Get your brain in motion
“It always seems impossible until its done.” – Nelson Mandela
What does impossible really mean? Is anything truly impossible?
These are things that obviously aren’t impossible, but because either:
they inherit the label “impossible.”
There’s the problem. And the solution, believe it or not, isn’t all that complicated…
In the early days, the blogs (WEB LOG) were nothing but a form of a personal diary or journal available on the web. As the Internet evolved, so did the blog; making it a very powerful medium through which you could get your voice heard.
The book, Business Blog, freely downloadable at Bookboon.com, describes why blogs are an important business tool and how blogs can add value to any business in terms of branding, credibility, achieving goals for the company, driving targeted traffic to generate inbound leads and getting conversions in a very cheap and effective manner.
Bookboon provides a collection of valuable free ebooks for professionals
image surce http:http://goo.gl/n6zHk
In their book “Getting to Yes”, Roger Fisher and William Ury develop four principles of negotiation, which can be used effectively on almost any type of dispute.
The four principles are:
1) separate the people from the problem;
2) focus on interests rather than positions;
3) generate a variety of options before settling on an agreement;
4) insist that the agreement be based on objective criteria.
Read more on http://www.negotiations.com/book-reviews/getting-to-yes/ or http://www.colorado.edu/conflict/peace/example/fish7513.htm
Photo By Joe Shlabotnik (Flickr)
Last week, it was stressed the importance of getting ready before starting a negotiation (link al post precedente). A specific tool, the Four Quadrants, was introduced in order to help negotiators think systematically and collect the right information beforehand. Today, a second tool, the Seven Elements, is introduced. For more information on these tools please check the book Beyond Machiavelli of Fisher, Kopelman, and Kupfer Schneider .
According to the authors, most of the Seven Elements “were originally introduced as a way of explaining the different components of negotiation, but subsequent experience has proven their usefulness as a preparation tool in any situation where persuasiveness may be demanded.” Therefore, before sitting at the negotiating table try and fill out as carefully as possible each of the items in the chart below.
| SEVEN ELEMENTS OF A CONFLICT SITUATION | |
| Interests |
Have the parties explicitly understood their own interests? |
| Options |
Are sufficient options being generated? |
| Legitimacy |
Have relevant precedents and other outside standards of fairness been considered? |
| Relationship |
What is the ability of the parties to work together? |
| Communication |
Is the way the parties communicate helping or interfering with their ability to deal constructively with the conflict? |
| Commitment |
Are potential commitments well-crafted? |
| Alternatives |
Does each side understand its Best Alternative to Negotiated Agreement – its BATNA? |
It is often said that a good negotiator is the one who is capable of turning a win-lose situation into a win-win situation. The only way to do so is generating fresh ideas and options which could at least partially satisfy the interests of the parties. However, reaching this goal is extremely difficult, for negotiations are usually characterized by objective (e.g., time constraints, difficult procedures) and subjective (e.g., strong feelings and emotions, misperceptions) obstacles. In order to overcome these obstacles, it is of the utmost importance to get ready for the negotiation. In this post, and in another one that will be online next week/tomorrow, two tools are introduced. They are taken from a great book, Beyond Machiavelli, written by Roger Fisher (founder of the Harvard Negotiation Project and co-author of Getting to Yes), Elizabeth Kopelman, and Andrea Kupfer Schneider. Check it out on Amazon to have more information on the negotiation tools, on how to use them, and on many other interesting ideas they put forth.
The first tool is the Four Quadrants. Before sitting at the negotiating table, try and think analytically and go through with the four categories shown in the chart below. According to the authors of Beyond Machiavelli, “a Four-Quadrant Analysis encourages systematic yet creative problem-solving.”
| A four-quadrant analysis for problem-solving | |||
| Quadrant I | Quadrant II | Quadrant III | Quadrant IV |
| What is wrong?
Perceptions of: |
General Diagnoses
Possible reasons why the problem hasn’t been resolved or the conflict settled. Possible causes (about which somebody could do something) of the gap in Quadrant I. |
General Approaches
Possible strategies for overcoming the identified diagnoses. |
Action Ideas
Ideas about who might do what tomorrow to put a general approach into action. |
Privacy shouldn’t be the price we accept just for surfing on the internet.
Gary Kovacs, in his Ted Talk, explains why it’s your right to know what data is being collected about you and how it affects your online life.
Success is sweet: the sweeter if long delayed and attained through manifold struggles and defeats. A. Branson Alcott
Image source: http://goo.gl/2ZpBf
Microsoft Word is one of the most famous and used wordprocessors.
The manuals Word 2010 Introduction, Advanced part 1, Advanced part 2 free downloadable at Bookboon.com, are divided into sections and they will help you to know more about this application and to use it better.
Bookboon provides a collection of valuable free ebooks for professionals.
Have you ever done a PowerPoint presentation? Probably yes. Do you think it has always been compelling and memorable? We do not think so! Many presentations are boring and quite bad.
In his article, Aaron Couch provides a list of advices to make PowerPoint more enjoyable to read and simple to understand.
Read the full article at : http://tiny.cc/zl7snw
Image source: http://tiny.cc/f28snw
The theme of Diplocalendar 2013 was inspired by Mark Twain’s quotation that: “The man who does not read good books has no advantage over the man who cannot read them”.
Diplomats, like many other professionals, must read, understand, synthesise and make sense of newspapers, magazines, emails, official reports and so many other things related to their daily work. But there is so much else to read both for pleasure and to deepen our knowledge.
The selected book suggested for the month of April that supports professional development and is relevant to management in diplomacy is John Medina’s Brain Rules
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