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Category: Skills

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Body Language Human Resources Investing Management Marketing Negotiations Sales Skills Women In Business

How to Prevent Negotiator Anger Backlash that Kills Deals

“There are lots of ways to kill deals. Don’t let anger be one of them.” -Greg Williams, The Master Negotiator & Body Language Expert

“That offer angered me. They killed the deal by displaying that they had no respect for me. So, I shoved my chair to the wall, slammed my papers into my case, and walked away!” Does any of that invoke memories or stories of a negotiator’s actions that you’ve seen or heard?

Some form of anger is usually the tempest behind a negotiation’s demise. To prevent a negotiator’s anger and backlash that can kill your deal, always be mindful of your point of anger and that of the other negotiator.

Temper:

Losing your cool in a negotiation can make you run hot. That wasn’t meant to be funny. Too many times, negotiators forget to control their temper. When they do, they become irrational, engage in non-progressing actions, and infuse a degree of angst in themselves and the negotiation.

When you feel yourself getting upset during a negotiation, identify the cause. If your anger continues to rise, abate it by departing the environment and thoughts that are giving it life. Also remember that there’s another entity in the negotiation that you’re negotiating against. It’s your negotiation opponent. You should be mindful of your temperament as well as that of the other negotiator during the negotiation.

If the opposing negotiator becomes irate, assess the validity of his mood based on what triggered it; he may be using anger as a ruse. If his anger is genuine, alter the mood in the environment by changing elements in it; that may mean departing the environment that you’re in. Don’t attempt to negotiate in such climates. You may acquiesce when such is to your detriment.

Observe Body Language Signals:

Body language signals can be an omen of anger that’s lurking slightly beneath a negotiator’s mental surface. Such signals expose themselves by the removing of one’s glasses and tossing them aside (i.e. I don’t believe what I’m seeing), pinching the bridge of the nose (i.e. it’s getting stuffy in here; I need fresh air), rubbing palms while frowning or pouting (i.e. I’m warming up in anticipation for battle). During such occasions, whether it’s your actions or that of the other negotiator, note body language gestures that may foreshadow anger. Some will not be as obvious as others (e.g. pounding the table with a fist(s), waving the back of the hand with power coupled with words of dread, sounding exasperated).

Deal Conclusion:

The way a negotiation concludes can be the opening of a deal-killer. If anger has permeated the interactions between the negotiators prior to a deal, there may be a lingering angst promoted by that residue. To enhance the probability that the deal will become consummated, address that residue. Be sure it’s completely abated before departing the negotiation table.

Deal-breakers are always seeking life to kill a deal. By being more vigilant to what gives life to anger, you can prevent its backlash from invading your negotiations. You’ll no longer fall prey to the profound and insidiousness that anger uses to rip at the negotiation process. You’ll be in control of yourself, the other negotiator, and the negotiation … and everything will be right with the world.

Remember, you’re always negotiating!

After reading this article, what are you thinking? I’d really like to know. Reach me at Greg@TheMasterNegotiator.com

To receive Greg’s free “Negotiation Tip of the Week” and the “Sunday Negotiation Insight” click here http://www.TheMasterNegotiator.com/greg-williams/

#Anger #Prevent #Backlash #Improvenegotiation #Power #secrets #HiddenOpportunities #Mistakes #Management #SmallBusiness #Money #Negotiating #combat #negotiatingwithabully #bully #bullies #bullying #Negotiations #PersonalDevelopment #HandlingObjections #Negotiator #HowToNegotiateBetter #CSuite #TheMasterNegotiator #psychology #NegotiationPsychology

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Best Practices Growth Management Skills Technology

Turn Cognitive Challenges into Opportunities With Technology Built the Way You Think

By Daniel Burrus and Neil Smith

(In this blog series on how elevating cognitive performance is a game changer for organizations, I’ve invited Neil Smith, CTO at Think Outcomes, to join me in writing on this important topic due to his expertise and the cognitive performance software his firm has created.)

Technology can function as a key enabler for higher cognitive performance. Technology is as important for cognitive roles as it is for transactional ones, since cognitive work in organizations drives transactional tasks. With performance gains realized through transaction management software, the next game changer is to evolve the cognitive infrastructure in the operating model.

While machines learn, disrupt and occupy the defined and known cognitive tasks of humans across industries, technologies to advance cognitive performance in the mind and with teams have remained relatively stagnant to move uncertainties into higher certainty frameworks.

Professionals utilize many technologies in their cognitive work everyday, but were not built to advance their cognitive performance. These every day technologies include:

  • spreadsheets
  • presentation software
  • documents

The Tools Leaders use for Critical Thinking in your Organization Today

All too often, critical thinking runs through spreadsheets. You may be surprised to discover the collage of spreadsheets your enterprise utilizes in its operating model — hundreds and thousands of spreadsheets (depending on the size of your business).

With spreadsheets, it’s challenging to arrive at informed decisions with 85%+ effectiveness. It’s also challenging to manage future uncertainties with 50%+ effectiveness.

