Page 307 - Deception at work all chapters EBook

360 An HR Guide to Workplace Fraud and Criminal Behaviour

• deal quickly and politely with anything you think is untrue;
• never let anyone conceal the truth but raise the pavement by requiring them to falsify de-

tails.

You should also carefully monitor the transactional dynamics of the participants and change
your role accordingly. Also remember that the opening and last 20 per cent of a meeting are
the most critical.

Openings and closings are critical

Demand equivalent concessions
If you are involved in a hard ball meeting or negotiation, you should only make a concession
when an equivalent benefit is obtained.

Examples:
‘We are prepared to reduce the price by two per cent, but need payment in advance.’
‘I accept that we should open a new office in Cheam, but [think of something you would
like16].’

In some instances the psychological gains from insisting on a reciprocal concession will
far outweigh the financial benefits. However, in financial negotiations, you should make sure
that the concessions you make are in the smallest possible increments.

Example: A builder quotes you £30,000 for erecting an indoor driving range at your home.
You think this is expensive and should be no more than £20,000. Thus you start by offering
him £12,000 and concede that you will pay him a 50 per cent deposit. He is not prepared
to accept, so your first increment is to £12,100 and his to £27,000. If you are advancing in
increments of £100 and he is reducing by £3,000, you should come out a winner.

In negotiations, the party that concedes the smallest increments usually wins

Watch for legitimization
Negotiators frequently use legitimization statements (see page [xref]) to justify their position,
by claiming, for example, that they can only work from a standard price list, that company
policy does not permit discounting or that the terms of a contract are non variable. Legitimi-
zation also pops up in other meetings with statements such as: ‘We cannot do that because
of the Data Protection Act/human rights legislation.’ If these go against your objectives, you
must question them and press for more and more detail. In most cases you will discover that
the person concerned is unsure of his facts and that his legitimizations can be dismissed. This
also seriously reduces his credibility for the remainder of the meeting.

16 For example, a new Calloway driver