This caught my eye (and some other people’s eye too, got some people asking about it): "This simple negotiation tactic brought 195 countries to consensus" http://tinyurl.com/qb4oyq9 It is about the climate change negotiations. Government negotiations are not my thing in general :-) but this article points to a specific negotiation style, Indaba: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indaba "Instead of repeating stated positions, each party is encouraged to speak personally and state their “red lines,” which are thresholds that they don’t want to cross. But while telling others their hard limits, they are also asked to provide solutions to find a common ground.” I’ve never heard of this particular technique before, have other people run into it? Any experiences? Any more detailed information? The reason that I’m asking is that it kind of sounds like the way people should be voicing their opinions in an IETF discussion, when that discussion is run in an optimal way. Along with our rough consensus concepts, of course, and drive to understand other people's positions. Just wondering if this is essential what our rough consensus process already is, or if there are further details that we could consider learning from as well. (And: as always, any process can by misused if the participants do not care enough about the common good. I’m sure this never happens in government negotiations :-) but in the rest of the world… one example that I’ve seen in the IETF is overstating hard requirements, e.g., making particular solutions part of the requirements. Next time you discuss something in the IETF, please take a moment to reflect what your true needs are and what are just solution space options. Take also a moment to understand what the other people are saying, and try to build that into what you are suggesting, finding ways for other people’s needs to be also met.) Jari
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