Use HBDI to Understand Your Opponent to Avoid Stalemates
Does you constantly reach a negotiation stalemate? Well, today's podcast will explore using HBDI to avoid a negotiation stalemate. Join Darren Smith and George Araham as they tackle this exciting topic.
You Can Read the Full Negotiation and HBDI Transcript Below:
Darren A. Smith:
Hi, my name's Darren Smith and you're the home of sticky learning.
We are with George Harran. George, hello.
George:
Hello, how are you, Darren?
Darren A. Smith:
Hello. Hey, I'm good. I'm good. So I'm Darren, this is George. And we're here today to talk with you about HBDI and negotiation. In fact, the title of this podcast. I'll read out my negotiations. Always get to an annoying stalemate. Use HBDI to understand your opponent to avoid stalemates. So George, we're talking about negotiation and HBDI. The reason you're here is your what we would call naive results. You've just completed your HPDI profile, is that right?
George:
Yay, correct.
Darren A. Smith:
OK. Fabulous. Fabulous. So you're gonna ask me lots of probing, challenging questions, particularly around HPDI and how we can use it with negotiation. All right, all right, so let's do a couple of minutes on your understanding of HBDI and what this profile meant to you.
The HBDI brain is split into four coloured sections
George:
Love it.
Darren A. Smith:
What did it mean to you doing your profile?
George:
It's interesting because I found a couple of like things.
It was interesting. I discovered things I was aware of, some I wasn't really aware of.
Darren A. Smith:
Mm hmm mm.
George:
A couple of the so when I was asked to anticipate the results, I actually nailed it in a way I got all my 4 quadrants more or less precisely the same. I was surprised though, by stressful flow. What's it called? This. Yeah, exactly. The results were a bit different than I was expecting, but like, it is what it is, I guess.
Darren A. Smith:
That's not. OK, alright. Well, let me give you and the viewers a quick summary of my understanding of your profile here it is. I'm sure you don't mind me showing it. So what Ned Herman said was that we all know that the brain is split left and right. So let me ask you, George, what's the difference between left and right of the brain?
George:
Yeah. No. The conversion side of the brain and the right side is more like the creative, intuitive side of the brain, or the diversion.
Darren A. Smith:
Perfect, perfect, perfect. OK. And this was discovered now probably 50 years ago now. Not what Ned Herman said was actually left and right. Absolutely. But he also said there's top and bottom given US 4 quadrants to the brain. Now, Ned, Herman or HBDI, which is the Herman brain dominance instrument, measures how we prefer to think. And there are four quadrants in how we prefer to think we've got the blue Quadrant, which is all about facts. So if you've got a mate who's very good down at the pub quiz.
Darren A. Smith:
He's probably a blue loads of facts. The yellow. This is the creative, the entrepreneurial, entrepreneurial type. People who have got a million ideas and might be described as having their head in the clouds. We've got the red people. These are the touchy feely people. People what I love about the Reds is if you walk into a room they normally come over and touch your elbow and then we've got our greens, who are our structured plan. Next project managers. All right. So this just describes how you prefer to think.
George:
Interesting.
Darren A. Smith:
You can't get it wrong. You can't get it right. This is George.
George:
Hello.
Darren A. Smith:
So if having understood that you have a tendency to think more in the right side of the brain, your creativity, your big picture thinking's fairly high.
George:
Yeah.
Darren A. Smith:
Your people skills, your feelings fairly high, but your ability to do facts in the blue is quite low and your green is, let's say it's fairly low too. All right, so your right side of the brain thinker, nothing wrong with that. Nothing. Right with that, it's just who you are. And now what's particularly interesting is this solid line versus this dotted line is under pressure. Your green shrinks so you've become less structured, less planned, and you become more read, more emotional.
George:
Yeah.
Darren A. Smith:
So if you think back, how does that manifest itself in your life becoming less emotional? Sorry, more emotional and less planned?
George:
Well, that's actually the site that I really didn't understand in a way because like when I'm under pressure, what happens is I turn off people like my right side. Actually I turn it on off and I go full on left side and I go I could become very analytical and very plan-oriented in general. So this is like what my experience has been.
