Fortune 50 CEOs, AmLaw 100 equity partners, Big Four consultants, teachers, professors, politicians, Presidents, secretaries, waitresses, your Starbucks barista, actors, bakers, engineers, designers, artists, mothers, daughters, sisters, children. We all have one thing in common – the end of life’s road.

The Defense Procurement and Acquisition Policy Department Negotiation Preparation flow chart, suggests that negotiators

• tailor the negotiation team to the situation
• identify negotiation issues and objects
• identify your bargaining partners’ history and probable approach
• assess bargaining strengths and weaknesses
• identify negotiation priorities and potential tradeoffs
• determine an overall negotiation approach
• prepare a negotiation plan
• present the negotiation plan
• preparare a negotiation agenda

This is as good a list of negotiation preparation steps as I have seen anywhere and it would be well to have it by your side whenever you negotiate anything more important than who should cook dinner and who puts out the garbage tonight.

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