The Naked Negotiator

The most exciting research to emerge from brain research is the work on pattern recognition. In Human: The Science Behind What Makes Us Unique, Michael S. Gazzaniga, the director of the University of California at Santa Barbara’s SAGE center for the study of the mind, makes the point that the brain may not even ‘think’.

It may be a memory and prediction machine that functions by retrieving and applying patterns learned from the past to new situations. Experts (think master chess players) can recall up to 50,000 past chess games in their heads. When they look at a chess board, they look for a similar ‘past’ pattern. They then select their next move.

In our work on negotiation we have experienced great success by teaching trainee negotiators to read the patterns of success. When up-skilling negotiators, it’s remarkably easy to accelerate progress of experienced managers who have participated in lots of deals. With young graduates, no matter how bright they are, it’s much harder. Young graduates usually don’t have the body of experience that allows for skilful pattern recognition.

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