How Leaders Communicate with Stakeholders in your Organization Today

Beyond their voices, leaders and managers communicate with stakeholders primarily through multipurpose presentation software. A tremendous amount of time, money and effort is expended to build presentations as snapshots in time for stakeholders. Presentations to equity investors, lenders, internal management, operations teams and supply chain partners, among many others, do not provide a framework for dynamic communications that shape the thinking in the minds of your stakeholders. Their questions are all too often unresolved during meetings, which delay decisions. When additional meetings are scheduled, you resolve the initial questions from stakeholders without a clear understanding of the impact on outcomes.

Presentation software makes it challenging to communicate perspective and address stakeholder concerns in real time with 90% effectiveness.

How Stakeholder Expectations are Conveyed in your Organization Today

Professionals primarily express their expectations verbally. They also write them in reference documents that are accessed infrequently, such as job descriptions, performance reviews, supplier agreements and annual reports, to name a few.

As documents are not actionable frameworks, it’s challenging to achieve expectations in dependent thinking with 85%+ effectiveness.

Imagine if the Stock Market Operated the Way Business Operates Today

The stock graph transforms how you synthesize information in your mind to arrive at informed decisions. Let’s go back to the time when you couldn’t visualize stock graphs for your decisions. Before stock graphs existed, imagine you met with your wealth advisor who expected you to make decisions to invest your monies and said:

I’m glad you are interested in investing in the market. We have over 10,000 companies in our exchange. To help you make an informed decision, I’ll introduce you to the analysts; there are hundreds of them. Each of them will show you their spreadsheets. Then each will walk you through your options via presentations, while attempting to answer all your questions. I thought you’d want to know this will take time because the analysts structure their spreadsheets their own way; there isn’t any consistency between them. Nor is there consistency among their presentations. After you synthesize all this information in your mind, you should be in a position to arrive at an informed decision about how to best invest your monies.

If decision processes for investors worked that way, individuals could not make high-fidelity decisions effectively. They’d be attending a lot of meetings to gain insight. As a result, many stocks wouldn’t have performed as well and many portfolios wouldn’t have grown. Nor would have the market evolved as it has.

Yet this is Exactly How Decision Processes in Business Work Today

As executives continue to invest in their transactional operations over decades, it’s time they prioritize and invest in their cognitive operations. The technology in the transactional operations is far ahead of the technology in the cognitive operations. Yet the cognitive operations drive activity in the transactional operations.

Is ‘Being Human’ Enough Today in the Cognitive Era?

Historic methods to advance critical thinking and stakeholder communications using human mental models, past experiences, personal networks and fundamental analytics are no longer enough in today’s business world. As machines increasingly coexist with humans, anticipatory tools and advanced performance analytics are needed to survive, differentiate and grow businesses and their professionals.

Learn how to elevate your planning, accelerate innovation and transform results with The Anticipatory Leader System and how to maximize the cognitive performance of your team with Cognitive Performance Software.

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Best Practices Entrepreneurship Investing Management Marketing Negotiations Sales Skills Women In Business

Be Alert When Options Are Being Limited

“Limit my options and you limit my beliefs. If I allow you to limit my beliefs, I limit myself.” -Greg Williams, The Master Negotiator & Body Language Expert

“What do you believe and how do you arrive at your beliefs? Are you a ‘the glass is half empty or the glass is half full’ person?” Those were the questions posed when two individuals were talking. The ‘half empty or half full’ question was limited by its option. It proposed that there were only two possible answers to the question (i.e. half empty or half full). There was a third possible option not offered. The glass could have been the right size for the contents it contained. Thus, the questioner was attempting to control the thought process of the questionee by limiting the questionee’s options to two possibilities.

“Limit the options of what you want me to believe and I’ll give you my limited beliefs. But by doing so, I may give you insincerity in return.” -Greg Williams, The Master Negotiator & Body Language Expert

When given options, consider what’s omitted. Also, assess if what’s omitted is intentional. Consider if it’s done to keep you from focusing on more salient points that might serve you. When someone limits your options, they’re limiting your choices. By limiting your choices, they’re also limiting your beliefs. They’re controlling you! Don’t take that lightly.

That may sound like it’s obvious, but when you’re presented with specific options, your selections become limited. As an example, if I asked you if you’d rather be rich or happy, what might your thought be? Would you consider other options, or would you focus on the choices I presented to you? Most people wouldn’t consider other possibilities. They would focus on the choices presented.

Always be willing to expand your mind by exploring the possibilities contained in options that aren’t presented. Doing so may expose more value. That’s how you can discover your treasure. Seek yours and you’ll become more mentally enriched by knowledge … and everything will be right with the world.

What does this have to do with negotiations?

When limited by choices, one becomes limited by the options offered. While that can be constraining for you, it can also be a tactic you employ in your strategies against the other negotiator. You can best deliver it by stating your options in a rushed or calming demeanor; choose whichever is best for the situation at hand. To make it more viable, have a combination of options ready to diffuse any possible push-back you might receive. Follow that up with, “I’ve given you options. What else do you want me to do?” Remember, while you have your negotiation counterpart considering your options, you’re in control of the negotiation.

When negotiating, be alert to the choices you’re offered and the ones you offer. If the premise of those choices doesn’t fit within your spectrum of benefits, reject them while attempting to persuade the other negotiator to consider yours. By doing so, you’ll become more reflective and circumspective in your thinking about the choices you consider and extend. That will lead to more fulfilling negotiations, enhanced by more positive negotiation outcomes.

