When you decide or find out how long you are going to speak, time yourself during rehearsals and cut out the unnecessary bits that make you overrun. A common mistake is to read the script while you time yourself. You usually read a different speed from when you talk. Instead of just reading, deliver your presentation as if you have an audience, including all the pauses and with your normal speed of talking. Make sure you finish a minute or so before the allocated time as you tend to be slower sometimes under real conditions.

Here are some suggestions to help you stick to your schedule and use your time effectively:

1) During the presentation, put a watch – preferable with digital display – somewhere you can see it. Look at it from time to time to see how long you have left and control your speed accordingly, without letting your audience notice because it can be rather irritating

2) Choose a paragraph from a book, read it with your normal talking speed and time yourself. Repeat this same procedure for longer paragraphs and try to guess the length of time you have been speaking for. Doing this several times will help you find out how long it takes you to say a given number of words

3) Another method is to make your script fit the time and then roughly memorize your words. This will enable you to stop exactly on time without having to worry about it.

4) If your visual aids require some time to switch from one slide to another, try to include them in your rehearsals. If they are not available at the time of preparation, take them into account and allow another minute or so for changing slides.

5) Present on your own several times and time yourself. Adjust the speed of your talk each time to make it fit comfortably within the given time. If it doesn’t, go back to the drawing board and take out a few sentences or ideas.

Chaos is thought to be bad in situations. That’s because most people like peace and serenity in their environment. The latter is why you can win more negotiations by using chaos properly and at the right time.

Continue reading to discover how you can use chaos to win more negotiations.

Defining Chaos:

Before attempting to deploy chaos in your negotiation, you need to understand what the other negotiator perceives to be chaos. If she’s an astute negotiator, one that’s accustomed to dealing with lots of negotiation tactics and strategies, she may not be flustered by your attempts to instill chaos into the negotiation. As such, she may identify your efforts as the tactic that it is and turn it against you. On the other hand, if she’s someone that seeks nonconfrontational environments, you can attempt to use chaos as a way to make her conform to your plan for the negotiation.

Serenity:

If serenity is sought by the opposing negotiator, insert chaotic situations into the negotiation when he seeks serenity the most (e.g. things are going well and you make an outlandish request that you know he’d never accept). You would do this to test his fortitude as to what he’ll accept and what he’ll fight for. Therefore, the degree and kind of chaos used should be determined by the amount of pressure you’re attempting to cast upon him, which in part is dependent on his level of tolerance for chaos. Remember, this tactic works best if the other negotiator is somewhat tired or worn-down. He’ll be more susceptible to this tactic when he’s in such a physiological state because he’ll be deprived of his mental clarity and agility due to his diminished state of awareness and consciousness.

Predictability:

Don’t be predictable, unless you want to be perceived as being predictable.

People love to deal with others that are predictable. They don’t mind if someone is good or bad as defined by the situation you’re applying the definition to. All they seek is predictability. That’s because, when someone is predictable less mental effort is required to predict their potential behavior.

To use predictability as a supplement to chaos, zig when you’re expected to zag. Then, if the opposing negotiator suspects you’re zigging when you’re expected to zag, change up again by doing exactly what he expected you to do. Once he feels he ‘understands your pattern’, you can restart the unexpected zigging and zagging. By doing so, you’ll decrease your predictability and cause additional angst in him, which will lead him to become more disdainful of the negotiation. Given that fact, you should be in a power position when doing so (i.e. able to engage in such actions without retribution), because you need to be somewhat accurate with your predictions of how he’ll react to your efforts. Thus, if predictability as an aide to chaos is not used adroitly, you could end up sending the negotiation into a tailspin. That might prove to be chaotic for you.

In your negotiations, if you use chaos as a tool in which serenity resides on the other side and the other negotiator seeks serenity as the result of you doing so, you’ll definitely win more negotiations… and everything will be right with the world.

Remember, you’re always negotiating.

Negotiators give hidden clues per what’s really on their minds by the words and gestures they use to convey their thoughts. To win more negotiations, unlock your awareness of hidden clues, and increase your level of awareness per what’s said, how it’s said, and the body language accompanying thoughts introduced during the negotiation.

Those hidden clues will give you the sense of direction to adopt for the negotiation, along with peeks of insights into the opposing negotiator’s strategy. Consider the following:

Speech Delivery:

Pace: Be aware of the pace at which the other negotiator speaks. In particular, be mindful of when he accelerates and deaccelerates his speech. Therein will lie clues to the deliberateness he applied to the offers and counteroffers he makes, which will also give you clues to his initial strategy per how he planned to engage in the negotiation.

Word Choice: Be mindful of the words used by the other negotiator and the meaning of those words per how he’s using them. Since the same word can have a different meaning to people, you must understand the intent being implied based on the words used by the other negotiator. You should also be mindful per how he’s measuring his words (e.g. pain can be implied by saying, “I’m experiencing discomfort with your offer”, or “that doesn’t agree with me” while touching his stomach (i.e. expressing his thoughts through kinesthetic).

Word Absence: Be very aware of what’s not said. The omission of words can conceal thoughts that have a huge impact on the negotiation. If you sense the absence of a word(s)/thoughts, you might consider posing the word/thought yourself to the other negotiator. Then, observe the response per delivery (i.e. slow could imply contemplation, fast might imply no great concern and/or something that he doesn’t want to deal with), word choices used to respond (e.g. I never thought of that (while being reflective)), and demeanor (i.e. sad, happy, disturbed, etc.) Such insights could expose conjectures. Be prepared to take advantage of them.

Nonverbal Body Language:

Nervous Gestures: To detect nervousness, observe fidgeting, shifting in chair, perspiration occurring at specific times in the negotiation, and excessive rubbing of hands/eyes/arms/legs. The latter are comfort gestures indicating that the opposing negotiator is attempting to calm himself.

Confident Gestures: Steepled hands (e.g. Church steeple), normal and consistent breathing, along with non-jerky movements all indicate/projects self-assuredness. When observing these gestures note the time they last and at what point in the negotiation that they occur.

Intuition per Awareness: When experiencing intuition, our brain is signaling that it senses something that may require more attention. Since we’re bombarded by millions of minute nuances of information on a daily basis, our brain takes shortcuts to weed out information it deems unnecessary of our full attention. As such, we may not be 100% focused on auxiliary occurrences that happen around us. That’s because such sensations occur on a subliminal/subconscious level.

When we have such sensations, even though we’re not fully aware of what we’re sensing, such signals should be given more credence because they contain insights per what we’re experiencing.

As with any negotiation, the more you’re aware per what’s occurring in your environment, the more opportunities you’ll see. To increase your negotiation win rate, raise your level of awareness per the insights cited above… and everything will be right with the world.

Remember, you’re always negotiating!