'A recipe for delivering an offer'

As I listened to the Prime Minister, Boris Johnson, give his ‘return to office’ speech on Monday 27th April 2020, I realised just how important this moment was for the UK.

This was no ordinary ‘return from sickness’ speech, but something far more significant.

In negotiation terms, our Prime Minister was putting an offer on the table for us, the people, to consider and decide whether to accept it or not.

And why now? If you read the ‘runes of the tabloid press’ the negotiation framework phase that everyone is pushing for, is ‘conclusion’ – how is this going to end; what will the ‘agreement with Covid-19’ look like?

From a hostage negotiation perspective, I am very familiar with this phase of a siege and the mantra, ‘just when you think you are winning is the most dangerous time.’ It reminds us that this is the juncture where maximum effort and diligence must be applied to prevent total loss.

And that is exactly what Boris Johnson is using this speech for. Everyone wants to start the process towards conclusion, but in reality, when it comes to Covid-19, we are still in the borders of the negotiation phases of ‘Exploration’ and ‘Bargaining’.

The reality check is that all we have done is ‘steady the curve’ and this siege and negotiation is far from over.

The purpose of Boris Johnson’s speech is to ‘sell’ us the idea that we need to hold the line, to carry on ‘going slow’ and not rush towards conclusion.

In negotiation terms, how did the Prime Minister craft this less than popular proposal?

As a negotiator and coach, I can see the speech made use of many things we teach in Advanced Negotiation when it comes to putting together an offer for the ‘other side’ to consider.

Whether you are the Prime Minister or negotiating any ‘deal,’ here are 7 useful things that you can apply from now on as a ‘recipe for delivering a proposal.’

1.      Purpose – distil down to as, few simple words as possible, the ‘purpose’ of your message or offer.

The key purpose was revealed at the end of the PM’s speech when he said,

“And so I say to you finally, if you can keep going in the way that you have kept going so far….”

2.      Rationale before Proposal – you need to provide your rationale before you make the proposal. Don’t do it after the proposal, because no-one will be listening!

The whole speech was the ‘rationale’ before the PM delivered the proposal at the end.

3.      Emotion before Rationale – Why? The reason is simple; until emotion is ‘dealt with,’ no-one is listening, however genius your ideas might be!

Every negotiation has emotion in it whether we like it or not. Emotion can hi-jack us, making us do things we regret or conversely, strengthen our influencing power. How you ‘manage emotion’ is another lesson, however the important thing to note is, you must at least acknowledge its presence from the perspective of the ‘other,’ before you start with the detail of your rationale and proposal.

The PM’s speech starts early with,

"Every day I know that this virus brings new sadness and mourning to households across the land….”

As you read through the speech it is filled from the Active Listening world with what we call ‘Emotional Labelling.’ This helps to diffuse the ‘hi-jacking’ nature of poorly managed emotion.

4.      Them first, then you – any proposal should start with what you have learnt about ‘the other.’ What is important to them, their hopes, dreams, values, beliefs, interests, needs, motivation, wants, likes and dislikes.

The PM colours his whole speech richly with his ‘active listening’ sense of what has happened to us the people, what’s important to us and what we hope for in the future. He fully acknowledges as a triumph what ‘the people’ have achieved and intersperses it with words like ‘we,’ which encourages a co-operative approach. It is only about two thirds of the way through the speech that he dares to come to what he wants,

“I ask you to contain your impatience….”

It is only at this juncture that we are more likely to listen to what comes next. If he had used this line closer to the start, rejection and closed minds would be the likely outcome.

5.      Cover what you agree on, before what you disagree on – any agreement and conclusion is about cooperation. Therefore, show how much both sides agree on first, before you touch on more difficult areas. Rather like building a bridge over a chasm, the gap to conclusion appears so much smaller once a number of agreement blocks have been laid.

The PM moves from the People to include the concerns of the economy and business. He highlights the successes of what has been achieved through cooperative behaviour and acknowledges concerns for the present and hopes for the future.

6.      Style of Presentation – people have 5 senses; see, hear, touch, taste, smell. Engaging more of those senses in the ‘look and feel’ of the proposal generates far more influencing power.

This speech could have been just printed as a letter or perhaps delivered as part of the daily briefing. No, it required more pomp and splendour. It was done outside No 10 Downing Street where all other significant announcements are made. Furthermore, it was announced in a manner that had all media programmes waiting to cut their normal broadcast and switch to the PM’s speech – maximum attention on a key proposal.

7.      Gain versus Loss – We all want to benefit from things in life, but should we pose it as a gain or a loss?

Science tells us that we are at least twice as suspectable to the risk of loss than gain. It is good to tell people what they will gain. However, if you want to grab their attention and influence their decision making, tell them what they risk losing.

So, having respected our collective effort, acknowledge the emotional roller coaster and set our ‘north star’ following our hopes for the future; the PM delivers the ‘Gain versus Loss’ message in the latter stages of the speech.  He concludes with the real purpose of the whole event…….

 “keep going in the way that you have kept going so far”

That is his proposal … what will our reply will be?

Your Homework:

• Have a read of Boris Johnson’s speech and discover how you can now see these concepts woven into the speech.
• When you listen to leaders of other countries, start to ask yourself, what was the purpose of that speech, were any of these tips used and what effect did they have? Tip – Perhaps assess the outcomes of Donald Trump’s speeches in this arena!
• Most importantly, start today to introduce more consciously some of these concepts into your daily offers and see how they land.

If you would like to talk through one of your own forthcoming ‘offers,’ by all means contact me at [email protected] and we can have a chat.