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Other Applications 355

However, if a meeting really appears necessary, list your objectives in the left-hand column
of a piece of A4 paper (or a Mind Map) and in the right-hand column show the key points that
should swing the meeting in your favour.

Also consider the objectives and success criteria of other potential participants and the
approaches they might take. Again list these on a sheet of A4 paper, showing their key points.
You can extend this sheet so that, in effect, it becomes a deception theory.

Sometimes your position may appear weak or even hopeless and if this is the case, you
should:

• list all of the key points in your favour and support them with detailed evidence;
• list how you can defeat the opponent’s strong points;
• consider how you can divert attention away from your weak position.

THE CUSTOMS LAWYER weakest element in the case against his
client and build it up into a hanging offence:
Years ago most of the worst smugglers and sometimes haranguing his client along the
purchase tax evaders would consult an lines: ‘This is much worse than I believed.
elderly, butter would not melt in his mouth, I did not know that you had done this’. In
London solicitor. He was a star. When eight-, ten- or twelve-hour meetings he was
accompanying his clients at interviews able to prevent the officials from asking his
with Customs and Excise lawyers and clients any meaningful questions about the
investigators he would always take a passive more serious aspects by interrupting and
role and get them to produce their most saying ‘No, we must deal with this really
dreadful evidence against his clients. From important matter first’, and then continuing
time to time he would make ‘tutting noises’, to beat the least relevant issue to death.
look towards his client and shake his head,
but say nothing else.

When his turn came he would select the

The proposed participants

Take great care over the proposed participants in any important meeting and don’t just throw
out invitations willy nilly. Think of the participants in three categories, those that:

• are likely to support you (usually around 10 per cent);
• are likely to oppose you (usually around 11 per cent);
• are likely to sit on the fence (usually around 79 per cent).

Your success in meetings and negotiations is likely to depend on having more, or more power-
ful, people supporting you than opposing you, so plan carefully.

Try to identify the opposing power player – who may dominate the meeting by adopting
a critical parent role – and there may be more than one. From the outset you should consider
ways in which he or they can be marginalized and the easiest way of doing this is to get some-
one on your side who is more powerful than him.

Indecision is the key to flexibility