The great debate of our times can be framed by calling it global warming versus financial collapse. It is a negotiation about the future, not only of the United States, but of the entire world.
As a negotiation coach, one of the key factors that I teach is that the people on the other side of the table are negotiating for their benefit, not for yours. Thus the negotiation is about the benefits they are seeking and, if you can establish your mission and purpose as one that brings benefits to them and get them to perceive that, it’s a win-win situation. If not, both sides must walk away from the table.
This is why it is essential that both sides have a vision of what they expect as the outcome of the negotiation. No vision, no action. No vision, no decision. No vision, no agreement.
Right now, global warming advocates have a vision of the world being destroyed by rising levels of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases that they attribute to human behavior as regards energy use. Those who disagree with this vision counter with scientific evidence that CO2 is a very small element of the atmosphere, only 0.038%, and there is no measurable evidence that it affects climate change.
In a negotiation, your job is not to be liked. It is to be respected and effective. In a political debate, your job is to be both liked and respected. That changes the dynamics of negotiation as it should be practiced and the third debate between the presidential candidates was an excellent opportunity to assess their ability to negotiate.
As someone who has authored two books on negotiation and who coaches clients all over the world on how to negotiate effectively, I watched the debates from a different perspective than most viewers. I will leave the merit of their respective political positions aside and briefly discuss why the debates were critical indicators of how either man might function as President.
A President must fulfill many functions, but near the top of the list has to be as an effective negotiator among the many political, economic, military, and social interests competing for a priority. A President has to constantly demonstrate effective communication skills and leadership.
In a business negotiation, a valid mission and purpose is the key to success. One must never go into a negotiation without a clear agenda and goals. Among those goals is the need to work to manage your behavior. Topmost among negotiation skills is to avoid appearing to be needy.
The headlines regarding the federal bail-out of troubled banking, investment, and insurance institutions are scary enough without the political charges flying back and forth in an effort to shift blame.
What really matters, however, is your response to them. That is the one thing you can control and, via the upcoming national election, it is the one thing you can control when you make your decision regarding who gets your vote.
As we all know by now, the sub-prime mortgage loan meltdown is the result of government policies that required issuing loans to people who would not, under normal banking standards, have qualified to receive one. This, in turn, generated the “bundling” of these “sub-prime” loans as securities by mortgage loan and investment bankers to spread the risk.
Instead, it put the entire banking system at risk. There is blame enough to go around because there were many warnings.
I am a Liberal. That’s right, a bona fide bleeding heart liberal. The question is - are you? You’re a Liberal: ”If you represent the largest of nine typology groups (2005),” of the Pew Research center typology test groups.
If your political affiliation is largely Democratic or Independent. If you believe in peace over war, free choice and would like to rid the earth of the environmental hazards.
If you believe the Bill of rights and the US Constitution are more than pieces of paper.
If you believe that all Americans, regardless of race, gender, religious affiliation AND sexual persuasion are entitled to the same rights under the Constitution.
I grew up during one of America’s most troubled and extraordinary times, the 1960’s and 1970’s. I saw two brothers march off to Vietnam, and I would lose one from quite likely, "Agent Orange" contamination - Cancer.
We are all the sum of our experiences and much of the process by which we make judgments about others is the result of learning something about their lives and experiences. This is particularly true of the political campaigns for the presidency of the United States.
We want to “know” the candidate before we vote for him. The campaign makes significant efforts to provide a believable biography of their candidate. Part of my biography was my service in Vietnam. The same war saw Sen. John McCain’s physical strength, mental toughness and character tested through five years of imprisonment. By contrast, Sen. Obama has not had the opportunity to serve in war, but there are other means by which to judge his courage and foresight.
As I point out in my book, “No. The Only Negotiating System You Need for Work or Home”, we got into the Vietnam War and remained engaged in it on the basis of incorrect assumptions. “In Vietnam, successive administrations were absolutely certain they knew what the North Vietnamese were thinking and how they would react to bombing halts, bombing resumptions, peace feelers, and all of our other futile attempts to obtain ‘peace with honor.’ Absolutely certain and absolutely wrong.”