Guessing is not a strategy: How to build decision velocity with AI and real-time data
June 10, 2026 | Live Webinar
Adverse Conditions
You can’t agree on a project solution if you don't agree on the problem. Non-adversarial negotiating has seven core principles designed to create the attitude and atmosphere required for people to talk to each other, hear what is needed, and then co-create a solution that is fair and justifiable.
Most children have at some time or another played with a woven straw cylinder about five inches long known as a "Chinese finger puzzle.” There is an opening at each end just large enough for a finger to be inserted in each end — and trapped. Trying to escape, you pull your fingers apart, but the harder you pull the tighter the straw stretches around each finger. Only by pushing inward, by moving counter to the direction in which escape seemed to lie, can you get free.
This is exactly how non-adversarial negotiating works. Instead of pulling toward our own self-interests and protecting ourselves, we instead push toward the other people and issues involved, seeking to really listen and understand them. Then, together, we can co-create a good solution to our problem. The more overlapping your interests are, the more ability you will have to co-create a solution that gives everyone what it is they need.
The problem with an adversarial approach is that it causes us to pull away from each other, like in the finger puzzle, and we get trapped. After that it is very difficult to really …
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Necessity is the mother of taking chances. - Mark Twain |