Say no
Today I tried out an 'exercise' I found on the BBC website, for a negotiation course I'm running for a large IT services company.
The consistent theme that came through during the participants interviews prior to the course was, that they were too ready to say 'yes' to their clients' demands. The result was that they were overworked and had a sense that their clients thought that they were a pushover.
This simple exercise is to designed to encourage people to be more assertive in their speaking. Basically you play at saying NO to others.
I set the game up as a quick icebreaker for the beginning of the course, but its effect was astonishing. Admittedly, in the game there are no consequences to saying 'no', but the freedom and energy it released in the participants was amazing.
I continued lecturing for the rest of the day with intellectual and psychological concepts as 'personal power', 'negotiating positioning', 'concessions', BATNA's and 'interests'. I really though that I had my audience enthralled. At the end of the session I asked what insights and new ideas had they got during the day. Without exception they all said.....................yeah you guessed it......................the 5 minute 'no' session.
What's the point in being a genius?!!!
The consistent theme that came through during the participants interviews prior to the course was, that they were too ready to say 'yes' to their clients' demands. The result was that they were overworked and had a sense that their clients thought that they were a pushover.
This simple exercise is to designed to encourage people to be more assertive in their speaking. Basically you play at saying NO to others.
I set the game up as a quick icebreaker for the beginning of the course, but its effect was astonishing. Admittedly, in the game there are no consequences to saying 'no', but the freedom and energy it released in the participants was amazing.
I continued lecturing for the rest of the day with intellectual and psychological concepts as 'personal power', 'negotiating positioning', 'concessions', BATNA's and 'interests'. I really though that I had my audience enthralled. At the end of the session I asked what insights and new ideas had they got during the day. Without exception they all said.....................yeah you guessed it......................the 5 minute 'no' session.
What's the point in being a genius?!!!
Labels: Sales
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home