Remember, you’re always negotiating!

After reading this article, what are you thinking? I’d really like to know. Reach me at Greg@TheMasterNegotiator.com

 To receive Greg’s free “Negotiation Tip of the Week” and the “Sunday Negotiation Insight” click here http://www.themasternegotiator.com/greg-williams/

#Options #LimitedOptions #Success #Emotion #Business #Progress #SmallBusiness #Negotiation #NegotiatingWithABully #Power #Perception #emotionalcontrol #relationships #liars #HowToNegotiateBetter #CSuite #TheMasterNegotiator #ControlEmotions

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Best Practices Entrepreneurship Investing Management Marketing Negotiations Sales Skills Women In Business

Anchoring – How to Better Improve Your Negotiation Efforts

“In negotiations, anchoring can tie you down, but it doesn’t have to weigh you down. Used right, it can be the brisk breeze that sails you to greater negotiation ports.” -Greg Williams, The Master Negotiator & Body Language Expert

Anchoring occurs in every negotiation in one form or another. To enhance your negotiation position, be aware of when it occurs, the intent of it, the mindset you adopt when observing it, and what response you or your negotiation counterpart will have to it. Those ingredients will drastically affect the flow and outcome of the negotiation. Consider the following.

Anchoring Intent:

Know the intent of anchoring. It should align with your negotiation plans. In some situations, it may be prudent to let the other negotiator anchor his position first. The justification would be based on him displaying more of his position than you displaying yours. Regardless of the option you choose, remember the person that anchors first sets a mile-marker that establishes a boundary in the negotiation.

Anchoring Tonality:

When considering how to implant your anchor, consider the tonality you’ll employ to assist your efforts. As an example, if you state your position with a timid sounding voice, you run the risk of sounding unsure and weak. On the other hand, if you convey your intent with a rich and deep voice, you’ll project the perception of authority. You’ll be more believable, influential, and convincing; a deep voice is commanding; It projects authority. In either case, be mindful of the perception your tone of voice has on your pronouncements.

Anticipate Response:

Unlike other tools in a negotiation, you should use anchoring judiciously. It will become the cornerstone upon which an easy or tough negotiation ensues.

Before choosing when and how you’ll anchor your position, consider what the response might be to it. When planning, assemble actions that will buttress up and progress your position while keeping the negotiation away from quagmires.

You should always anticipate your counterpart’s next move. When anchoring, anticipate several future moves that he might make.  Since anchoring establishes the foundation from which you’ll move forward, be more diligent in your timing, thought process, and implementation.

Mental Mindset:

Be aware of your mental state of mind when attempting to use anchoring as a viable tool in negotiations. If you’re mentally weak about making your offer, per how you’ll anchor it, assess why you have that mindset; more than likely, it won’t serve the goals you’re attempting to achieve. If you can’t muster the mental fortitude to deliver your offer in a manner that supports your efforts, it may be better not to anchor it at all. You don’t want to worsen your chance of acquiring a better deal.

Counter Anchoring:

If you’re aware of what your negotiation counterpart is attempting to achieve by anchoring you to his position, and you don’t like the position it places you in, counter to the extreme opposite. The subliminal message you’ll send is, there’s a wide gap to overcome. It will also serve to message that both of you will have to make a significant movement to advance the negotiation. You can signal that you’re willing to attempt that broach if he is, too.

The potential pitfall of responding to the extreme is to risk an impasse due to such a wide gap in anchors. Thus, you should be thoughtful about how you refute an anchor that’s established and whether you’ll set it first.

Anchoring is the persister that sets the boundaries that follow. It also foreshadows the strategies that will persist after its establishment. Used adroitly, it can be the first volley of an enhanced negotiation. Thus, if you use anchoring skillfully, you’ll be on a path to heightened negotiation outcomes … and everything will be right with the world.

Remember, you’re always negotiating!

After reading this article, what are you thinking? I’d really like to know. Reach me at Greg@TheMasterNegotiator.com

To receive Greg’s free “Negotiation Tip of the Week” and the “Sunday Negotiation Insight” click here http://www.TheMasterNegotiator.com/greg-williams/

#Anchoring #Improvenegotiation #Power #secrets #HiddenOpportunities #Mistakes #Management #SmallBusiness #Money #Negotiating #combat #negotiatingwithabully #bully #bullies #bullying #Negotiations #PersonalDevelopment #HandlingObjections #Negotiator #HowToNegotiateBetter #CSuite #TheMasterNegotiator #psychology #NegotiationPsychology

Categories
Best Practices Growth Management Skills Technology

Elevate Cognitive Performance

By Daniel Burrus and Neil Smith

(In this blog series on how elevating cognitive performance is a game changer for organizations, I’ve invited Neil Smith, CTO at Think Outcomes, to join me in writing on this important topic due to his expertise and the cognitive performance software his firm has created.)

Improving cognitive performance is a strategic imperative for anticipatory leaders. With the availability of data, cognitive technology and performance analytics, stakeholders expect stronger performance, higher transparency, greater controls and clearer communications.

Performance Analytics for Cognitive Work

The transactional operations of an organization have demonstrated how people, process, technology, information and analytics can transform their processes and improve performance before, during and after a customer transaction. A key area that is ripe for improvement is the cognitive operations of an organization where the same principles involving the mind, cognitive processes, cognitive performance technology and performance analytics can transform critical thinking and stakeholder communications.

