CloseNothing Agreed Until Everything Agreed
Keep early agreements provisional so you can still trade across issues.
Settle issues one at a time and you lose your trading stock. By the last issue, everything else is locked and the final point becomes a tug of war. Agreeing that every point stays provisional until the whole package is settled keeps all the issues tradeable and makes early progress less risky.
How to use it
- Say it at the start, as a ground rule: "Let's treat everything as provisional until we've agreed the whole thing."
- Keep a running list of tentative agreements, marked as provisional, in a shared document.
- When a late issue gets stuck, look back at the list for something you can reopen in exchange.
- Signal clearly when you're ready to commit to the package as a whole.
- Once the full package is agreed, confirm it all at once and stop reopening.
Example
Two companies are forming a joint venture. They tentatively agree on governance and branding, then stall on profit share. Because nothing is final, one side offers a board seat back in exchange for a better split, and the deal closes.
Watch out
- Using the rule to reopen everything at the last moment, again and again, is a nibble in disguise. Reopen only to trade, and say what you're offering.
- Retreating from a provisional point without giving anything back destroys trust.
Works with Package, Don't Slice and Summarise The Deal.