Darren A. Smith:
OK. So let me just rewind and make sure I've got this right. So your solid line, you are a right-brain thinker, that's where you're dominant. You like creativity, big picture people and then under pressure, the dotted line, I think I might have misspoke your structure. Your green goes out more right now. We've got it now. We've got it. So that ties in with what you actually do. All right, so let's come back to negotiation skills and stalemate.
George:
Yeah.
Darren A. Smith:
So let's say I'm a negotiation expert. What questions would you like to ask me? That would help you to avoid stalemate. Understand your opponent using this type of stuff.
George:
Mm hmm.
Darren A. Smith:
What questions do you have?
George:
OK, so first of all, I know that when you're negotiating with someone, it's important to bring in the facts. And since I do tend to have a low fact-based quadrant. How can I maximise it? How can I increase my blue quadrant or my unethical skills when I come across to this particular negotiation or negotiation.
Darren A. Smith:
OK, great question. So we can all do all four quadrants. It's just if I use a metaphor, you do yellow and red in 5th gear. If you were driving blue and green, you're probably doing in second gear, but we can all do all four. It's just where we feel more comfortable where our preferences. So you can do blue, it's accepting that it's going to be uncomfortable. It's going to take you a bit longer and you're probably going to procrastinate more to look for the facts.
George:
Yeah. No. Yes.
Darren A. Smith:
But you can do it. You can do it. So firstly it's accepting, we can do it. Secondly, it's accepting, it's going to be a bit harder than normal. It's not like doing the red or yellow stuff. And then thirdly, it's getting on doing it because you know the value of doing it. All right, now the other the second part in answering your question is remember that if you're negotiating, not everyone wants facts. Now I understand negotiation is a very logical piece that we do in the workplace.
George:
OK, OK.
Darren A. Smith:
But if you're up against a yellow negotiator, let's say they're probably going to want to understand the big picture. So the trick with HBDI and avoiding stalemates is to know who you're negotiating against.
George:
That was my next question. How do you know that? Like, how can you on on on the spot, know who your opponent, or who you're negotiating with?
Darren A. Smith:
That one is the first one. You're not going to like it. It will take years of practice to understand. All right, but OK, let's give you the silver bullet in most face-to-face negotiations. Don't start with a face-to-face negotiation. You've probably been probably been speaking to them or emailing them. So let me ask you a question. If you were to get an e-mail from someone like this, what would that e-mail look like? Bear in mind there are factors.
George:
OK. Yeah. Lots of numbers and stats and.
Darren A. Smith:
Perfect. So you're picking up now if you were to get an e-mail from a yellow-type person, what would it look like? This is big picture.
George:
Big ideas. Things that you want to do that are different, innovative, creative.
Darren A. Smith:
Very good, very good. OK, let's do the green.
George:
The green is more planned. So what are the steps to do this? What are the next steps et cetera, et cetera? It's more geared toward that and the red is more about like people who do, you know.
Darren A. Smith:
Yes. Lovely.
George:
Who do you know that can help me with this negotiation or et cetera? It's oh, who can you refer me to or? Who was your client? How those kind of things of questions?
Darren A. Smith:
Very good, very good. What we particularly look for in our red negotiators when we're identifying them over e-mail, they might share something they did at the weekend or something about their family. These guys are very sharing of what's going on in life. And also they're very warm and very enthusiastic people. So you can imagine the Reds on a call like this are like that, which is great. Like, you are the Blues are very much like this.
George:
Then.
Darren A. Smith:
Yeah, it is. And it's all good. They're right. We're right. It's just who you are. The trick here is if we can understand ourselves better and understand others better. And if I'm going to negotiation or you are and you're yellow to yellow, you're speaking French to French, right. Got that. But here. And it's hardest to communicate with people diagonally opposed to you. If you're going into a negotiation, you're talking to a green. You're talking French to Dutch.
George:
Yeah. Interesting. Yeah.
Darren A. Smith:
So what's going to happen if you're talking French to Dutch in that negotiation?
George:
Better speak English.
Darren A. Smith:
It's gonna be hard. It will be hard to communicate, hard to understand. The green is saying to where's the timeline? Where's some of the detail? How do we map this? And you're thinking? No, no, I just want to talk the big picture and say you're doing this.
George:
Yeah,
