{"id":12910,"date":"2021-09-12T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2021-09-12T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.scotwork.com\/nz\/blog-nz\/never-say-never\/"},"modified":"2021-09-12T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2021-09-12T00:00:00","slug":"never-say-never","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.scotwork.com\/nz\/blog-nz\/2021\/never-say-never\/","title":{"rendered":"Never say never"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

It\u2019s never easy to be a politician, and particularly over the last 18 months with the pandemic to deal with it, must have been even worse.<\/p>\n

Not that I have much time for them to be honest, all as bad as each other as my mum used to say.<\/p>\n

That said two things this week have caught my eye that frankly as a professional negotiator are worthy of attention.<\/p>\n

The first is the volte-face that Boris has had to make over the level of taxation in the UK. Britain is the first western nation set to increase taxes in order to cover the cost of the state-funded health service in the aftermath of the pandemic. Mr Johnson is having to go back on an election pledge not to increase payroll taxes, a move that has created uproar both in the opposition parties and to a lesser extent his own Conservative party.<\/p>\n

I am minded of the time when I was dealing with a client who said to me that there were absolutely no circumstances under which she would be able to pay the fees we had asked for. That they would have to change if we wanted the work. Later after something of a stand-off and with the project end date looming when she came back to me saying that the fee had been reviewed and they could actually pay it. The temptation to say \u201cI thought you said you couldn\u2019t pay it, ha,\u201d briefly played in my brain before the more conciliatory and relationship building option of thanking her for her flexibility and rewarding the change was what actually came out of my mouth. Punishing flexibility is rarely a good option. Maybe recognising it and negotiating about how the tax increase is actually imposed may have had a greater impact.<\/p>\n

The second and on the same subject was when an opposition MP was being interviewed by a reporter on the Today program. The issue of the tax rise was under discussion and the Labour MP was beside himself in anger with the government\u2019s plan to raise tax. Despite his understanding that events, dear boy events, had changed any strategies anyone could ever have had.<\/p>\n

When asked for his own proposal as to how these events would be accommodated by a potential Labour Government, he seemed somewhat stunned.<\/p>\n

The response, you\u2019ll have to wait and see our manifesto, was desultory, to say the least.<\/p>\n

As a listener, I couldn\u2019t help but think that his lack of an answer was an answer itself. And that answer was I haven\u2019t got a clue.<\/p>\n

Deciding to reveal or not reveal information as every negotiator knows, still reveals information, particularly when asked a direct question.<\/p>\n

I am constantly reminded of the value of negotiation in our daily interactions and recognising that the negotiator should constantly be mindful of her communication and narrative skills in the pre-curser and post curser to any actual negotiation itself.<\/p>\n

Keep that in mind, and if you want to learn more about how to do it, give us a call.<\/p>\n

