“My client’s a moron. That’s not against the law.”
– Lt. Daniel Kaffee (played by Tom Cruise) in the 1992 hit movie, “A Few Good Men”
A great movie, and there are five superb sales meetings inside!
(This line does not represent one of them…)
It does, however, represent a decent reminder.
Which fights do we pick? And, more importantly, which fights should we pick?
Difference makers choose wisely which hills they’re willing to die on. And, they don’t fight very hard for the hills they are NOT willing to die on.
(I am pretty sure I just ended back-to-back sentences with prepositions, but sometime proper English can sound SO presumptuous…)
Defend the high ground. Attack the vulnerable ground. Focus creates difference making, particularly when it is channeled appropriately.
Jim Gordon says
When “picking a fight,” you might also want to consider avoiding “the fight” and focusing instead on the SOLUTION. As a long-time litigator and — more recently — as a soon-to-be long-time mediator, I have discovered the ability of “interest-based” mediation to resolve disputes without “the fight.” Simply put, the focus is then not on who “gets” the hill, but rather on why each “wants” the hill. In the mediation process, the “hill” is not destroyed, and often can actually be shared.