I have take a course titled "Negotiation Analysis" this term. This could easily be one of the best courses i have taken at ISB. In our previous class, the professor was explaining that it is very important to build trust before starting to negotiate. One of the easiest ways to build trust is to strike a common chord with the other person. We could either discuss about a common friend, problem, enemy... whatever
To prove the point that it is not difficult to find common links with any person in the world, he took us through a small experiment conducted by "University of Virginia". This university had built an elaborate database of all actors and actresses. You simply type in the names of any two actors or actresses and program searches the database and tells us how they both are linked. Its fun..
Try it out for yourself using the following link
http://oracleofbacon.org/cgi-bin/oracle/movielinks
Another moral of the story - Never burn your bridges.
