

“we overvalue immediate benefits at the expense 

of future ones” – and this might explain why 

products that make us feel good in the short term 

tend to be resilient when consumers face financial 

difficulty. “When you can afford so little,” he 

continues, “so many things need to be resisted [it] 

depletes the willpower, which in turn makes them 

less capable of giving up, say, a smoking habit.” If 

we apply that psychology to the structure of the 

agreements we build, perhaps staged agreements 

that allow (conditionally, of course) our partners 

to recognize value earlier may provide the lasting 

temptation that solidifies a way forward. However, 

we also know that scarcity drives value. What I 

wouldn’t give for five minutes alone, as a working 

mother of two. So make sure whatever you’re 

trading, you’re always getting something of equal 

or greater value in return. 

As those that work in the retail and consumer 

goods sectors know well, there is much science 

behind why and how we buy what we buy, and 

context is key. Similarly, commercial negotiators 

would do well in the coming months to recognize 

that we are each multi-dimensional with a range 

of factors influencing our behavior. The impact of 

scarcity, our response to risk, our short-term vs 

long-term view will be governed by the 

circumstances in which we find ourselves. While 

a very human response might be to focus entirely 

on our needs, curiosity and enquiry remain the 

most critical skills that a negotiator (and a good 

neighbor) can nurture to thrive during the 

most challenging context many have faced 

for decades. TNS 

33

Tricks of my Trade 

Consultant Ashley Barrett takes the hot seat to talk furniture, 

hat wearing and how a knack for creativity led to a dramatic 

shift in her negotiation style when Covid hit. 

The Negotiation Society: Tell us about life before 

The Gap Partnership. 

Ashley: I started out as a national sales manager in clothing 

and accessories, working in a very small team. I was always on 

the road, doing more than thirty trade shows a year, as well 

as spending time in India planning for the following season’s 

collection, which meant I had the opportunity to wear a ton 

of different hats! Then I decided to make the switch into 

something a bit more corporate. 

TNS: Over time and with experience, did you notice 

a difference in your negotiation style? 

Ashley: Hugely! In my first role it was very much trial and 

error and I did what I could. Then when I moved to Wayfair, 

I had phenomenal mentors. My manager took me under 

her wing and taught me so much, and I later found out, 

after I started in my role at The Gap Partnership, that she 

had attended our flagship The Complete Skilled Negotiator 

workshop in one of her previous roles! 

TNS: Where did that decision take you? 

Ashley: I moved to Boston and started my furniture career. 

I worked in the promotions team at Wayfair, curating 

collections within the home, and then a couple of years later 

I joined the corporate team at Ashley Furniture in Tampa, 

driving new strategy and growth across multiple different 

product categories. 

TNS: Did these roles put your negotiation skills to the test? 

Ashley: Yes, daily! And internally and externally. At the 

clothing company, I was both the buyer and the seller, 

working closely with manufacturers and retailers. I was 

negotiating over things I’d 

never dreamed of, like space 

and location for trade show 

booths. During Covid, 

I was working in the 

‘home office and storage’ 

category at Ashley, which 

saw sudden huge growth 

as people were staying 

home, so the way I 

negotiated also shifted 

dramatically as people’s 

priorities changed. 

I constantly had to 

reassess the situation 

and get creative as 

the world evolved 

around us. 

TNS: Wow. She taught you what we taught her! 

Ashley: Yes! She’d even use some of the subtle wording that 

we would use. When I look back on my first role I think, 

‘If only I’d known.’ You live and learn... 

TNS: So, why the move away from furniture to negotiation? 

Ashley: I did some negotiation training and leadership 

conferences and realized my passion lay in strategic and 

creative thinking, finding the best solutions and enabling 

people to reach their potential. I knew immediately that 

TGP was the challenge I was looking for, and that’s what 

drew me in. 

TNS: Is the role living up to your expectations? 

Ashley: Absolutely. I love seeing the impact I have on 

people in my workshops in the time we spend together; 

how I can shape someone’s career or help them maximize 

a deal. Being so heavily immersed with people for four 

days and seeing how the teams interact and pull together 

is always a lightbulb moment for me. 

TNS: Where do you see yourself in two years’ time at TGP? 

Ashley: Consulting – taking a deeper dive into projects 

and creating brilliant bespoke solutions for our clients. 

Everyone is very open-minded to new ways of working 

at TGP. No one thinks it’s their way or the highway. 

I’m certainly never bored! TNS 

To hear Ashley’s interview in full, 

search The Negotiation Society on your 

favorite podcast platform, or access via 

www.thenegotiationsociety.com 

34


Tim Green 

Want to survive 

a recession? 

