85: Loki's Wager — Building Trust through Difficult Negotiations

In Norse mythology, Loki was the trickster. In one of his particularly sticky exploits, he wagered his head with a group of dwarves and lost, creating a wonderful metaphor describing the complexities of difficult negotiations for us today known as “Loki’s Wager.” 

Seemingly impassable problems are common in the boardroom. But in most cases, such challenges stem from weak trust and a poor culture around handling conflict. Astute leaders know that the great benefit of team work is leveraging different perspectives toward big problems. To do so requires reframing the intractable, and moving beyond Loki’s most frustrating wager. 

This week on Navigating Change, Howard Teibel and Pete Wright discuss Loki’s Wager, and share insight that can help to adjust our natural assumptions around conflict, trust, and the ground rules required for an effective problem-solving and decision-making engine at the negotiating table. 

Photo Credit: Inspired by Escher by Morgan Paul

11: We’re always selling

Walk into your next management meeting and tell your team that you think they need to learn to sell better, you're likely to feel a chill enter the room. Sales has a tough reputation inside organizations. And yet, so many core skills from the art of selling apply perfectly to the interactions we engage in day to day. This week on the show, Howard Teibel and Pete Wright discuss how we are always selling something, whether it's a project idea, a need for partnerships among business units, or influencing a group to buy into a new direction. Selling is ultimately about listening, then conveying how your idea meets another's need. It's about great communication and negotiating skills, something all of us can continue to improve on.