Hearing Gary Noesner talk to Lanigan & Malone on Majic 105.7 about his new book, Stalling For Time: My Life As An FBI Hostage Negotiator, I felt compelled to get it. After all, hostage situations require communication skills on steroids.  I was fascinated to learn how much of these situations are like any other business transaction and face the same challenges. Lesson 1 – Internal communications make or break a transaction. In case after case, things went smoothly or not based more on the internal communication than anything else. If the tactical group wasn’t on the same page as the negotiating team, you ended up with situations like Waco, Tx. If everyone was on the same page, as a news-viewing public we don’t remember the cases because they went so smoothly and worked out in the end. I can recall many deals that were made […] Continue reading