Have you ever watched Albert Brooks’s 1991 movie, Defending Your Life? There is a funny scene where Brooks’s character, Daniel Miller, is preparing for an upcoming negotiation with his boss for a higher salary. His goal is to accept offers above $65,000, but nothing less. So, he develops a plan on how to best negotiate and then asks his wife to help him prepare for the negotiation by trying it out and acting as his boss. In the practice session with his wife, Daniel is very firm –he is confident and assertive, exactly as he had planned. His wife makes a series of offers, but Daniel rejects all of them since they are below $65,000. In the end, Daniel is able to stick to the plan and receives the offer he wanted. The next scene in the movie shows the real negotiation with his boss, which occurred the next day. Daniel’s boss puts a first offer on the table: a salary of $49,000. Before the boss even finishes the sentence where he made the offer, Daniel accepts it. Negotiating with his boss made him anxious, something he failed to anticipate. Such anxiety overwhelmed him and derailed his plan to be firm and accepting nothing less than $65,000. The emotions we experience while implementing our plans can sidetrack us. The principle that can help us counteract the effects that emotions have on our decisions is one I call take your emotional temperature. By taking your emotional temperature before making a decision, you can carefully consider your emotional state and ask yourself why you’re feeling this way. This will help you understand whether the emotions you are experiencing were caused by an event unrelated to the decision at hand and, independent of what caused them, you will be able to determine whether they are clouding your judgment. Francesca Gino- scientificamerican/article/how-not-get-sidetracked/ https://youtube/watch?v=DufE-dcQ70k
Posted on: Fri, 05 Sep 2014 07:05:44 +0000
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