of my greatest challenges on this project was involving the Directors in the project. They had instructed myself to take full ownership, however sections of the assessment required direct involvement from them, and they were unwilling at times to participate. I had to persuade them to make the required inputs. I utilised the “Psychology of Persuasion” DeMers J, (2016) by being confident, knowing my subject matter and “subtly imply[ing] that you’re already going to get what you want” Demers J (2016), then introducing the logical argument about their required involvement to attain the standard. I then showed them the benefits of their involvement, not just for the criteria, but for staff moral and participation, making sure I chose my words careful to emphasis the importance of their involvement, and then using flattery, by appealing to their vanity over their knowledge of the industry and how committed to their employees they were. Finally, I had to have patience, but ensuring at all times that I persistently reminded them, and eventually I managed to persuade them to take a great involvement in the project.

Negotiating with others

One of the core criteria was the additional Security Screening of all personnel within the organisation. This included sub-contracted staff, and I was required to negotiate with our main sub-contractors to obtain confirmation that standards had been adhered to without physically seeing documentation, so as to respect their need to satisfy data protection. I prepared my argument with regards the reason for the additional checks, what the criteria we needed to achieve, and, having spoken with BSI, what I would be able to accept to both please them and satisfy the assessment. I chose to ‘negotiate jointly’ so as not to be too aggressive but still assertive, establishing mutual trust, and then I was able to offer concessions on the issue, appreciate their concerns that could potentially impact on their compliance, and I was also able to demonstrate the advantages to their own organisations. We agreed on a satisfactory outcome and the time scale required, and this was then summarised in writing to all parties.