Adventure Learning in Turkey

istanbul-150x150I just returned from a conference in Istanbul, which was the second of three conferences on the next generation of negotiation teaching. It was fascinating; and I will have several posts in the next few days about different pieces of it. One of the most interesting concepts behind this conference was the opportunity to take advantage of the city itself, to take advantage of a negotiation culture completely unlike the US one, and to go into the Spice Market and Grand Bazaar to have some fun while learning about the negotiation culture here. I will have several stories from this experience. The first is my important negotiation for soccer jerseys for my boys. (I have for many years used soccer jerseys from around the world as the standard gift for my sons. In some places—France, Spain—this has led to classic department store purchases. In others—Italy, Bosnia, Croatia, Israel—this leads to bargaining with vendors in tourist squares.) I have a general process that I use for negotiation that I was curious to test again in Istanbul.

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My Zombie President: A Halloween Story

ZOMBIELAND“More coffee dear?”

 “Hmm? Oh, yes please.  Did you see this story in the newspaper?  The Zombie Party has come out in favor of the President’s health reform plan.”

 “Isn’t that good?  I thought that you were in favor of health reform.”

 “I am, but I don’t trust these Zombies.  They are not rational.  You can’t talk to them.  Have you seen the television footage of those town hall meetings?  It’s just a sea of screaming faces.  The raw emotion of these Zombies is terrifying.”

 “So why is the Zombie Party supporting health care reform?”

“The story says that they will support the plan if the Democrats put the ‘death panel’ provisions back in.  It seems that Zombies favor ‘end of life planning,’ although for some reason their representatives in Congress keep referring to it as ‘planning for the end of life.’  I just don’t trust these Zombies.”

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The Problems with Disclosure

We had a wonderful edition of “On the Issues” with Mike Gousha last week with my former partner, Mike Grebe, now CEO of the Bradley Foundation. Mike is a great guy who has had a wonderful career. Bradley is a generous supporter of the law school and has been a tremendous force for good in the community and nationally. (By way of full disclosure, Bradley funds the Wisconsin Policy Research Institute and I have a relationship with them.)

I could go on about Mike, but I’d rather disagree with him. In response to a question of the audience, he criticized the McCain-Feingold Act and other efforts to wring money out of politics.

I agree with that.

But Mike went on to say that he believes that the answer to concerns about undue influence is mandatory disclosure. We should all know who has given what to whom.

I used to believe that.

Now I’m not so sure.

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