Cognitive Performance Rings

Business professionals are similar to athletes. Both groups seek to achieve greatness from their actions and get to the top of their game. LeBron James in the NBA, Serena Williams in tennis and Usain Bolt in running at the Olympic Games are all recognized for their individual achievements and team play. They didn’t just arrive. They work every day to close their own performance rings on their journey to greater precision in their craft. The same is possible for professionals. They need to not only outthink their competitors, they need to outperform themselves because they know their last performance is their last impression. Their performance is their memorable stamp on their organization and their industry.

Cognitive performance rings illustrate current and expected effectiveness in cognitive performance.

The activities performed in the minds of critical thinkers, decision makers and stakeholders are represented through cognitive performance rings in the eight performance indicators of cognitive effectiveness below.

From decades of experiences, we recognized the effectiveness of cognitive work across a wide variety of professionals in business, which are shown in the cognitive performance rings below.  Each performance ring illustrates indicators for the common ranges of current effectiveness along with their expected effectiveness.

When reviewing each performance ring, think about where your teams stand with respect to their cognitive effectiveness. Then prioritize which performance rings are important to you and your organization at this time to help it learn, grow and compete more effectively.

Eight Performance Indicators of Cognitive Effectiveness

How well is your team doing?

Performance indicator 1 — Critical Thinking

How well does your team think critically about risks and benefits?
‘Most people believe their minds lead them down a logical path. Yet, we don’t have a way to challenge the way we think in the moment.

Performance indicator 2 — Stakeholder Communications

How well does your team advance decisions with stakeholders?
‘Our stakeholders increasingly need evidence in a structured way that supports their perspectives and their questions. We don’t have a structured operating process to bring stakeholders into the decision making process easily.’

Performance indicator 3 — Cognitive Collaboration

How well does your team achieve breakthroughs during collaboration?
‘In our meetings, we can’t visualize what’s in each other’s heads. Our current processes don’t provide us a way to arrive at insights and foresights with the amount of time we have together. Frankly, it’s a challenge during this time of expected innovation.’

Performance indicator 4 — Decision Execution

How well does your team execute decisions with foresight?
‘We over rely on our gut instincts. We learn from hindsight. It’s concerning to us because change is no longer constant. It’s accelerating. We need a way to become more anticipatory.’

Performance indicator 5 — Performance Conditions

How well does your team establish upper and lower thresholds for thinking and communications?
‘We don’t share thresholds enough. When we do, we share thresholds verbally and in documents. The only way we shape the cognitive behaviors across our teams is through our review processes by management. This approach affects our culture and we don’t know how to address it.’

Performance indicator 6 — Performance Compliance

How well does your team incorporate performance conditions during thinking and communications?
‘The goals and objectives of our stakeholders aren’t transparent for our team. When we do receive them, we incorporate conditions we remember. We need a systematized way to incorporate conditions into our cognitive work.’

Performance indicator 7 — Uncertainty Monitoring

How well does your team anticipate disruption?
‘We don’t anticipate disruption enough. We are susceptible to external forces as we don’t monitor indicators that can disrupt our business.’

Performance indicator 8 — Performance Advisory

How well does your team strengthen the performance of other teams?
‘We try to lead from experience. Yet, we can’t dedicate the amount of time necessary to accelerate the growth of each individual. We need to provide a way to help them self-learn and deepen their intelligence even more. That would help all of us.’

The performance yield of each ring begins with questions of uncertainty that span outcomes, impact, risk, opportunity, implications, consequences, causation or cause and effect. Performance yields arise from insights and strategic foresights in the minds of professionals. With dashboards presented the way their minds work, professionals lean in and think more deeply about situations. As they access correlated data at the speed of thought, they create performance analytics that challenge the way they think about their current situations. When they visualize indicators and patterns within dashboards about the current and target states of their subject profiles, they work in a software environment to engage their thinking, create their ah-ha moments and generate counterintuitive wisdom.

Tom Brady was selected 199th in the NFL draft by the New England Patriots and became the most decorated quarterback in history. All professionals have an opportunity for greatness. Beyond the physical game, it starts with their cognitive tools.

Learn how to elevate your planning, accelerate innovation and transform results with The Anticipatory Learning System and how to maximize the cognitive performance of your team with Cognitive Performance Software.

Digital transformation has divided us all into two camps: the disruptor and the disrupted. The Anticipatory Organization gives you the tools you need to see disruption before it happens, allowing you to turn change into advantage. Pick up a copy today at www.TheAOBook.com.

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Best Practices Entrepreneurship Management Marketing Negotiations Sales Skills Women In Business

How to Prevent Your Nerves From Getting the Better of You

“Nervousness is a part of life. When it serves you, embrace it. When it dis-serves you, shun it.” -Greg Williams, The Master Negotiator & Body Language Expert

“I started verbally stumbling. I don’t know what came over me. I heard senseless words coming out of my mouth; they made no sense. It was like my brain had disconnected from my mouth. My nerves were definitely getting the better of me.” Those were the words of an overly exasperated woman recalling a conversation she had with a senior member of her organization. Do you have such moments? We all do. Have you ever stopped to question why that occurs and how you can prevent it?

