In 1997 (or 96), I was sent to a management assessment program. This consisted of 2 days of mock exercises where my management aptitude was assessed. After the class, I went over the assessment with one of the programs coordinators.

One exercise involved me convincing a manager in the operations department to sign onto a program I devised. During the mock negotiations (while being video taped), I managed to convince the manager to sign onto the program (or at least nod towards the program). At the point of the first agreement, I quickly (almost breathlessly) ended the meeting.

I lost points because I didn’t summarize the agreements at the end of the meeting and make sure that the manager was really agreeing with me. Its important to address agreement and disagreement directly and plainly. If the other party doesn’t understand what they are agreeing to or they don’t really agree, it does not count. 3 weeks down the line, they will act as if the agreement never happened.

Even if you are a lawyer and its a signed contract (unless you are out to screw the other party), it matters that the other party really understands the agreement.  I wonder how much of the current credit crunch could have been avoided if the loan givers had made sure the borrowers understood the terms, conditions and consequences of the loans they were selling.