Overcoming Cultural Differences in Negotiations | Business School Lausanne With Lousin Mehrabi

How to deal with cultural differences in negotiations? 🌏
You won't believe this but we have 8 different cultures in our household!
I work with clients worldwide and have lived in 4 countries.
On any given day I deal with at least 5-10 different nationalities.
So how to do this successfully?
Of course, we can go deep into all the different cultural codes.
But you know what I've learned dealing with so many cultures for 40 years?
That the key to successfully negotiating with people from other cultures is to remember this:
Behind the countries we're from,
The languages that we speak,
Our skin color or ethnicity...
𝗪𝗲 𝗮𝗿𝗲 𝗮𝗹𝗹 𝗵𝘂𝗺𝗮𝗻 𝗯𝗲𝗶𝗻𝗴𝘀
That means we have more similarities than differences.
Culture has a strong influence on us,
But so do education, background, upbringing, past trauma, and everything else that people bring to the negotiation table with them!
So the best way to successfully negotiate with people from diverse cultural backgrounds is to:
1️⃣ See the human behind their culture
2️⃣ Focus on finding the common ground - what you would both benefit from if you were to come to an agreement
3️⃣ Look beyond what differentiates you from them, including culture
4️⃣ Find what brings you together and how you can create value
Of course, as a form of respect, you want to learn a bit about their culture.
Mainly not to make big cultural mistakes.
But giving too much attention to the culture won't get you to a deal -
unless you incorporate true negotiation skills to reach an agreement.
With integrity and ethics.
Thoughts?
Love & Motivation,
Lousin Mehrabi