Tactical Empathy

Negotiation is typically portrayed as a winner-take-all skirmish. Be it haggling for a higher salary, asking for a promotion, or closing a deal, the process might summon tactics, for example, from Sun Tzu’s The Art of War. Countless MBA courses and textbooks have taught us that business is a battlefield. A former hostage negotiator with the FBI has a different take on this.

Tactical empathy—intentionally using concepts from neuroscience to influence emotions—is a core stratagem in navigating any type of friction.