Watch a movie! 

In Monty Python’s 1979 film “The Life of Brian,” 

Eric Idle’s most famous moment comes when he sings 

“Always Look on the Bright Side of Life.” Films and 

songs have an uncanny ability to throw light on human 

characteristics and act as a mirror that reflects back, and 

challenges, our own reaction to life’s myriad scenarios – 

be that love, hope, loss, ambition, greed, and so on. 

Idle’s warbled advice could be seen as very timely 

right now when businesses and individuals are facing 

challenging economic times, with recessions something 

of a feature of modern economies. They seem to occur 

every ten years or so, and more specifically often follow 

periods of strong growth. Recessions understandably 

illicit nervousness and even fear; as the economy falters 

and stalls, businesses may seek to protect themselves 

financially, cutting overheads and costs and minimizing 

the impact on their profits of currency fluctuations. 

So far so gloomy, and it’s all too easy to lose sight of 

the opportunities (or even bright side) that a recession 

might provide. But life’s optimists, like Idle’s character, 

will say that when one door closes another one opens. 

Take, for example, those in supply chain and 

procurement roles. They need to ensure they have 

protected their supply chain along with the ongoing 

ability of their partners to continue to support them, 

all while setting the groundwork for returning to full 

strength and output after the recession passes. To this 

end, opportunities to strengthen relationships for the 

longer-term and enjoy greater value from the negotiations 

that ensue can be a positive outcome of recessionary 

“ It’s all too easy to lose sight 

of the opportunities (or even 

bright side) that a recession 

might provide. 

pressures. It also means that when the next recession cycle 

kicks in, businesses that think this way are better prepared 

and can minimize negative impacts simply because they 

are ready and have experienced it before. 

Thinking creatively and exploring options that can 

grow value for both parties are two of the key behaviors 

of a skilled negotiator, and recessions offer an opportunity 

to do both. It might be that things are not possible to 

implement now, but the sheer act of considering them 

with your business partners can strengthen existing 

relationships, or help one or other party view an existing 

counterparty in a new, more progressive way. 

Whilst I am thinking cinematically, another film, Tom 

Cruise’s 1996 classic “Jerry Maguire,” spawned many 

famous lines, the most relevant to working together in 

times of trouble being, “Help me to help you.” Businesses 

that do this will reap rewards once the economy stabilizes, 

not just in the short-term but the longer-term as well. 

It is this mutuality of shared interest, and the trust 

needed therein, that’s the basis of successfully navigating 

turbulent times. If one party seeks to use their power to 

impose terms on their counterparty, they may be able 

to protect themselves for the storm they can see, but 

they will lose the protection that a more collaborative 

approach would give for the longer-term and the storms 

yet to come. When recession looms, companies have a 

short window to negotiate with their partners to secure 

terms that will be advantageous for both parties when 

the economy recovers. A collaborative relationship offers 

the possibility of finding the holy grail of supply chain 

efficiencies and being able to survive the immediate 

turmoil, and emerging stronger when economies upturn. 

So, when you treat yourself – as people in recessions 

do to make themselves feel better – to a tub of expensive 

ice cream while you watch that new movie release you 

decided to splurge on at home, listen carefully 

in case there is inspiration for looking at 

the recession in a more positive way. 

Or maybe just enjoy the distraction! 

After all, this recession isn’t going 

anywhere in a hurry, no matter how 

much we might channel our 

inner Jerry Maguire and 

implore the economy 

to “Show me 

the money!” TNS 

35

QUESTION 

TIME 

We asked our expert panel to give us their 

considered yet concise response to this 

question: “Can you negotiate your way out 

of a recession?” 

Judy Hendrick 

Chief Financial Officer, 

CWT 

Companies are bracing for recession 

as soaring prices affect essential 

commercial and personal needs, 

threatening budgets and eroding 

savings. Negotiations drive economies 

all over the world, leading to prosperity 

or recession. You can’t negotiate out 

of a recession, but negotiating skills 

are critical to emerging in a more 

competitive position. 

Recessions are a high-pressure 

exercise in change management and 

to navigate one successfully, a company 

must be flexible and ready to adjust. 

Building a strong cash management 

culture and developing a nucleus of 

financial leaders who embrace change, 

remain calm and clear thinking, but 

make hard decisions to weather the 

storm, are essential elements to survival. 

The aftermath of a devastating 

pandemic is still fresh and we saw many 

fail. But others thrived. Economic 

meltdowns create opportunities to 

focus relentlessly on negotiating 

strong vendor and client relationships, 

and gain market share as others 

stumble, to emerge even 

stronger than before. 

