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Erik: How has better understanding how to negotiate advanced your career?
Matt: At some point in my career, I thought the idea of negotiation when I was maybe younger,
and a little bit more stubborn, and hotheaded, and probably less physically, mentally, and
emotionally in tune with myself, I thought that negotiation meant just pushing over there,
just push, push, push until I get my way. And now I realize that what it really is about
is everybody feeling 'hey, we found something together, it's good. It may not be a hundred
percent of what I wanted, I know it's not a hundred percent what the other guy wanted,
but it's a good center. It's a good meeting point between the two and we have agreed upon
it, and we're gonna make something happen together.'
If I'm negotiating between two sides or in effect if I'm mediating, or if I'm negotiating
with someone else, I need to know where all the different players in the room are. Where
are they going? You know, what exactly do they want? What are they willing to do to
get there? And maybe would they be willing to bend a little bit? Having a little bit
of background information is certainly very important. And the end result is usually -- I
can't think of an example where this is not the case -- what you're negotiating for is
usually a really good thing, something that helps the community move forward or helps
a project move forward, whatever the case may be. So if I can figure out where the different
players are and be savvy enough, almost like a fox or a rabbit, some kind of animal that
scurries around, a scurrying animal of some sort -- if I can be savvy like that and think
okay I wanna help get them here, help them feel comfortable about getting them to this
point, this resolution point, how can I do that and let everybody feel like they won
a little bit, to me that's an effective way of negotiating.