Continue reading to discover how you can recognize the pending onset of such moments and how to thwart them when they occur.

Stress

First, recognize that stress is usually the culprit behind your brain-freeze moments. Stress is promoted by several factors (i.e. lack of rest, the perception of your social position related to others, preparedness deficiency, sleep deprivation, physiology, etc.). Identifying the cause and when your nervousness occurs will allow you to better address it.

Triggers

Psychologically, actions are evoked by triggers that serve as stimuli for those actions. Note and recognize the source(s) and cause(s) behind the triggers that move you to react. Specifically, observe the stimuli that cause you to act a certain way in certain environments. In some cases, the source behind the trigger may be an unsettled action that occurred earlier in your life. Then, when confronted by a similar environment or circumstance, subliminally, you react the way you did years ago. Address that source and you stand a greater chance of controlling the trigger.

Lack of Preparedness

I know what might occur in the upcoming situation. So, I’ll just wing it. A lack of preparedness can be stress inducing. Since no one truly knows what might occur in the future, we speculate. The better we can tap-down the assumptions of what we think may occur, the better we can control the variables that feed uncertainty. Considering the possible scenarios that we could encounter prepares us for those engagements while lowering the mental threat that might otherwise stem from fear of not being in control.

Physiology

Where physiology is concerned, some people start to mentally shut down. “I don’t want to hear about how a lack of rest, exercise, depleted hydration, and/or the lack of a proper diet can hamper me from reaching peak performance”, are the thoughts of some individuals. But, when your body is physically misaligned, as the result of missing the ingredients mentioned, you become mentally deprived of a coherent thought process. Don’t overlook the value that physiology plays in your overall wellbeing. To do so is to psychologically rob your thought and presentation process of greater consistency.

What does this have to do with negotiations?

Every negotiation is fraught with situations that claims fear as an ingredient of its process. That fear may stem from being uncertain about how to act or react in situations, or being fearful of what might occur if one finds oneself in a no-deal position. Command control over your emotions when contemplating such thoughts. Do so by controlling the thoughts that might lead you down a path laden with nervousness.

By addressing and preventing the nervous tensions that could hamper your negotiation, you’ll enhance your negotiation efforts. You’ll be preventing such nervousness from getting the better of you … and everything will be right with the world.

Remember, you’re always negotiating!

After reading this article, what are you thinking? I’d really like to know. Reach me at Greg@TheMasterNegotiator.com

To receive Greg’s free “Negotiation Tip of the Week” and the “Sunday Negotiation Insight” click here http://www.themasternegotiator.com/greg-williams/

#PreventNervousness #prevention # Nerves #Success #Emotion #Business #Progress #SmallBusiness #Negotiation #NegotiatingWithABully #Power #Perception #emotionalcontrol #relationships #liars #HowToNegotiateBetter #CSuite #TheMasterNegotiator #ControlEmotions

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Best Practices Growth Industries Management Skills Technology

Eliminate Cognitive Friction to Maximize Human Performance

By Daniel Burrus and Neil Smith

(In this blog series on how elevating cognitive performance is a game changer for organizations, I’ve invited Neil Smith, CTO at Think Outcomes, to join me in writing on this important topic due to his expertise and the cognitive performance software his firm has created.)

Improving cognitive performance is a strategic imperative for anticipatory leaders. Yet, cognitive performance slows down due to cognitive friction. Cognitive friction occurs when professionals can’t think through uncertainties clearly in their minds. These uncertainties include:

  1. Risks
  2. Opportunities
  3. Outcomes
  4. Consequences
  5. Implications
  6. Impact
  7. Causations
  8. Causes and effects

In an organization, cognitive friction occurs frequently across many professional roles, minds and perspectives. For the 15 areas in a cognitive operation below, cognitive friction not only spans many responsibilities, it also impacts relationships and shapes cultures.

15 Areas of a Cognitive Operation

Cognitive Friction Across Perspectives

Cognitive friction occurs when two or more professionals are challenged to get on the same page. They must resolve their perspectives — which can be very challenging. In business, professionals:

  • Perform critical thinking
  • Make decisions
  • Communicate with stakeholders
  • Collaborate with other professionals
  • React to uncertainties
  • Work with peers and stakeholders to address situational challenges
  • Advise other professionals about their cognitive work
  • Evaluate the thoroughness to think through situations in the minds of their thinkers
  • Review the risk-reward trade-offs among their team members

Cognitive Friction Within the Mind of a Professional

Cognitive friction exists within the minds of professionals and creates undue stress. The six reasons friction occurs is due to:

  1. The processing limitations in the mind
  2. Ineffective communications
  3. Unproductive collaborations
  4. Uncertainties in their minds
  5. Lack of cognitive insights and foresights
  6. Bias that leads to cognitive divisiveness


Processing Limitations in the Mind

When processing multiple data points in the mind, cognitive work can become a highly stressful activity. It’s amazing how many leaders are not equipped with cognitive tools to manage uncertainty across situations, close their knowledge gaps and achieve expected results. When a situation includes more than seven variables, it’s well-known that the human mind is not able to process this level of complexity. Think how we receive, process and remember phone numbers. Our minds are not wired to synthesize 10 or more digits at a time. In the U.S., people think about the 10 digits in a pattern of a 3-digit area code, a 3-digit prefix and 4-digits for the line number; our minds consume, process and recall smaller chunks of information.