36


Nigel Wolfin Queenie Jiang Todd Bickmeyer 

Chief Financial Officer, 

The Gap Partnership 

Senior Consultant, 

The Gap Partnership 

Founder, 

Brick Accretive Management 

The short answer is yes - as long as 

you distinguish between what you can 

and can’t influence. 

While it’s unlikely any business will 

entirely escape the far-reaching impact 

of a global recession, how that business 

deploys the commercial tools at its 

disposal to navigate the choppy waters 

ahead will significantly reduce 

recessionary impact. 

The resultant risk to any business 

must change the usual rules of 

engagement. Commercial arrangements 

that had been assumed as cast in stone 

for the next two to three years are, in 

many cases, up for grabs. 

Understanding the opportunities 

to renegotiate commercial terms that 

mitigate the effects of spiraling raw 

material costs or a hike in funding 

costs, for example, must move right 

to the top of the CFO’s agenda. 

By reassessing your assumptions 

of where the balance of power lies 

in your commercial relationships, 

opportunities will open up to ease 

cash flow pressures through improved 

commercial terms with a multitude 

of counterparties. 

And that is the slightly 

longer answer. 

Bear markets can see dramatic 

lowering of revenue in businesses. 

With tighter windows of opportunity 

and often a one-shot chance, it is 

critical that organizations prepare by 

sharpening up their negotiation skill 

to maximize the value of every 

counterparty interaction. Leaders who 

reassess the balance of power, examine 

their BATNAs and understand not 

only their own value chain but that 

of their counterparties, will often fare 

better in a recession. 

Recession can create opportunities 

in capital markets, and savvy negotiation 

can assist an economy as it moves out 

of recession, as crisis unveils both 

resilience and deficiencies. A key watch 

out is to understand that as economies 

move from bear to bull, the balance of 

power can shift. A matrix of awareness 

is vital for self-growth and presence, 

while accurately gauging others' 

weaknesses and strengths. Tough times 

bond those who embrace them together, 

but recessions can see commercial 

relationships damaged in the longer 

term if a shorter term survival mindset 

has been adopted. 

We are exiting an unprecedented 

period of easy money, characterized 

by a record amount of fiscal and 

monetary stimulus. The monetary 

policy unwind through higher rates 

and quantitative tightening has just 

begun. When we look back on this 

period, I believe sustained negative 

rates and quantitative easing will 

be deemed a policy error. Capital 

over labor has clearly switched to 

labor over capital. “Negotiating 

your way out of a recession” will 

depend on how business leaders 

negotiate capital and labor costs 

in an increasingly volatile macro 

environment. For high growth 

negative cash flow business, the 

emerging environment will not be 

friendly; similar to the post-2000 

tech bubble, many won’t make it. 

Globalization has also reversed and 

onshoring production will accelerate 

for strategic industrial sectors 

(e.g., chip manufacturing) further 

pressuring input costs. 

Managing the convexity of the 

growth curve will become less of a 

focus, while developing a long-term 

plan for capital and labor inputs will 

become imperative to managing 

through this paradigm shift. TNS 

37

DEAR DIANA 

Negotiation expert Diana Jusepeitis tackles questions 

on managing doubt and avoiding deadlock. 

Q: I’m a senior buyer in a large 

grocery retailer, operating at 

the coalface of our increasingly 

pressured world, which means 

price increases relentlessly 

coming across my desk. Time 

is at a record low and the CPI 

notifications are coming faster 

than I can negotiate them away. 

As a result, my negotiations are 

hitting deadlock more and more, 

which seems unavoidable. Do 

you have advice on how to manage 

deadlock, or have a more productive 

conversation around it? 

D: Negotiations may certainly be 

tougher right now – more transactional 

and with increased pressure on you as 

a buyer. A price increase in isolation is 

a unilateral demand. The 

expectation will always 

be competitive, with 

either a win-lose situation 

or deadlock unless you 

widen your perspective 

and consider more 

variables. Try to trade 

across value differentials 

in order to create mutual 

gain for all parties. Get 

inside the other party’s 

head asking the following 

questions: Why have they 

made that demand? What are their 

pressures? What else is important 

to them? 

When you get a price increase 

on your desk you are already at the 

negotiation table and “in the battle” 

that might lead to deadlock. How can 

you be more proactive next time to 

prevent this situation? Think about 

preconditioning the other party to try 

to shape their expectations. Perhaps it’s 

time to think differently, look beyond 

short-term cost pressures, and build 

strong alliances and relationships with 

strategic suppliers for the future. 

