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Years ago I was a project manager for an international franchise organization who was involved in acquisitions and rebrandings. I was working closely with their legal counsel primarily dealing with franchise agreements and defining trading areas. This legal team was amazing! They were so bright, talented, focused and strategic. We had a great rapport.<\/p>\n
On one occasion two members flew in from Montreal to Toronto to meet with me. We had a tight deadline and too much to do. We had been hard at work all day and it was going on\u00a07:00 pm.\u00a0Our eyes were starting to burn and we were feeling nausea from all of the reading. At one point one of the lawyer\u2019s said, \u201cI can\u2019t believe I came all this way to feel sick! If I read one more Appendix D, I\u2019m going to throw up!\u201d<\/p>\n
I thought that was a good time to change the mood so I started singing , \u201c\u00a0I would walk 500 miles<\/em>\u201d then the other lawyer sang, \u201cAnd I would walk 500 hundred more<\/em>\u201d lastly Mr. Appendix D sang, \u201cJust to be the man who walks a thousand miles and falls down at your door!<\/em>\u201d Then Mr. Appendix D found that song on his laptop and played it. The three of us stood up and stomped around the boardroom. It was a great stress relief! We worked well into the night and managed to meet our ambitious deadline.<\/p>\n A few days later they were back in Montreal and called me to help them out with mediation. They had an unintentional situation that needed damage control. One of the lawyer\u2019s filled me in on the pertinent history and another lawyer began to coach me as to what to say and what not to say. After about half an hour of coaching I told her that this seems too complicated. Then I asked her, \u201cWhat is your bottom line?\u201d<\/p>\n I continued, \u201cBe fair, and tell me what your best case scenario is?\u201d She told me the best case scenario. Then she explained that she didn\u2019t think I would be able to even get to that point in the mediation, as the other party\u2019s mediator was known to be very aggressive. She wished me luck.<\/p>\n About an hour later I was on a conference call with the other party\u2019s mediator. I said \u201chello\u201d and then she interrupted me to begin her rant. I pressed the mute button and ate my golden delicious apple (it was really delicious). She went on and on and on. It must have been at least 20 minutes, which is a really long time to be yelled at by someone I didn\u2019t even know. She eventually paused, so I thought that was my cue to start.<\/p>\n I had a lot of work to do and was not interested with dragging this out any further, so I simply proposed the bottom line. She was silent. I asked her to kindly relay the proposal to their legal counsel and ask them to reply to our legal counsel. I wished her a good day and then I hung up the phone. Done!<\/p>\n It was the end of the work day and my phone rang as I was getting ready to leave the office. I picked it up. It was the legal counsel. They were so happy to inform me that the other party accepted the proposal. They asked me what it is that I said to be so convincing. I told them, \u201cI silenced her with a fair offer. No one can argue with that – not even her!\u201d We laughed.<\/p>\n The next day, I received a beautiful bouquet of flowers, a delightful basket with cheese, crackers and chocolates and a card that read, \u201cSpecial delivery from 500 miles!\u201d<\/p>\n