Try this exercise in your mind to see how complexity increases quickly: spin all the digits of five phone numbers in your mind as if the numbers were on a slot machine. Can you keep track of the numbers? Most of us cannot; our minds get overwhelmed right away.

When multiple changing variables exist, that’s the type of stress professionals experience every day in their minds as they perform their risk-reward trade-offs. Without additional cognitive capabilities, leaders turn to their gut as a place to find answers; often, though, the gut isn’t a very good logic engine. Operating risk is introduced when critical thinkers and decision makers do not have access to complementary, cognitive tools to perform their cognitive activities at their best.

Effective Communications Accelerate Buy-in and Decisions

The challenges increase further for critical thinkers and decision makers when they communicate with their stakeholders, peers and dependents to gain agreement about multiple, interdependent variables. These heterogeneous thinkers add new perspectives to the decision process, which increases the complexity.

That’s when members of decision teams communicate from their emotional viewpoints. Decisions stall, lasting impressions impact culture and relationships, and people experience an impasse.

Productive Collaborations are Needed to Achieve Better Outcomes

Google Hangouts, Skype and Zoom represent a step forward in collaboration and reduce travel costs. Yet, as professionals move between face-to-face and online meetings, they still struggle to innovate with breakthrough thinking.

Often, we hear professionals say, “if I could see what’s in the minds of the people I’m working with, that would help me address the challenges I’m aware of, too.” Yet, given human limitations, most professionals can’t bridge that gap effectively. If meetings involved the ability to demonstrate thinking patterns, that would help professionals overcome this human hurdle.

As professionals join meetings, they commonly bring their mental models and biases from years of experience. Their mental models create barriers to synthesizing other people’s perspectives as well as new ways of thinking into their own thinking. Where they use their voices and presentation software to convey their thinking, most attendees try to follow the logic rather than elevate their own thinking. If they had a way to unify their thinking through the visualization of evidence that focused on addressing questions of uncertainty and their critical thoughts, they’d optimize their time, learn to pre-solve issues and focus on better outcomes together. That would advance productivity in thinking in a visual way.

When professionals conclude their meetings with follow-on questions, leaders wonder which questions weren’t brought up? Are their teams going down the wrong paths? How do these questions connect to the stakeholders’ objectives? Are they considering the Hard Trends based on future facts that are shaping the future? Professionals expend valuable time to get to clarity as they reflect on their learnings when they need insights and foresights more quickly. Anticipatory leaders seek to institute advanced collaboration processes that yield greater productivity among their teams. They see everyday innovation and breakthrough thinking as a competitive advantage today as well as tomorrow.

Uncertainties, Cognitive Insights and Foresights

As connected teams in today’s data-driven world, data scientists and stakeholders strive for better outcomes together. Where data scientists focus on big data and use machine learning to ask questions about data, stakeholders focus on decision information and ask questions to solve situational challenges. The minds of stakeholders are as effective as the:

  1. Quality of their questions to resolve their problems and uncertainties
  2. Cognitive insights and foresights that arise from their mental models

Bias and Cognitive Divisiveness

In the minds of professionals, cognitive friction results from their cognitive biases and the synthesis of disparate data. Cognitive divisiveness exists among professionals as data synthesis and bias differ across perspectives. Cognitive friction and divisiveness affect velocity and outcomes.

In their roles, professionals:

  • Are often unable to access data structured the way they think about risk-reward trade-offs
  • Don’t know what they don’t know during decision making
  • Are challenged many times to demonstrate their points of view
  • Are frequently challenged to see alternative points of view during communications
  • Struggle to shape the thinking of team members due to predefined mental models
  • Are challenged to arrive at strategic foresights and engineer outcomes

A Critical Thinking Advantage

To gain an advantage in today’s world, cognitive teams must pre-solve issues through a continuous flow of cognitive insights and foresights. To achieve their objectives, they must find new wisdom within the cognitive gaps in their minds — i.e., to get from “here” to “there.” “Here” is where they are today in context to their cognitive responsibilities. “There” is where they need to go. This cognitive gap represents their current state and target state of their subject profiles. Their stakeholders depend on actionable knowledge and wisdom from their team of thinkers to improve business results. This starts with the capabilities of their cognitive resources and tools.

Learn how to elevate your planning, accelerate innovation and transform results with The Anticipatory Learning System and how to maximize the cognitive performance of your team with Cognitive Performance Software.

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Best Practices Body Language Entrepreneurship Human Resources Management Marketing Negotiations Sales Skills Women In Business

How to Make ‘You’ a Better Negotiator

 “Small increments add up. Observe the small increments that make you a better negotiator.” -Greg Williams, The Master Negotiator & Body Language Expert

Did the word, ‘you’, draw your attention to this article? If you don’t think it did, think again. If not at your conscious level, subliminally, it did affect you. Knowing when to use ‘you’ in a negotiation can make you a better negotiator.

The Story:

“I’m canceling my monthly subscription”, stated an irate customer. “Why”, asked the service manager. “Because I didn’t like the way you resolved my issue”, replied the customer. With that, the service manager crossed his arms and retorted in a defensive tone, “what did you expect me to do? I told you we don’t settle that type of claim!”