Ph: 042979069<\/p>\n

E; info@scotwork.co.nz<\/a><\/p>\n\n<\/article>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It\u2019s never easy to be a politician, and particularly over the last 18 months with the pandemic to deal with it, must have been even worse. Not that I have much time for them to be honest, all as bad as each other as my mum used to say. That said two things this week…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":82,"featured_media":12911,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"_legacy_url":"blog-nz\/2021\/never-say-never\/","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12910","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nNever say never | Scotwork NZ Negotiation Blog<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"World leaders in business negotiation training and consultancy with experts across 120 countries, with negotiation courses taught in 29 languages.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.scotwork.com\/nz\/blog-nz\/2021\/never-say-never\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Never say never | Scotwork NZ Negotiation Blog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"World leaders in business negotiation training and consultancy with experts across 120 countries, with negotiation courses taught in 29 languages.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.scotwork.com\/nz\/blog-nz\/2021\/never-say-never\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"New Zealand\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2021-09-12T00:00:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.scotwork.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/56\/2026\/05\/negotiation-interview-converted.png\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"700\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"500\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Alan Smith\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Alan Smith\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.scotwork.com\/nz\/blog-nz\/2021\/never-say-never\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.scotwork.com\/nz\/blog-nz\/2021\/never-say-never\/\",\"name\":\"Never say never | Scotwork NZ Negotiation Blog\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.scotwork.com\/nz\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.scotwork.com\/nz\/blog-nz\/2021\/never-say-never\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.scotwork.com\/nz\/blog-nz\/2021\/never-say-never\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/56\/2026\/05\/negotiation-interview-converted.png\",\"datePublished\":\"2021-09-12T00:00:00+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.scotwork.com\/nz\/#\/schema\/person\/1cb18265e226b7da54722f0eb4c14bd6\"},\"description\":\"World leaders in business negotiation training and consultancy with experts across 120 countries, with negotiation courses taught in 29 languages.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.scotwork.com\/nz\/blog-nz\/2021\/never-say-never\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.scotwork.com\/nz\/blog-nz\/2021\/never-say-never\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.scotwork.com\/nz\/blog-nz\/2021\/never-say-never\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/56\/2026\/05\/negotiation-interview-converted.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/56\/2026\/05\/negotiation-interview-converted.png\",\"width\":700,\"height\":500},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.scotwork.com\/nz\/blog-nz\/2021\/never-say-never\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.scotwork.com\/nz\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Never say never\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.scotwork.com\/nz\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.scotwork.com\/nz\/\",\"name\":\"New Zealand\",\"description\":\"\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.scotwork.com\/nz\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.scotwork.com\/nz\/#\/schema\/person\/1cb18265e226b7da54722f0eb4c14bd6\",\"name\":\"Alan Smith\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.scotwork.com\/nz\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/d59c13a2843ee16bb5ae9cecbc20e4a0?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/d59c13a2843ee16bb5ae9cecbc20e4a0?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Alan Smith\"},\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.scotwork.com\/nz\/blog-nz\/author\/alansmith\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Never say never | Scotwork NZ Negotiation Blog","description":"World leaders in business negotiation training and consultancy with experts across 120 countries, with negotiation courses taught in 29 languages.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.scotwork.com\/nz\/blog-nz\/2021\/never-say-never\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Never say never | Scotwork NZ Negotiation Blog","og_description":"World leaders in business negotiation training and consultancy with experts across 120 countries, with negotiation courses taught in 29 languages.","og_url":"https:\/\/www.scotwork.com\/nz\/blog-nz\/2021\/never-say-never\/","og_site_name":"New Zealand","article_published_time":"2021-09-12T00:00:00+00:00","og_image":[{"width":700,"height":500,"url":"https:\/\/www.scotwork.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/56\/2026\/05\/negotiation-interview-converted.png","type":"image\/png"}],"author":"Alan Smith","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Alan Smith","Est. reading time":"3 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.scotwork.com\/nz\/blog-nz\/2021\/never-say-never\/","url":"https:\/\/www.scotwork.com\/nz\/blog-nz\/2021\/never-say-never\/","name":"Never say never | Scotwork NZ Negotiation Blog","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.scotwork.com\/nz\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.scotwork.com\/nz\/blog-nz\/2021\/never-say-never\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.scotwork.com\/nz\/blog-nz\/2021\/never-say-never\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/56\/2026\/05\/negotiation-interview-converted.png","datePublished":"2021-09-12T00:00:00+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.scotwork.com\/nz\/#\/schema\/person\/1cb18265e226b7da54722f0eb4c14bd6"},"description":"World leaders in business negotiation training and consultancy with experts across 120 countries, with negotiation courses taught in 29 languages.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.scotwork.com\/nz\/blog-nz\/2021\/never-say-never\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.scotwork.com\/nz\/blog-nz\/2021\/never-say-never\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.scotwork.com\/nz\/blog-nz\/2021\/never-say-never\/#primaryimage","url":"\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/56\/2026\/05\/negotiation-interview-converted.png","contentUrl":"\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/56\/2026\/05\/negotiation-interview-converted.png","width":700,"height":500},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.scotwork.com\/nz\/blog-nz\/2021\/never-say-never\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.scotwork.com\/nz\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Never say never"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.scotwork.com\/nz\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.scotwork.com\/nz\/","name":"New Zealand","description":"","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.scotwork.com\/nz\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.scotwork.com\/nz\/#\/schema\/person\/1cb18265e226b7da54722f0eb4c14bd6","name":"Alan Smith","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.scotwork.com\/nz\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/d59c13a2843ee16bb5ae9cecbc20e4a0?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/d59c13a2843ee16bb5ae9cecbc20e4a0?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Alan Smith"},"url":"https:\/\/www.scotwork.com\/nz\/blog-nz\/author\/alansmith\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.scotwork.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12910","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.scotwork.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.scotwork.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.scotwork.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/82"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.scotwork.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12910"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.scotwork.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12910\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.scotwork.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12911"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.scotwork.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12910"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.scotwork.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12910"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.scotwork.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12910"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}