Continuing Education for Technical Professionals

   THE LEARNING PROFESSIONAL^TM

           Project Performance and Career Advancement Tips

                                                                                                      Volume 5, Issue 3

In This Issue:

AuxTips^TM

The Negotiation Mentor

The Perfect Negotiation

Featured Consultant

Pam Rechel

Consensus Decision-Making

Five tips from Ken Crow

Now available at amazon.com:

by Steve Trautman

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AuxTips^TM

Quick tips you can start implementing immediately.

Project Staffing

When assigning people to projects, it's important to look well-beyond the technical skills required.  When forming a team, answer these questions about each role and the individuals being considered:

1) What technical skills are required for completing the planned tasks?

2) Does the person have solid understanding of the processes and methodology required for this project?

3) Does he/she have a track record of excellent teamwork?

4) Will there be any difficulties communicating with others?

5) What other competencies are important for this role?

Answering these questions will point out potential problems that could slow down a project.  Someone else who is a better fit overall might not be available, which should be okay if skills that are lacking aren't ignored by the team.

Understanding the competencies that need improvement provides an opportunity to develop those skills sooner rather than later.  All too often, teams don't realize these issues until their projects are well underway.

The Negotiation Mentor

Tips from Preston Michie - President, Team Soup, LLC

The Perfect Negotiation

This delightful story was told to me by “Mommy” during one of my negotiation seminars.  The Chief Negotiator in this story is five year old “Emily,” a little girl with a clear goal in mind, a talent for listening carefully to her mom’s concerns, a solution oriented approach, an optimistic outlook, an ability to work past “no” and persist, willing to be flexible in attaining her goals, and a strong desire to keep Mommy happy.

It is one of the simplest, but rich negotiation stories I have ever heard.

“But Mommy, I want to wear my new red dress we bought two weeks ago!”

“Emily, it’s early March.  The weather is too cold.  You can wear your new red dress to school in a week or so when it warms up.”

“I could wear a sweater, Mommy.  That would keep me warm.”

“No, Emily, your legs will get cold.”

“What if I wore my blue tights?”

“Emily, the blue tights don’t go with the red dress.”

“Thank you, Mommy.  I’ll wear my white tights.”  As Mommy stood speechless, Emily ran off victoriously to put on the red dress, sweater, and white tights.

Mommy, a mother of three little girls, had sought help from other mothers attending the seminar, “I’m having trouble controlling Emily who won’t take ‘no’ for an answer.”

“Wait a minute,” I advised.  “Think about how well Emily handled this negotiation.”

Not only did Emily have a clear goal in mind, she listened carefully to Mommy’s interests (initially warmth) and proffered a solution—a sweater.  She reacted to ‘no’ by listening to the reason (lack of color coordination) and quickly offered a solution for this issue—white tights, all in the interests of making Mommy happy.

When she had addressed both her needs and Mommy’s needs, Emily sensed she had closed the deal and quit negotiating, all in all a flawless, brilliant negotiation performance!

Emily's negotiation performance serves as an example of how efficient negotiation can be when at least one party executes the fundamentals of successful negotiation.

Negotiations seminars:

http://www.auxiliumtraining.com/ContNeg.htm

Consensus Decision-Making