Unfreezing a Frozen Negotiation

The weather is frozen, the snow is cold, wet/dry and white (yup, that is the wrong type of snow) and it seems the south east of the country is as static as the housing market, the stock market and the economy.

What, then, has all of this got to do with negotiating? Ask yourselves, what has caused all these areas to become frozen? Basically it is the same thing that causes negotiations to freeze up and that is a lack of proper, prior planning.

In the case of the banks, financiers and mortgage sellers, it has to be said that if they had done any sort of planning and forecasting at all, they could have worked out that the result of their actions would be the state we are in currently.

I focus on the financial sector rather than politicians, commentators or external market experts because only those in the financial industry had the information that would enable them to make the forecasts.

That is a crucial point - good planning can only be done if you have good information!

Transport in and around the capital seems to have come to a grinding halt. This has generally not been caused by lack of planning, but by risk management, another area of vital importance to the successful negotiator.

In this case, responsible authorities and management teams make the decision that the kind of conditions we are facing at the moment are so unusual, that it is not worth spending the money it would need to 'cure' the problem.