Hi reader, another look today at a couple of my recent reads.
The Damned Utd by David Peace (March 2022)
As we all know 2022 is a World Cup year, which means a few more soccer books than usual here in the TOA atmosphere. The Damned Utd covers legendary manager Brian Clough's sensational forty-four day tenure in 1974 as manager of defending champion Leeds United, written as a novel and reading like a journal while remaining fully loyal to real-life events and results. Interspersed into the main arc is the backstory of Clough's managerial career up to that point, which saw him lead Derby County to incredible heights while also establishing himself as one of the great personas in the soccer world. The book is a spectacular creative accomplishment in my mind, perhaps occasionally trying a little too hard to bring the reader into Clough's headspace, but nevertheless a read that I recommend to any fan of the sport. I thought the most interesting idea from the book was a leadership insight - the best leaders are the ones who, recognizing the innate need to feel admired or respected, find a way to help others feel fulfilled in this regard while also knowing how to motivate themselves through their own low points.
Never Split the Difference by Chris Voss (November 2021)
I was surprised to see summaries of this book reference the nine key principles Voss, a former FBI hostage negotiator, uses to succeed in the world of highs-stakes negotiations - my recollection was that this book lacked such a rigid structure. I still thought this was a highly informative book, perhaps most useful for a reader with some personal experience in negotiations who could use Never Split the Difference to first evaluate their own process, then iterate using Voss's insights as guidelines or suggestions. For me, I found it to be an easy book with a number of helpful observations that I've carried with me since my reading, but I don't anticipate I will suddenly become the world's greatest negotiator for the sole fact of this read. One consistent emphasis in this book was on the use of labeling, which Voss sees as a surefire way to advance a conversation. A label usually forces the other side to say "I agree" or tempts them to correct you. For example, if you say "it seems like X is important to you" then the other side can either agree with X, which may help establish rapport in the negotiation, or it can disagree, which could lead them to reveal previously unknown information as they correct you.
This gets to a larger theme of the book - the main objective of the negotiation process is to acquire information. This links to some of the other notes I took from Never Split the Difference - listen as much as possible (since only the speaker can share information); avoid the temptation to fit new details into existing mental frameworks (since you may misidentify the relevance of novel information); remember to confirm the type of information contained in "yes" (because "yes" can mean commitment to action, but sometimes is used to either escape the discussion or buy time for an eventual "no"). As mentioned, I thought this book had quite a few helpful details (I may return to these in another post) but for most people just remembering to collect information will help them succeed in a negotiation. There is only so much wiggle room in these situations, so the sooner you know all the details the better positioned you are to find a solution that brings as much benefit as possible to all involved parties.
