Surprises and street parties

There is an old joke about a woman who goes to the doctor. After a simple examination, the doctor tells her that she is pregnant. She screams in dismay and runs back to the waiting room, where she is comforted by the medical receptionist. The receptionist then rushes into the doctor’s office. ‘How could you make such a bad diagnosis? She can’t be pregnant. She has children and grandchildren and she is 72 years old’. ‘I know’ replies the doctor, ‘but does she still have hiccups?’

Using surprise as a cure is also a negotiating technique which is employed too often. Negotiators are frequently faced with surprise situations deliberately engineered by the other side in order to shock. Buyers who are ultra-aggressive in their negotiating style. Unions which call ballots for strike action just when the issues seem close to resolution. The addition of new demands which look to destroy an almost completed deal. Why? Because faced with these ‘shocks’ the other side often back off or modify their aspirations and a deal is struck.

Thousands of street parties are scheduled for today (April 29th ) to celebrate the Royal Wedding in the UK. But in a few cases negotiations to hold a party ran into trouble because local officials demanded that ridiculous and expensive petty rules were obeyed. They hoped that their mumbo jumbo demands would put off the organisers (street parties are expensive for local councils, who have to organise traffic rerouting, signage for diversions and so on). But the thwarted organisers went to central government, and Prime Minister David Cameron contemptuously and very publicly attacked the petty bureaucrats, and gave the thumbs up for organisers to go ahead with their plans.

It is reported that on the morning of the Coronation of Elizabeth II in 1953, one local authority resorted to law and applied for an injunction to force a persistent organiser to dismantle a street party, already set up and just waiting to go, which it considered to be illegal. The magistrate accepted that the local authority were right in law, and granted the injunction, but gave the street party organiser 24 hours to comply.

Victory for the common man.

And good guidance for negotiators faced with shock treatment to ‘cure’ their reluctance to comply. If you find yourself in this situation you should look to see how you can change the power balance back again. Don’t give the shock tacticians an opportunity to benefit from their plans. Because if you do, they’ll shock you again and again.

© 2011 Stephen White, Scotwork UK, www.scotwork.co.nz