Don’t Give The Bad Guy A Gun

Police hostage negotiators have a set of basic rules that they follow. One of the key ones is that no matter how strongly the bad guys might demand it, they NEVER give them a gun. Seems like sorta a no-brainer, et? However, in the heat of negotiations nothing is ever that clear. The police know … Read more

It’s All About Power

One of the big challenges to doing a good job of negotiating is that often you don’t feel in control of the situation — you believe that the other side has all of the power. This of course is not true, because if it was then they would not be preparing to negotiate with you. … Read more

Let’s Get Physical

This might fall into the “duh” category; however, you would not believe how many times even the most experienced negotiators forget that before you negotiate, you must be mentally and physically in the right place. This is just a fancy way of saying that you have to be very comfortable to negotiate. Physical and mental … Read more

What Is Negotiation?

What’s interesting about a word like “negotiation” is that everyone *thinks* that they know what it means. However, once you start asking them for details we all start to wave our hands and seem to be at a loss for words. The kiss of death phrase “you know…” shows up and suddenly we realize that … Read more