Your Ears Are Your Strongest Resolution and Negotiation Weapons.

The original blog post was published by The Engineering Management Institute. 
Your Ears Are Your Strongest Resolution and Negotiation Weapons (engineeringmanagementinstitute.org)

SUMMARY
Most of the content I researched around resolution and negotiation focused on the self. Where most advice falls short is that the advice focuses on YOU; YOUR feelings, YOUR body language, YOUR decision-making, YOUR attitude, and YOUR behaviors. What about your negotiating partner? What about their feelings, body language, decision-making, attitude, and behaviors? Ears are the gateways to receiving critical information about your environment and about the person with whom your are trying to resolve a conflict.

When you focus on opening your ears, closing your mouth, and focusing on the other person, several key dynamics are put in motion:

1. The other person has an end goal in mind. They have an expected outcome. What is it? You will never know if you don’t open your ears and listen.
2. Once your ears are open, listen. You may hear noises coming from the other person’s mouth, but you must listen to decipher and understand what they mean.
3. Listening takes intentional focus and sustained effort. LISTENING IS NOT marshaling your arguments or assuming conclusions. LISTENING IS focusing on the other person’s message, seeking to understand that message, and then syncing that message to the broader context.
4. Once your ears are open, your mouth is closed, and you are intently listening, only then will the other person truly feel you are partnering with them, interested in helping them achieve their end goal.

Opening Your Ears Means:

1. Being curious and only asking questions that help to clarify, define, and explain.
2. Focusing your attention on the other person, their thoughts, and emotions.
3. Partnering with others to team up and resolve a problem together.

Use your ears to negotiate a resolution!
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