Your Weekly Walkaway - Did The EU President Negotiate COVID Cure by txt?
Newsletter Issue No. 5 (14th October 2022)
The Weekly Walkway highlights negotiation in its ‘good’, ‘bad’ and sometimes ‘downright ugly’ forms. What to expect?
Quote of the Week - yup, exactly what it says.
Tactic of the Week - In Your face
Thought of the Week - Conscious Negotiators Don’t Text!
Your Week - Repeated my number
Their Week - Pfizer CEO negotiated EU COVID vaccine contract via text
Remember: You are a negotiator!
You are always managing some form of conflict, a difference in opinion or interest.
QUOTE OF THE WEEK
Victor Kiam
“A negotiator should observe everything. You must be part Sherlock Holmes, part Sigmund Freud.”
TACTIC OF THE WEEK
In Your Face
Never expect a level of comfort when conducting business. If your counterpart chooses to change the environment to make you uncomfortable (temperature, invading your personal space, lights in your eyes, uncomfortable chairs etc.) they are doing so to ‘get in your face’. To make you feel uncomfortable and to take power from you. How about when they are being overly accommodating or even flirting? ‘In your face’. Perhaps you have more power than you first thought. How to control this? Call it out. Change the environment. Take charge. If you are unable to change their behaviour, call it out, ‘this is not professional’ and suggest the next time you meet they get ‘that chair’ and leave.
THOUGHT OF THE WEEK
Conscious Negotiators Don't Text!
Leave Nothing to Chance
Negotiators know nothing ever happens by accident; whether it happens consciously or subconsciously, negotiators need to be aware of everything. Everything that is said or done, consciously or subconsciously.
The best negotiators feel free to make assumptions from observations. They don't mind being wrong. In fact, they give themselves permission to be wrong. This enables them to question assumptions without a loss of pride. Why? Because any information is good information.
We all observe and deduce. We are doing it all the time. It is in us from our earliest ancestors, and we've been doing it since we were first born and looked up into our mother's eyes.
Professor Albert Mehrabian, UCLA in the 1970s, suggested that human communication, how we convey feelings and emotions, can be broken down into the following forms;
Non-Verbal - 55%
Tone - 38%
Verbal - 7%
If this is correct, then consider how much ‘real’ communication you could be missing by negotiating through text messages, emails and even snail mail!
Yes, we are ever busy, on the move, and WhatsApp’ing or emailing might seem appropriate at the time but reflect; maybe you could have gotten more if you had picked up your mobile and called or opened your laptop and ‘Team’d’, Zoom’d, or Webex’d instead. Text messaging as a form of negotiation can be done, yes, but wow! Look how much ‘communication’ you’re missing!
Ensure you don't miss anything nor send the wrong messages, meet face to face. Leave nothing to chance.
In negotiation, people use life experiences to interpret actions going on around them. They interpret your non-verbal then your tone and finally your words, then they jump to conclusions. If those actions are just words without the tone or non-verbal expressions to accompany them, miscommunication and misunderstandings are ever-present. Beware. Be aware. Their perception becomes their reality.
Take the time to meet face to face. Concentrate, be conscious, watch, ‘read’, and observe them. Allow yourself to make assumptions. Then test those assumptions. Right or wrong, it doesn't matter; it is all information, and information is power. Leave nothing to chance.
YOUR WEEK
I repeated my number.
Negotiated for damages, compensation. I opened extreme requiring all compensation to be paid. I kept repeating my number. I had clearly defined ZOPA and walkaway with planned moves. I made my planned moves and forced them to concede.
THEIR WEEK
Pfizer exec denies CEO negotiated EU COVID vaccine contract via text message.
Pfizer exec denies CEO negotiated EU COVID vaccine contract via text message.
In an interview with the New York Times in April 2021, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen revealed she had exchanged texts with Pfizer Chief Executive Albert Bourla for a month while the contract was under negotiation, prompting calls to publish the exchange.
The Commission said in June this year that it no longer had the texts, which later drew criticism from the European Union's ombudswoman.
The contract signed last year was the biggest ever sealed for COVID-19 vaccines, with the EU committing to buy 900 million Pfizer-BioNTech (22UAy.DE) shots, with an option to buy another 900 million.
Zoom out
Wow! What arrogance. You would hope this is just fake news but.. wow! The ego. The lack of conscious competence. The lack of competence! We can only just hope this is not the way our most senior leaders conduct themselves, but it does beg the question; “have they ever been trained to negotiate or are they just ‘playing’ at negotiation?”
I’d love to analyse those messages. But, surprise, they cant be found. 900mio plus another 900mio shots. €?
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