If you haven’t yet played Settlers of Catan, you are making a foolish mistake.
I was the fool until about 2 months ago, when I first settled the legendary land of Catan. This coincided with my girlfriend beginning a stretch of near constant work travel, creating a perfect storm resulting in me spending inordinate amounts of time placing plastic pieces on a dilapidated board. Continue reading “5 Negotiation Tips From Settlers of Catan”
“I might be wrong about this, but…”
“I’m no expert, but…”
“Would we maybe be willing to consider doing it this way?”
“Does this make sense?”
Common wisdom1 suggests not only that that these types of phrases discredit you and undermine whatever point you are trying to make, but also that they are used more often by women than by men.
The only thing better than common wisdom is research, and the only thing better than research is research in the form of cleverly named academic articles, one of which confirms that women do use these qualifiers more often than men (though the gender language gap is surprisingly small). The evidence regarding whether disclaimers actually make you less persuasive, though, is far less black and white, and—like the disclaimers themselves—suggests shades of gray. Continue reading “Just a Thought, But to be More Persuasive, You Might Want to Consider Speaking Like This”
Ted Cruz ran a smart campaign, but it wasn’t smart enough.
In the lead up to the Iowa Caucuses, presidential hopefuls use every trick in the book to turnout their supporters. Ted Cruz’s campaign took this to a new extreme recently by sending personalized “Voting Violation” letters to prospective voters that showed how they, and all their neighbors, had failing voter turnout scores.
Continue reading “What Ted Cruz Misunderstands about Peer Pressure”
The Idiot-Genius Confidence Reversal Continue reading “The Idiot-Genius Confidence Reversal”
Intersections 