Tip of the Week 37

Right Vs Left Brain, a Handshake and the Art of Negotiation

In recent weeks I've found myself trying to swim in very unfamiliar waters. And I'm floundering - trying to successfully negotiate a Reality Television deal with some major Hollywood players.

This whole saga started several months ago when my son-in-law, Mike and his friend Jimmy and their respective families were at my house for a weekend bar-b-que. I had just completed the latest episode of "Ask Mick the Mechanic" for this website and I screened it for Mike and Jimmy on my computer. Well, as it turned out, Jimmy has a friend who has been struggling for a couple years trying to get the networks interested in a Reality Show concept he was developing. A cell phone call from Jimmy put the two of us together. …

and as they say, The rest is history.

I met the talent and devoted the personal time it took to understand his show's concept and to evaluate it's entertainment value. After performing my due diligence, I was convinced his idea had potential.

I personally felt the concept was solid, so, I wrote and forwarded a Treatment (outline of the show's concept) to my contacts on the West Coast and much to my delight and surprise, I quickly received a phone call from their Director of Development expressing interest.

It was because of that enthusiastic response that I decided to take the plunge -- to work on and help develop someone else's Reality Show idea. And I made my decision, I dove into this project headfirst with complete enthusiasm and personal abandon.

You see, I'm a right brain kind of guy.

· My brain functions in a non-verbal manner and excels in visual, spatial, perceptual, and intuitive information.

· The right side of my brain processes information differently than the left side. For the right brain, processing happens very quickly and the style of processing is nonlinear and non-sequential. The right brain looks at the whole picture and quickly seeks to determine the spatial relationships of all the parts as they relate to the whole.

· My brain's right side is not concerned with things falling into patterns because of prescribed rules. On the contrary, my right brain seems to flourish dealing with complexity, ambiguity and paradox.

· At times, my reasoning is difficult to put into words because of its complexity, and my right brain's non-verbal nature.

· My brain's right side has the ability to process information quickly and it's predominately concerned with the realm of creativity.

And alas my friends, THAT, it seems, IS PRECISELY MY PROBLEM!

Lord knows I've tried, but the fact of this matter is - I'm just not a left-brain kinda guy.

· The left brain is associated with verbal, logical, and analytical thinking. It excels in naming and categorizing things, symbolic abstraction, speech, reading, writing, arithmetic.

· The left-brain is very linear: it places things in sequential order -- first things first and then second things second, etc. When I reflect back upon my own educational training, the 3 R's: reading, writing and arithmetic were paramount and foremost in the domain of the left-brain.

To make matters worse, when it comes to my personal business dealings, I'm from the "old school" where a man's word is the most important asset he has, I'm still naive enough to hold on to the personal belief that a handshake goes further than any contract could ever go. From my point of view, a man's word is all that's needed.

So, by now you've probably caught on to the fact that things aren't going as smoothly as they could with my potential new partner and the co-production efforts of this Reality TV project we've undertaken.

I won't boor you with all of the gory details but suffice it to say that my deal is close to falling apart because of detrimental human traits like greed, control, and ego.

"Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely. Great men are almost always bad men" -- Lord Acton"

So, in an attempt to understand the dynamics of what has happened with my latest attempt at producing a Reality TV show, I've been boning up on the skill and the art of negotiation.

Way back when I was a young man, I took some professional real estate classes at a local community college. Early on, I discovered that dealing with all the paperwork and documents involved in the transfer of property was not my cup of tea.

But I did come away with one valuable piece of advice from attending those classes. My teacher explained to me and my classmates that:

"negotiations will be successful and a deal made when both sides have the perception that they have benefited in some way."

That statement made perfect sense to me way back then and it still rings true with me today. But these days in the litigious society in which we live, mastering the art of negotiation is an absolute must.

So, if your interested and you feel the need as much as me, I'm including a couple links to some information that may assist you (and me) in honing our negotiation skills enough to assure the success of future deals.

· http://www.wifcon.com/pubs/artofnegotiation.htm - This scholarly piece of writing about the art of negotiation is in the public domain. That means this material is free to copy and distribute.

· http://www.negotiationdynamics.com/Bookart.asp - Here's another link offering information and advice on how to negotiate. This link is more commercial that the previous but never the less, you may find the material useful.

· http://www.chiefstoryteller.com/chief_storytellers_blog/body_language_gestures/index.html - This is a link to a blog that I found where tha author discusses body language. Body language -- the way you present yourself to others -- is another one of many important aspect of successful deal-making.

Here's my take on my current situation and a couple personal tips fro me to you that may help you become more successful in your future personal and business negotiations.

· Be honest at all cost

· Be fair -- remember both parties need to benefit

· Be willing to compromise

Remember -- PERCEPTION IS EVERYTHING!

And finally, if during the course of negations:

· your potential partner's attorney introduces himself to you as: just another paranoid attorney

· anyone ever says to you: "It's not about the Money"

My advise to you is to - Run like Hell!

Wish me luck and I'll see you back here next week!