News Stories

  • Top Negotiator Wins Britain’s Got Talent
    So we all watched the final of Britain’s Got Talent last night and wasn’t it heartwarming to see Ashleigh and Pudsey win. In case you haven't seen it yet, they did a great dance act to the Mission Impossible theme – not that remarkable, I guess, until you realise that...
  • Is Your Negotiating Counterparty Acting Crazy?
    (4 more lessons from the U.S. Debt Deal) So, before being rudely interrupted by Christmas and the New Year, I was writing about the U.S. debt deal and the lessons we can draw from it with respect to our divorce (or, of course, any negotiation because hopefully we aren’t actually...
  • Can We Have Some New Leaders Please?
    Or: “A primer on how not to negotiate” Looking back on 2011, the negotiation story of the year has, of course, been the Eurozone crisis. Unfortunately, it will probably be the story of next year too. It is a pretty tough nut to crack, I have to admit; if I...
  • When Do Negotiations End?
    Its been a major week for negotiations! In Brussels, 26 countries took a large step closer to fiscal integration whilst one, Britain, used its nuclear option of vetoing the deal, to potentially massive consequences. And in Durban, many thousands of miles due south, a last minute deal was reached at...
  • Laying the Foundations For a Successful Deal
    (More Ruminations on the U.S. Debt Deal and Your Divorce) Why was the U.S. debt deal clever? So in the last article, we saw how the negotiators on the U.S. debt ceiling did a very clever trick to make sure that both sides kept to the agreement: they included a...