<p class="p1"><span class="s1">We all function through frameworks we develop from an early age. These frameworks or “mindsets” determine how we react, how we analyze, how we plan and how we make decisions. </span></p>
<p class="p1"><span class="s1">Professionally speaking, we negotiate with our “business” or external mindset, as opposed to our “personal values” mindset. </span></p>
<p class="p1"><span class="s1">Our business mindset starts to develop independently when we are first exposed to institutional behavior in daycare or school. </span></p>
<p class="p1"><span class="s1">Those infamous words “But my teacher says…” are a good example of a young mind trying to reconcile differences between the personal world and the external world.</span></p>
<p class="p1"><span class="s1">The more experience we gain, the stronger our external skills become. We continually develop those skills and fine tune them to meet our needs.</span></p>
<p class="p1"><span class="s1">Our business mindset is simply the skills we have learned to best function at work and in dealing with the real world. Who do we trust? How do we best approach our boss with a particular problem?<span class="Apple-converted-space">&nbsp; </span>How do we convince the decision makers that our idea is right?</span></p>
<p class="p1"><span class="s1">But what happens when our business mindset isn&rsquo;t enough? What do we do when it&rsquo;s clear we aren&rsquo;t making our points stick?</span></p>
<p class="p1"><span class="s1">When sufficiently challenged, we fall back to our defense mechanisms. These defense mechanisms reflect our personal mindset…our values, beliefs and our instincts. </span></p>
<p class="p1"><span class="s1">We see ourselves as conveying the more fundamental arguments of common sense, or of right and wrong.</span></p>
<p class="p1"><span class="s1">However others may see us as no longer being objective. They may perceive us to be interjecting emotions or subjectivity. In turn, we might view their counter-arguments as now becoming personal.</span></p>
<p class="p1"><span class="s1">The better we understand how we might be seen by others, the better we can control our message and its effectiveness. </span></p>
<p class="p1"><span class="s1">An understanding of, not only our similar and differing professional goals, but also of possible shared or differing values, helps us to move each stage of negotiation to a new and higher level.</span></p>
<p class="p1"><span class="s1">Problems cannot be resolved at the same level that they were created. </span></p>
<p class="p1"><span class="s1">Similarly, we can&rsquo;t solve those problems at the same level we were at when we created them.</span></p>