Evolving in The Modern World offers many great opportunities with great advancements, but also presents many challenges for negotiators. One of them is the fact that technologies context, rules, goals are changing all the time, which requires a high level of adaptability.
Disruption is not new, but the speed, complexity and global nature of disruption is at a scale we’ve never seen before.
The problem is that we are not necessarily wired to change (and even less to change quickly). Most humans dislike major changes and are comfortable with their routines.
Why? Because change introduces uncertainty, risk, additional work, liabilities, and so on. We often stick to the same brand, old plans, default choices, or anything that is comfortable. We are wired to take the path of least resistance.
Loss aversion is what often prevents us from evolving as well.
Often the heart and the mind disagree. We have two independent systems in us constantly working: the emotional side and the rational side. It is like riding a horse: the rider is reason and the horse is emotion. When they move in different directions, change is uneasy.
However, negotiators have no other choice than adapting. Resistance is out of the equation, unless they want to be left behind.
Here are a few reasons why adaptability is the new competitive edge in The Modern World for negotiators seeking at developing top negotiation skills:
In a world where the rules and goals are constantly changing, those who can adapt are the long-term winners. As Charles Darwin once said “It is not the strongest that survives; but the species that survives is the one that is able best to adapt and adjust to the changing environment in which it finds itself" ;
A negotiator has to adapt to new technologies, new cultures, ever changing circumstances, context, demands. Negotiation is never a script written in advance;
If you can’t adapt, you will be overwhelmed. Winds of changes will be coming from all directions. Overwhelming will lead to frustration ed and stress, both enemies of negotiation performance;
If you cannot cope with changes and integrate them in your strategy of negotiation, you will be developing a confronting personality and an opposition between the old world and new world. You will become less influential
Adaptability means opening oneself to new opportunities. On the contrary, resistance to change will cut you off from these new opportunities
Adaptability forms part of Ludovic’s webinar titles “Negotiating in The Modern World: New Technologies, Globalization, Adaptability. For more information on negotiation training in Asia (including Singapore and Hong Kong) and negotiation training courses in Europe (including France and the United Kingdom), please contact us by clicking here.
