You concede. You teach the other side to ask for more.
It matters not only how much you give away, but when, in what order and on what terms. Your concessions teach the other side whether to keep pushing.
Negotiation and conversation preparation
You negotiate more often than you think.
A client asks for extra scope. Someone moves up a deadline. Another department wants to change priorities. Even if you don’t call these conversations negotiations, you are deciding who takes on the work, cost and responsibility.
At the workshop, you prepare your team to recognize these moments and handle the conversation deliberately.
So you can protect the value of your work and reach an agreement without unnecessary concessions.
Sound familiar?
You want an agreement. What do you give up to get it?
You know your offer. You don’t know the other side’s strength.
You prepare arguments but don’t check what alternatives the other side has. You take their confidence as proof of an advantage.
You have a plan. Under pressure, you fall back on reflexes.
A deadline, silence or a demand throws you off balance. You react instead of deliberately deciding on your next step.
The Meaning Makers perspective
What brings relief in the conversation can cost you in the negotiation.
You concede to ease the tension. You add more arguments to persuade the other side. You suggest meeting halfway to be fair. Each move can seem reasonable. Each can also weaken your position. At the workshop, you explore when to do something other than what your first instinct suggests.
FIRST INSTINCT
Concede to ease the tension.
DELIBERATE MOVE
Before you concede, decide what you will receive in return.
FIRST INSTINCT
Add more arguments to persuade them.
DELIBERATE MOVE
Ask a question that reveals what is really blocking an agreement.
FIRST INSTINCT
Meet halfway to be fair.
DELIBERATE MOVE
Find out what each side values differently and what you can exchange.
The workshop broadened my perspective and gave me tools I can use straight away.
After the workshop
You negotiate with preparation you can come back to.
You assess the strength of both sides.
You analyse your own alternatives and the other side’s options. You separate facts from assumptions before you set your goal and limits.
You ask to uncover what you don’t know.
You prepare questions about priorities, constraints and options. You also decide deliberately what information to reveal and when.
You shape how the proposal is evaluated.
You present terms in the context of value, risk and available alternatives. You discuss what they mean instead of stopping at price alone.
You trade value instead of giving it away.
You tie concessions to conditions and look for elements that are worth different amounts to each side. You build proposals that go beyond a single discount.
You choose your strategy under pressure too.
You recognize when to make a demand, when to ask questions and when to set a difficult issue aside. You do not automatically concede to ease the tension. You choose your next step based on the situation, your goal and the relationship.
You negotiate even when no one calls it a negotiation.
A client asks for extra scope. A deadline gets shorter. Another department changes priorities. In each of these conversations, you decide who takes on the cost, work and responsibility. Prepare your team to protect value in everyday collaboration, too.
Practice on your own situation
Bring the negotiation you want to prepare for.
You work on your team’s situations and challenges. First, you negotiate in a simulation, then analyze your decisions and their consequences. You learn what drives the conversation and test a different approach in the next exercise. With feedback from the trainer, you refine your preparation for your own negotiations.
You learn a framework that lets you organize your goal, assess your position and choose a direction in 10 minutes. In more complex negotiations, it becomes the starting point for deeper preparation.
We run the workshop in Polish or English, including for international teams. Our confidence in facilitating in both languages comes from delivering workshops in more than 30 countries.
In person or online. We tailor the scope to the negotiations your team faces.
I already had a chance to apply some of the techniques during the course.
From workshop to practice
The workshop ends. You have the tools to move forward.
When you prepare your next negotiation, the planner guides you through the key questions, while the AI coach helps you refine your message.
Shape your message step by step.
Questions and a clear structure help you find the point, organize your arguments and plan a negotiation.
Work on your own topic.
AI support helps you refine a message using your own topic and materials.
Meaning Makers articles
See how we think about negotiation.
Start with three perspectives that change how you prepare for the conversation.
Where do we start?
- 01
Tell us what you want to change.
You do not need a finished brief. Start with the situations your team is facing.
- 02
We’ll decide what to work on.
In conversation, we’ll clarify the goal and choose the scope, format and length of the workshop.
- 03
We’ll tailor the workshop.
We’ll agree which situations and materials participants will bring, so they can practise what they really need.
Let’s talk
Which negotiations do you want to prepare your team for?
Tell us who you negotiate with and what makes it difficult today.
You do not need a finished brief.
Send an enquiry. We’ll get back to you to discuss your team’s situation and what working together might involve.