Human predictability is your superpower when negotiating.

Human beings are predictable. Very predictable. And, fundamentally, they don’t change.

This knowledge alone (or awareness if you will), will give you an unfair advantage in many negotiations and, dare I say, life situations.

PEOPLE ARE A PRODUCT OF THEIR HABITS

To predict someone’s future life, all you have to do is watch their daily habits. You’ll be surprised at how repetitive they are. Paradoxically, the less intentional the habit, the more repetitive (and powerful in its own way) it is.

Exercising, eating well, reading instead of watching TV, stop criticising, meditation etc.. are all transformative activities. Whoever has tried them long enough knows it. However, to produce change, they must become habits, and it is easier said than done.

On the other end, it is easy to develop a habit of eating poorly, indulge in criticism, waste time in entertaining yet superficial activities, and so forth.

When you develop an eye for spotting people’s (small or big) weaknesses, you have the keys to predict their future behaviours, and possibly, their future outcomes.

COMMON SENSE, USED SALDOMLY

In a way or another, we’ve all experienced, or witnessed, bad habits that are hard to break, hence predictable.

The courts are full of couples divorcing because one spouse was abusive. “I’ll never do it again”, “I have changed” they said a million times. Only to fall short on their promise on the next occasion.

To all the youngsters reading this: if your partner abuses you once, he or she will do it again. Don’t count on a 1% chance that he or she will change. The odds are against you. Leave now, and move on.

If such a thing is true in everyday life, why wouldn’t it apply to business and negotiations, too?

If someone cheated once, you can bet they’ll do it again. And such awareness should be an integral part of your negotiation strategy.

If your counterpart changed their mind after you shook hands, look for indecisiveness in their behaviour. Chances are they will do it again, and again, and you’d better introduce a clause to protect you in your next agreement.

Arrogance, submissiveness, extreme pride, cautiousness, ruthlessness, elegance, rudeness, impulsiveness, are all repetitive and predictable behaviours. In others, and yourself.

The reason most people don’t leverage such timeless knowledge, lays within their perception of themselves.

Humans overestimate their own ability to change.

That spouse promising he or she would stop drinking and being violent was not lying. They were genuine in their promise, except they were not aware of how their life was driven by their ego and their beliefs.

Some people have the discipline to develop transformative habits that improve their life. Sport, reading, diet, are good examples of it.

However, a deeper transformation, one that produces evolutionary changes at a spiritual level, can only happen when a person learns to disassociate from their ego. The ego being a manufactured image of themselves.

The process is tricky because the ego drives human’s intellect, and so we can’t expect the intellect to help us take a distance from it.

In fact, letting go of our ego has more to do with not doing, rather than doing something.

It’s about finding space in between thoughts. Short or long moments of presence in which you feel an internal stillness that goes beyond anything your mind can ever produce.

Those are the moments that allow you to reconnect with the wholesomeness of life and grow into a more developed human being.

BACK TO SQUARE ONE

Unfortunately, most people are still almost totally at the mercy of their ego. And the more powerful they are, the more egocentric they seem to be.

If that wasn’t the case, we wouldn’t experience more wars, corruption, extreme disparity, and abuse on a large scale.

Yet, a wave of awareness is raising. Meditation, Buddhism, spiritual (not religious) books and gatherings are becoming more popular by the day.

The clock is ticking, and I hope human awareness will raise above the present level before it’s too late.

Certainly, it’s not too late to use the knowledge in this article to improve your business.

Look for patterns in your clients and stakeholders, and intentionally leverage them in your next negotiation.

I was listening to another excellent episode of Lex Friedman’s podcast when I heard former covert CIA agent Andrew Bustamante say how people are easy to manipulate.

“They are extremely predictable,” he said, “and once you spot their patterns, you can make them believe anything you want.”

I am all for an ethic use of knowledge, and against manipulation.

Use what you’ve learned here to influence rather than manipulate, and to protect yourself from external manipulation. And you can rest reassured, a lot of it is threatening you.

Carlo Pignataro

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