"He Made a Corn-Beef Hash!"

Hello

The other evening some friends and I were discussing the fascinating subject, the art and science and sometimes sheer doggedness of – negotiating.

And ‘yes’...

We were agreeing that these days there’s far less ‘hard-nosed’ negotiation taking place in our lives and far more conversations of the win/win/win type. A win for one party; a win for the other party and of course a joint win – especially a long-term relationship

And I remembered...

A story I read in a brilliant book by Gavin Kennedy (Everything is Negotiable) – I have Gavin’s permission to quote from his work.

Here it is:

One day a not-too-experienced explorer was making his way back from the local town to his camp in the middle of the Alaskan frozen lands. He’d been to the shops and bought supplies for the next few weeks.

But...

As he was travelling along on his sled pulled by his trusty band of husky dogs he noticed out of the corner of his eye a lone wolf stalking him – running alongside the sled but about 50 yards off to the right hand side.

He picked up the pace with his dogs - thinking he could outrun the wolf.

But no...

The wolf easily kept pace and changed course to run right behind the sled – almost nipping at his heels.

What shall I do?

Thought the explorer – and in a flash of brilliance (or so he thought) he clumsily opened a tin of corn beef (it had one of the twisting keys that separates the lid from the can) and threw the corn beef at the pursuing wolf.

It worked!

The wolf stopped and had a tasty meal of corn beef.

The hunter sighed a sigh of relief and continued on his way – certain that he’d outfoxed the wolf – or outwolfed the fox if that’s what it had actually been.

However...

Not a few minutes had passed when he noticed three wolves following his sled.

No problem

He thought to himself – I know just what to do. And clumsily opening another can – he tossed it over his shoulder and was pleased to see all three animals immediately stop to argue about their spoils.

It continued...

For some time and every time the pack of wolves got bigger and the amount of tins of corn beef thrown got larger – until, unfortunately, our less than intrepid hero became dinner himself.

And so...

Is there a lesson to learn from all this wolf-chasing; beef-throwing stuff – there SURE is...

IF...

Our hero had simply NOT opened the can but used it as a weapon and hit the wolf squarely on the nose or roundly any part of its body – it would have been less likely to chase him. And as wolves are not too experienced in using that key thing on a corn beef can – it would be unlikely it would have experienced a tasty meal.

Maybe...

A second and third can would need to have been chucked but sooner or later the wolf would have found out that sleds aren’t worth chasing!

So now...

Whenever you have a wolf of a negotiator chasing your sled of a proposal perhaps you’ll refrain from feeding his ego by giving away morsels of your profit and chuck a cannot do that of rejection to his early testing requests.

It might just keep the wolf from your shore

Will you?

Go on then

Peter Thomson

Editor and Doesn’t-Dance-With-Wolves Publisher

tgiMondays

 

Please do email me with any feedback or comments.

peter@tgimondays.com