Perfect morning

It is the perfect morning on my balcony. Birds singing, a cup of coffee on the table, the air still cool, no noise from the road because it is Saturday, feet up, laptop in my lap, ready to write.

It has been a great week. Presentation technique, Advanced Finance and Negotiation skills. All of it very relevant, all of it very well taught. There are naturally different preferences and perceptions by the people in the class, but to me the Negotiations workshop stood out. It is probably the best training I have received in my life! Ted, Tom and Eric from CM Partners led us through 'The ladder of inference' and 'The Strategic Compass', the most important tools when negotiating. Simple, but very effective. The sessions were illustrated with rich examples and role plays played out in front of us.

All three of them have done lots negotiations at the top-top level, between governments, between major international corporations and in hostage negotiation situations. It was incredible to see how much they were in control of every situation. They would put the heat on each other in the role plays, but still they would evade the tough questions gracefully and redirect the conversation to where they wanted it to go. Impressive, very very impressive.

I have always thought that being a professional negotiator was someone doing hostage negotiations, and that mostly in Hollywood, but now I see how these gentlemen and their skills are the make or break of a deal, also in a business setting. Our personal impact will be enormous, if we can just do a fraction of what they can.

There was an incredible aura around these gentlemen. You had a feeling of being around someone that was absolutely world class in their field, someone who possessed an enormous natural authority and who was so much in control in the situation that you felt they could get you to do anything. In the words of classmate Simon Brunner (Switzerland): 'Could you imagine negotiating you salary with these guys? You would end up paying to go to work!'

Thorsten