“Doubt and insecurity are 

not great starting points 

for a negotiation. 

Q: As a senior member of the 

procurement team in a fast-growing 

fintech start-up, I regularly negotiate 

with suppliers and other partners. 

As we are still relatively small, I 

have a lot of autonomy in the way 

I approach and carry out these 

negotiations, which I enjoy. But last 

week, I reported back on a deal to my 

director, and she wasn’t happy with 

what I’d agreed (I’d introduced some 

creative variables in order to get 

the deal moving again after we 

hit an impasse, which I felt was 

entirely appropriate). It was 

a lesson for me in internal 

alignment, but I’m now 

concerned about whether I’ll 

have the confidence to agree 

a deal in the room next time. 

Any thoughts? 

D: We have a saying at The 

Gap Partnership, “If in doubt, get 

out!” Doubt and insecurity are not 

great starting points for a negotiation. 

My recommendation is speak with 

your line manager and align on which 

framework you can negotiate arbitrarily, 

and when you need to escalate. Lack 

of stakeholder alignment and no clear 

escalation paths are two 

of the main reasons why 

negotiations either fail, or 

money is left on the table. 

Try not to react 

emotionally to criticism 

from your director. 

Instead, enter into 

conversations rationally 

and professionally, 

consider all perspectives, 

and ask questions to get 

information to help with 

an aligned approach. 

If you’re reading this as a leader 

of negotiators, you may want to ask 

yourself one of the following questions: 

Was my behavior appropriate? Are 

my team empowered to negotiate 

across a broad range of variables? 

Are our objectives aligned with all 

key stakeholders? 

If this has provoked your thinking 

and led to you improving your 

negotiation alignment and preparation, 

then it has made my day. TNS 

38


CROSSWORD 

Our fiendishly challenging British-style crossword returns. 

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 

9 10 

11 12 

13 14 15 16 

17 18 19 20 

21 Desperately lean, say, leading to 

break down (7) 

22 Likes most of preserve 

belonging to us (7) 

24 Dr Varney, the bus driver, is too 

restrained at races, primarily (9) 

26 Negotiating these leads to 

tense engagement regarding 

28 issues ultimately (5) 

28 Gosh, accepting 1 to get ready (5) 

29 Clearly old boy cunning after 

attending 6 university (9) 

ILLUSTRATION: WWW.CARTOONSTOCK.COM 

21 22 23 

24 25 26 27 

28 29 

ACROSS 

9 Act of going forward, scratching 

the head producing slump (9) 

10/16 Unusual – sir’s recipe for 

inflation (5,5) 

11 The first two at Freud’s party 

provide old currency (5) 

12 Live with rescuer, hard for son 

having manners (9) 

13 Internet cheat maybe at award 

ceremony finally showing thrift (7) 

14 Turner getting endless wine and 

EU rum cocktail (7) 

17 It’s forbidden as well to 

embrace sailor (5) 

19/20 These produce items in 

undesirable periods (3,5) 

"The fish – will it be the market price at the time of 

ordering, the time of eating, or the time of paying?" 

DOWN 

1 Expert following teacher (4) 

2 Officer with duty to return 

ordinary book (6) 

3 Horror film has record publicity 

at the end, mind (10) 

4 Local objector grabs 

lecturer quickly (6) 

5 Astonishingly, neither daughter 

is owing 28 (2,3,3) 

6 Idler celebrities turned up (4) 

7 Covering boundary showing hesitation 

about opponent’s leg-bye initially (8) 

8 Big man to stand (4) 

13 More paintings by Magritte – 

his last mounted (5) 

15 Test Russian housing, one inside 

to provide inspiration (10) 

16 See 10 Across 

18 Do these rights lead to superior 12? (8) 

19 Vegetable variety of better sandwiches – 

two rounds (8) 

22 Try to discover longest river (6) 

23 Not able to relax, perhaps 

causing disorder (6) 

24 Drive up the No 10 slope (4) 

25 Blue elder principally found in island (4) 

27 Ray ostentatiously provide 

climbing bean (4) 

For solutions email 

hello@thenegotiationsociety.com 

39

Eat 

Sleep 

Negotiate 

Repeat 

Looking for a way to refresh and embed negotiation capability in your teams? 

The Negotiators is an innovative online negotiation competition that delivers 

learning and engagement in equal measure, and at scale. 

Find out more at www.thenegotiationsociety.com

The_Negotiation_Society_magazine_issue_10

You also want an ePaper? Increase the reach of your titles

Delete template?

Save as template?