Anyone with more than a passing interest in popular music is likely to be aware of the rider: a document (often in the form of a contract) that details the specific requirements of a performer or group at any given venue which will be hosting one or more gigs. Sounds a bit dry, no? Well, not always – not all riders are equal when it comes to the demands they make.
One of the most famous riders in existence was that produced by and on behalf of Iggy and the Stooges – it’s easy enough to find online if you’re curious. And when I share the fact that it’s titled “Marvellous and Most Instructive Information Document” I suspect your interest may be piqued. Suffice to say it’s different – so I thought I might pick a highlight that negotiators can learn from.
The either/or proposal is a useful strategy for negotiators looking to drive change – particularly where that change is mandated or required in the face of pushback. Where best practice under most circumstances is to seek to understand your counterparty’s needs and priorities in order to address them with a credible proposal, where driving change is the only option, a pre-emptive proposal can be valuable, and either/or is an effective way of making progress. Over to Iggy and the Stooges (all typos are from the original document):
“Somebody dressed as Bob Hope doing fantastic Bob Hope impersonations and telling all those hilarious Bob Hope jokes about golf and Hollywood and Bing Crosby. Oh God, I wish I'd been alive in those days, so that Bob Hope could have come and entertained me in some World War 2 hell-hole before I went off and got shot. What joy they must have experienced...
OR
Seven dwarves, dressed up as those dwarves out of that marvellous Walt Disney film abouit the woman who goes to sleep fro a hundred years after biting a poisoned dwarf, or maybe after pricking her finger on a rather sharp apple... or something. What was the name of that film? Was it Cinderella? Taller people are acceptable, of course. It's attitude, more than height, that's importantb here. Don't forget the pointy hats!”
Advice? Well, we have an either/or proposal – but I’d worry as to whether one feels more realistic than the other. The most effective way to drive the outcome would be firstly to ensure that both options deliver the result(s) you seek and secondly to ensure that they are as equivalent to one another as possible – they should weigh the same, from your counterparty’s perspective. If so, it’s more likely that the proposal will land as collaborative. I’d worry that the risk of one tricky option – a Bob Hope impersonator – versus one that seems even trickier (seven dwarves) might land instead as “the lesser of two evils”. That’s where a negotiator seeking change they know will meet resistance will put the change they want alongside something far worse in the hope that their counterparty will rush gratefully towards the less bad outcome (for them). I think that most people are aware of this tactic and likely to see it as at best adversarial behaviour or worse as manipulative or coercive. And if the relationship is of long-term importance that may be a risk better avoided.
As the saying goes, there’s plenty more where that came from so I might return to Iggy Pop’s rider for more in the future. But if you’ve any interesting examples of your own, do drop me a line at ellis.croft@scotwork.com
