What to Do When Hit With a Negotiation Surprise

Experienced negotiators refer to this surprise tactic as the “bomb scare.” Such surprises happen in sales, salary negotiations, customer projects, and political situations. Consider the two “bomb scares” (one for each side) with the two James Comey announcements before the 2016 elections about re-opening the investigation of Hillary Clinton’s emails and then weeks later the announcement that Clinton was cleared. In dropping these two bomb scares, Comey managed to alienate the leaders of bo...