‘You’ can be an insidious or gravely dangerous word if not used correctly in a negotiation. ‘You’ is very directive. It’s not me, or someone else, it’s directed at a single individual, you. When negotiating, be cautious about when and how you use that word.

The following are ways to use ‘you’ to enhance your negotiation efforts, while making you a better negotiator.

Using ‘You’ Strategically:

  • Consider the other negotiator’s demeanor. The opposing negotiator’s mood will affect his perception. In some cases, depending on his mood, the word ‘you’ can be perceived as being accusatory.
  • Inflection impacts the perception of ‘you’ (e.g. you need help? you need help!) – In either example, the question or statement could be perceived as being heartfelt or sarcastic depending on the inflection of how it’s posed.
  • Since ‘you’ grabs the attention of a person, use it to command attention (e.g. I need you to consider this, now.)

Using ‘You’ Haphazardly:

  • Some negotiations can become very heated. During such times, be aware that ‘you’ can ramp temperatures higher (e.g. you do it too!)
  • Not being strategic when using ‘you’ can dilute its value (e.g. do you mean that? You don’t mean that!) When ‘you’ is the first word in your statement or question it becomes more poignant.
  • Don’t overuse ‘you’. To make it more impactful, use it to stress and/or highlight a point (e.g. that is good versus, you are good.)

Body Language:

To assess the effect of ‘you’ during the negotiation, observe hand, head, and eye movements. Immediately after stating, ‘you’, observe your negotiation counterpart’s body language.

  • Hand – palms extended facing you, he’s defending himself against your proposal/accusation (i.e. whoa, not so fast.) – palms up and shoulder shrug (i.e. what do you want me to do?) – palms down, after having been up (i.e. rejection) – fist (i.e. anger)
  • Head – moving away (i.e. putting distance between you and your assertion) – moving toward (i.e. willing to embrace or confront (definitive action noted by demeanor)) – head tilted (i.e. in thought mode)
  • Eyes – narrowing (i.e. focused, attentive to what’s being conveyed and how it’s being stated) – wide (i.e. excitement, can be good or bad – assess meaning based on demeanor)

When seeking to enhance a negotiation, or threading the needle of doubt, consider how you can employ the usage of ‘you’. When used appropriately, you’ll expand your negotiation position exponentially. You will experience greater negotiation outcomes … and everything will be right with the world.

Remember, you’re always negotiating!

After reading this article, what are you thinking? I’d really like to know. Reach me at Greg@TheMasterNegotiator.com

To receive Greg’s free “Negotiation Tip of the Week” and the “Sunday Negotiation Insight” click here http://www.TheMasterNegotiator.com/greg-williams/

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Best Practices Growth Management Skills Technology

Cognitive Performance — The Human Side of Cognitive Computing

By Daniel Burrus and Neil Smith

(In this blog series on how elevating cognitive performance is a game changer for organizations, I’ve invited Neil Smith, CTO at Think Outcomes, to join me in writing on this important topic due to his expertise and the cognitive performance software his firm has created.)

As a leader, your responsibilities exist on the cognitive side of your business, where you think critically, make complex decisions, collaborate among your network, communicate with your stakeholders, comply with regulations and monitor uncertainties, to name a few. These activities represent your cognitive work. Given today’s rapid growth in organizations using AI, you are most likely exploring the current state of cognitive computing and how it can help you with your responsibilities beyond the collection, storage and retrieval of data through computers as data appliances. You are also considering how the highly marketed definitions of cognitive computing from IBM Watson can help you?

How cognitive performance computing can help you as a critical thinker in business  

As we meet with leaders in business, management consulting and government around the globe, they, too, are wondering how they can leverage cognitive computing for their work.

These professionals occupy roles in the cognitive operations of their organizations, where there is a constant set of unknowns. Senior executives are responsible for closing their gaps in knowledge about the future state of their businesses. Trusted advisors must do the same for their clients. As standard setters must set guidelines as best practices, regulators create the laws that require cognitive compliance from organizational leaders. The next evolution of cognitive computing addresses their cognitive responsibilities — i.e., helping executives and management consultants work through their risk-reward trade-offs in context to situational context and criteria, while standard setters and regulators build the required thresholds into the thinking of organizational leaders. This segment of cognitive computing is known as cognitive performance. Enhancing cognitive performance improves critical thinking, stakeholder communications, decision making, advisory collaboration, monitoring of uncertainties and cognitive compliance. Cognitive performance software extends the human mind with computing to help humans learn, compete and grow the impact of their own intellects.

