Good Day Gents,

if you're at all familiar with Rudyard Kipling you will be familiar with the concept that female members of most animal species leave no quarter. This is commonly said to be a consequence of that females are the primary care takers of their offspring. When looking after kids, there are no compromises. At least in evolutionary biology.

I have a good anecdote for this. I know that an anecdote is just that, hence the disclaimer. After graduating university I was hired on by a company for a career level corporate business role. I was sent to a sales and negotiation training, and in one of the role plays I was placed in a group where I was the only man.

The problem and stakeholders that were distributed immediately made sense to me. Just reading my part and the general scenario, I immediately sensed the solution which would have seen each negotiator as a winner in their own set of needs. Very confident, I immediately started negotiating towards that solution.

The other persons would just look at me like deer in the headlights and proceeded to demand everything on the table. Each of them wanted to win over the others, no compromise. I continued to lay out the mutual win in ever more detail and as clearly as possible without completely giving away my negotiation position.

Meanwhile, the session trainer caught notice of my situation. They would pace around our group. In an audible tone, they would say things like:

- "He understood the problem immediately."

- "He gets it."

- "He sees right through it."

Meanwhile, the persons I am paired up with continue to look at me like they're completely lost. Would they allow me to guide the group to the group problem's solution? Fuck of course they wouldn't.

The negotiation completely failed.

No chance!