Resolve

Gustavo Luis Velásquez B.?

I had the opportunity to meet the social psychologist and expert negotiator Hal Movius approximately 10 years ago, who together with Prof. Larry Susskind, wrote the book “Build To Win”, a fundamental contribution to the creation of the corporate culture of negotiation and management of conflicts within companies. An aspect that decisively marks the difference between the most successful and profitable companies.

During several years that we worked together in the negotiation and persuasion programs that we developed at Harvard University, Hal said that he was working on a new book, a few months later it saw the light, “Resolve”, his new book.

Resolve is a book that first manages to summarize, in a simple, practical and original way, many of the negotiation books that are the product of years of study and social and psychological research; honors Einstein's phrase, “If I have seen further, it is by standing on the shoulders of giants.” Hal Movius, from the shoulders of the pioneers of the science and art of negotiation, but with a new personal approach, manages to bring to the non-expert reader in these matters the most important lessons about negotiation, the management of emotions and persuasion; He achieves this with clear, original and impactful prose that somehow shows his vein as a good writer beyond the acute researcher of human psychology when faced with the possibility of negotiating or managing conflicts.

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Movius knows that for many people negotiating or managing conflicts is not exactly the most pleasant task, because as it says, there is a crucible of conflicts where there are 3 vital issues that are always at stake and in which we must manage.

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Firstly, achieving our material goals, where there are tangible things that, although they may refer to material things, many of them also represent experiences, services, behaviors or organizational policies. Secondly, and of great importance, it refers to our social capital and being able to preserve and develop it; As social beings that we are, we have managed to build our reputation, credibility and trust in our environment, and we want to take care of it and not put it at risk when it comes to negotiation or conflict. Thirdly, Hal refers to the management of our emotions in difficult situations; There are events that can bring us anxiety, anger or other types of negative emotions that put us under pressure and that, if poorly managed, can lead us to situations that we do not want.

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Hal Movius tells us that people, faced with this crucible of situations in which we find ourselves when faced with a conflict, generally take one of these four paths: 1. Evade the conflict and give up, especially when social capital is at risk or It's not worth arguing, many people take that route; 2. Use influence strategies that range from persuasion to coercion and that in that range emotional issues can worsen the situation; 3. Seek a compromise, where the parties give up something in order to reach an agreement that ensures the least possible loss, even when the parties are not really satisfied; and 4. Negotiate, understood as the process where both parties seek their vital interests and needs through assertive and bilateral communication that most of the time achieves better results than previous methods. The author opts for this fourth option and gives us a set of tools to successfully advance along that path.

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For me, the most valuable thing about this book is that it provides us with a series of practical lessons to achieve the most important thing in any negotiation, what Hal calls CONFIDENCE, that is, self-confidence when negotiating and achieving success or masterfully manage that crucible of vital issues that come into play when we have to manage differences with very important organizations, partners or relationships.

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There are three dimensions that Movius points out to understand and cultivate internal trust in a negotiation process, they are first of all the emotional component or Mastery, which is knowing how to do something without having to think too much about it, it is like a second nature to our handling of some matters, which certainly requires practice. Secondly, the cognitive component or Consciousness, which allows us to use systematic thinking to clearly analyze the situations we face. Thirdly, the emotional component or Balance, to think more clearly and be able to be attentive to our thoughts and emotions and prepare ourselves to manage our differences in a professional manner.

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From these bases, Hal Movius allows us to delve into practical and original mechanisms and formulas that make conflict management and negotiations a space to grow and cultivate our social capital, achieve our personal aspirations and maintain emotional balance. A gem of a book for all audiences.

https://www.dhirubhai.net/in/movius/