Leverage cognitive computing for what your mind can’t do

Where machines continue to learn role-based tasks, it’s necessary for humans to work in harmony with machines to better navigate through areas of complexity and uncertainty. For business to advance, enhancing human performance needs to be a strategic imperative for business executives rather than accepting the status quo. With stronger human performance, culture will transform with faster cognitive insights and foresights to create an environment of deeper human learning. Without higher performance from our minds, we’re all operating the same way — figuring out situations on our own in a sequential order and learning from hindsight. Computers, available data and applying the four pillars of the Anticipatory Model will help us learn with foresight. To compete in industry today, we need cognitive computing to do more for our minds than provide data-driven insights. We need cognitive computing to assist the cerebral processing in our minds, help us gain perspective and put us in a position to make high-fidelity decisions. The human computers on top of our shoulders need turbochargers. As visual learners, wouldn’t it be great if we made our thoughts visual through thinking patterns to make the most of our risk-reward trade-offs! That would change the velocity of decision making and stakeholder communications! To move the needle much further in business requires a focus on the performance of human minds across teams — from senior executives and mid-level managers in business to those in their supply chains, consulting circles, insurance relationships, investor partnerships and professionals across the sciences, among others. Enhancing cognitive performance needs to be a strategic imperative to gain a competitive advantage.

Improve reasoning and judgment

Professionals know they rely on instinct and gut reactions all too often. Their ability to process information in their minds or to understand someone else’s viewpoint is often challenging. It’s a human limitation, and that’s where responsibility-based computing can help. The batting averages of professionals in reasoning and judgment must improve in today’s business world. The cognitive era is the time to break through these limitations and leverage computing to extend the capabilities of our minds.

Digital advancement in cognitive performance

Many teams responsible for operating processes on the transactional side of their businesses are now involved in digital transformation. They are automating their manual activities using AI, question-answering systems, big data and other software. Within the cognitive side of their businesses, the cognitive operating processes are ready to digitally advance as well. Those who spend time prioritizing and enhancing the cognitive performance of their teams will leapfrog their competitors as they will strengthen human performance.

The benefits of exponential advances in computing must now be applied to human performance. There’s a long, bright road ahead for the performance of the human mind. We’re just at the beginning.

Learn how to elevate your planning, accelerate innovation and transform results with The Anticipatory Learning System and how to maximize the cognitive performance of your team with Cognitive Performance Software.

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Best Practices Entrepreneurship Human Resources Investing Management Marketing Negotiations Sales Skills Women In Business

How to Uncover More Hidden Value Opportunities When Negotiating

“Opportunities are concealed in hidden value. Heighten your sense of value and you’ll uncover more hidden value opportunities.” -Greg Williams, The Master Negotiator & Body Language Expert 

“Did you really want those bananas?” That was the question asked as one friend watched another negotiate the price of a lamp. “Yes, I wanted them”, was the reply. “I love bananas, especially when they’re free!”

Bananas can be a metaphor for anything you get as a bonus when negotiating.

Two friends were at a flee market. One saw a unique USB lamp. He asked the seller for the cost. The reply was $7. The friend offered $5. The seller said he paid more than that. So, the friend offered $6. The seller still said no. With that, the friend turned and began walking away. As he did, he spotted bananas. He turned and said, I’ll give you $7 for the lamp if you’ll give me seven bananas and the lamp. The seller said, okay. He gave the buyer the lamp, along with seven bananas, and that consummated the deal. That occurred even though the seller had the bananas listed at sixty cents each.

Objective:

When you negotiate, do you note your real objective? In the situation above, the objective was not to get the lamp for less than $7, it was to maximize the purchasing power of the $7. The bananas added value to that purchasing power. That recognition helped the friend bring the deal to fruition.

Hidden Value:

When contemplating the objective of a negotiation, consider the hidden value that might provide added value to the outcome. That will afford you more flexibility in achieving your objective. It will also stave off possible impasses in the negotiation. Not only should you consider what you might seek as added value, you should consider the same for the other negotiator. Considering his perspective of added value will give you a possible bargaining chip to overcome a point of contention.

In part, you can entice the opposition to possess a red herring; a red herring would be something that you professed as having value. Feign extreme hardship at forgoing it, to give it added value. Offer it as a trade for what you’re seeking, or to help bridge the gulf between what the other negotiator seeks from the negotiation.

Know the Needs:

To employ the use of added value successfully, know what added value is. Per the way the other negotiator perceives it, obtain insights from conversations and her writings before the negotiation. Do that by acquiring foreknowledge from friends and associates of hers. For your own means, consider everything you might want from the negotiation and how obtaining it would add value to your outcome expectations. For either of you, that can be in the form of financial, prestige, or perceived as being fair. Whatever it is, know what it is and use it appropriately.

Before you set out to negotiate, consider the different ways you might enhance the negotiation. Consider the possibilities that might present themselves as an added value to the outcome. Some may be things that you don’t really want. Nevertheless, you can use them as chits to enhance the probability of getting more from every negotiation you’re in. By uncovering more hidden value opportunities when negotiating, you’ll enhance your negotiation position, power, and outcome … and everything will be right with the world.

Remember, you’re always negotiating!

After reading this article, what are you thinking? I’d really like to know. Reach me at Greg@TheMasterNegotiator.com

To receive Greg’s free “Negotiation Tip of the Week” and the “Sunday Negotiation Insight” click here http://www.TheMasterNegotiator.com/greg-williams/

#HiddenValue #Opportunity #Power #secrets #HiddenOpportunities #Mistakes #Management #SmallBusiness #Money #Negotiating #combat #negotiatingwithabully #bully #bullies #bullying #Negotiations #PersonalDevelopment #HandlingObjections #Negotiator #HowToNegotiateBetter #CSuite #TheMasterNegotiator #psychology #NegotiationPsychology