Negotiations and mediations can be difficult when one or both parties want to play things “close to the vest” like a poker player and not open up about what they truly want and need (and why) in order to reach a resolution. On the other hand the other party may appear to be very demonstrative, emotional, irrational or angry covering up what’s really going on inside. Either way what may appear to you as the person’s shallow desires or demands may actually have deep roots.
Like an iceberg what you perceive may be a small fraction of what the other person is all about. Don’t sink your client’s chances of a positive settlement by slamming into the other party’s unseen motives, constraints or lack of information. You need to try to discover and address the underlying interests driving the party’s emotion or lack thereof.
