International Negotiations

Extension activity

Tell trainees to look at the audio scripts on page 46 and play the recordings again for 

them to listen and underline all the advice for dealing with each cultural type. They 

compare their answers in pairs before feeding back to the class.

Suggested answers

Fact cultures: don’t waste time with too much small talk; be careful not to end up 

discussing issues in isolation which really need to be connected; be extremely well briefed 

with all the relevant information; be aware that the main objective of the negotiation is to 

do business; focus on [key terms] right from the start; be prepared for regular summaries 

of what’s on the table at each stage of the negotiation and a concrete outcome at the 

end.

People cultures: don’t rush the preliminaries; take your lead from them as to how long the 

social introductions and opening generalisations should go on; [don’t] hurry them into 

proposing a list of items to discuss; take it easy, ‘go with the flow’; [don’t expect] a final 

decision ... to be reached without a further meeting.

Trust cultures: [don’t] sell yourself hard; listen to them; [allow] a common purpose [to] 

emerge; [don’t show] emotions or disagreement; [don’t try] to find out the motivation 

behind their demands ... by asking questions; keep making calculated guesses about 

what they want until you hit the target; [be cautious about] giving away information 

about needs and priorities; accept that it will take a long time to agree anything and that 

anything agreed will ... have to be flexible.