Quote:
Originally posted by sebastian_dangerfield
The worst guy is the cat who'd rather win a debate than stay on track. ....
And right behind him is the scared guy who is concerned about utterly implausible hypothetical situations. ...
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The first guy is easy. Pick a few points you don't care about at all that are moderately important to them. Bump them up to near the top (partner at firm or 2nd chair at client). Dig in your heals. Let the debate roar. Throw fuel on the fire. Be unreasonable. Write memos. Have a grand time.
Meanwhile, let a junior sort out all the other issues, and get everything you care about tidied up and taken care of.
Then, very seriously, concede the point you've blown out of proportion to get the job done fast. Make it clear your concession is contingent on everyone working round the clock to do this in the next 48 hours. Don't give them time to think.
Second guy is actually more difficult. First, I try to turn them into a problem solver. Make the problem theirs and ask them to solve it. If this just leads to 89 pages of drafting to get what you would do in a paragraph, then you need to take control and drag them along. Go around them to clients. Those deals need a lot of top level folks getting their hands dirty.
