Informal discussions and building relationships in COVID times

If we treat informal meetings as we do formal meetings, we would most likely reach our objectives and close agreements faster and with greater satisfaction. 

At first thought, you might think that due to the closed nature of business today, informal meetings between two external parties is a rarity.

There is less time to chat, less time to get to know the personalities of the other, so how can we combat these challenges when it is so imperative to build and/or maintain a healthy relationship in business?

 Research the 'individual' likes and interests of the other party

We want to find any piece of information that can be used to segway and lead a formal discussion into an informal conversation. Think of it as if you are winding down a drawbridge from your fortress and opening your gates for a diplomatic discussion. A simple way to do this is by searching through the individual's activity on LinkedIn and seeing which posts they interact with most. It might be looking them up on Facebook and seeing which football team they go for. These nuggets of information can then be used in your next meeting, using a common interest approach to build a relationship. 

Share information about your out-of-office passions or hobbies

The motive behind this is to encourage the reciprocity principle, a basic law of social psychology. Where in many social situations we pay back what we received from others, what this can mean for you is that when you share information about yourself, the other party will feel obliged to share from their side. You can begin to even control the conversation and discussions by active listening and reading in between the lines of the other party. 

Expert negotiators aim for win-win outcomes and many have outlined the importance of smart information sharing in order to encourage the other party to share and ideally overshare.

Take the role of a stress-reliever

If we look at this from an internal perspective, an article published on Fast Company, 85% of the employees are not satisfied with the quality of communication at the workplace. 

With a stress-free organisational culture in place, you can easily get over poor communication problem. In an open organisational culture, employees are encouraged to ask questions and share their feedback. This reduces the chances of misunderstandings and lack of clarity and results in strengthing trust and enhancing collaboration within the organization.

By taking the role of a stress-reliever, you are more approachable and are seen as a figure that your employees can confide in. There are also benefits in an external setting as by being the more approachable person between parties, you can play an invaluable role in ensuring the health of a business deal as both sides will see you as a trustworthy figure.

Since 2005, Giuseppe Conti has been an award-winning Lecturer, recognized for his lively and interactive training workshops across a number of the leading business schools in Europe: Cambridge, EPFL, ESADE, HEC Lausanne, HEC Paris, IESE, IMD, Imperial College, INSEAD, London Business School, Oxford, RSM, SDA Bocconi, UBIS, University of Geneva and University of St Gallen.

More recently, he has become a Professor in Negotiation & Influencing. Giuseppe regularly runs negotiation workshops in four continents. Corporate leaders from multinational corporations and individuals from over 110 different countries have attended his workshops.