There is a tendency to consider speech and script as a single tool. Talk is a linear, sequential pattern that mimics written communication. And although we interpret both language channels with many of the same mental processes, they are not the same.
Highly Sought Pieces of Paper
I spent most of my career in the specialty businesses of catalysts and licensing. These are technology-based businesses that sell products based on their performance rather than their cost of manufacture. Catalysts are physical materials manufactured and sold, whereas licenses are legal rights to use a technology, such as a set of specialized engineering plans and, at times, catalysts. Businesses for catalysts and licensing are global, complex, and technically demanding.
Patents protect their products. Patents are legal monopolies granted by governments, for limited periods, in return for making their concepts public. A patent prevents another party from using an idea without compensation to the patent owner; patents represent intellectual property. Sometimes the concepts of different companies overlap, resulting in complex patent relationships.
In the middle of my industrial career, a company approached ours with a request to buy a license under one of our patents to use one of our competitor’s catalysts. Litigation tied up various patents, and the approaching company knew we were the key to reaping the technology’s value. Yet, the industry’s business cycle dictated the maximum value available from the catalyst’s performance. As such, we did not have much time to negotiate.
Civilization’s Invention
Script is a solution to the problem of transitory oral communication. Ages ago, the temporary nature of speech increasingly could not satisfy a need for consistency. People felt the need to communicate reliably to ever-larger groups and over longer distances.
A convention suggests, “Humankind is defined by language; but civilization is defined by writing.” Written messages help to build and reinforce trust between separated groups and over time.
Communication Siblings, Not Twins
The spread of script technology created a conflict with the tool of speech. Speech changes over time, naturally and irresistibly. Writing is, in practical definition, an effort to fix the relationship between written and oral characters.
People learn speech and script at different times and by different methods. We learn speech at an early age, without explicit rules. However, we learn the written form of our spoken language many years later, with copious rules. Script and speech come from different origins and lead different lives.
Valuable Characters
Communication by today’s script is a representation of a spoken language. The three original ancient writing techniques spawned more than twice as many uniquely different ways of relating characters to the sounds of spoken language.
Humans created persistent characters in a form transferable to others far away in space and time because they could communicate value. Negotiators then and now decipher messages from characters.
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In addition to short timing, the context for licensing was also tricky. Our company, the competitor, and the approaching company, operated throughout a multitude of countries. The relevant patents, valid only within a particular nation’s boundaries, differed slightly from country to country.
The negotiation involved three companies, four countries, a physical product, and a written license. They included phone calls, personal visits, and contract exchanges. Discussions were, at times, serial and others simultaneous. Positions included detailed calculations of benefits and energetically asserted arguments of value. Negotiations sought out various interests and concerns, balancing the deal for common benefit.
In the end, a piece of paper containing a few thousand characters of script, adequately supported and executed, was worth millions of dollars.
Negotiators Recognize the Power of Writing
Persistent characters provide a sense of credibility, authority, and value. Common information facilitates trust, cooperation, and enables successful negotiation. Negotiations lead by proficiently employing script for success.
Writing has many powers, even some fanciful! https://youtu.be/G6uZp-33qcY