It was with a certain degree of satisfaction that I listened to Radio 4 at the weekend. I had tuned in to listen to a programme about bi-lateral and multi-lateral trade negotiations. ‘Scintillating’, I hear you all say.

With the current political situation focused on impending change, people may well be imagining what goes on behind closed doors in regards to negotiations of this scale. As such, Radio 4’s programme The Bottom Line, produced a show called ‘Negotiating a Trade Deal’ which was billed as ‘How to negotiate trade deals after Brexit’. Here is the episode. http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b08bbcz6 I hope it lasts for some time…like a well negotiated trade deal.

What was so encouraging and satisfying for me was this. The points being brought up by the experts, who train the negotiators on aspects of negotiation for the World Trade Organisation, were exactly the same points that we train on our Negotiating Skills course to businesses and organisation in Norwich, Norfolk and the wider area. Absolutely no joke. No sales patter. No contrived Blog entry to influence people. Fact.

And why is that?

Because Negotiations have structure. They have process. They have a set of behaviours and outcomes desired and no matter the scale of them the processes and range of attitudes towards them are exactly the same. Our Negotiating Skills course is designed around the same school of thought and then modified for a different audience but the core elements are the same. What is the tone of the negotiation going to be? Gather as much information about the other party as you possibly can. Rank the order of importance of trading variables for both sides. Ask questions. Look for the areas where you can trade something of lesser value for you to gain something of greater value back. It is all wonderful and exciting ‘stuff’.

I always enjoy training Negotiation Skills to our clients but for our next course, I feel even more enthused to help people on their journey to Learn, Develop and Be Brilliant.