Any time you embark on a new deal, you are going to run into the situation depicted in the picture below.
This picture describes the way in which your behavior towards your counterpart in the deal can affect the overall value derived from the deal.
The first layer is the law: This is the bare minimum standard of behavior that you have to obey in order to avoid a trip to your friendly, local slammer. I won't punch you in the face if I disagree with you and you won't spraypaint profanity-laced slander all over my car if I ask more than you think I should. Life isn't necessarily peachy at this level of behavior, but at least we're all still able to live with each other.
The second layer is the contract: This takes the law one step further. We accept that the law of the land applies at all times, but we want to work together to accomplish a shared goal. In order to get there, we need to be able to ask more of each other than the law would require. To that end, the parties agree to create some additional laws that will apply to to their situation while they are working with each other. Life gets somewhat better here. An agreement helps create certainty and a good agreement provides guidance on how the parties will solve their problems and ultimately how the relationship will wrap up once the shared goal is accomplished.
Finally, we have Deal World: This is where we at WieseLaw believe true value resides. This layer takes into account the law and the contractual relationship between the parties; however, Deal World goes further. Deal World is a personal standard of behavior to which you hold yourself, your team, or your company accountable. We encapsulate this idea with a slight twist on the phrase from the Notre Dame football locker room: Every Day I Play Like A Champion!
This relates back to our post
What's Your Sentence? This is the standard of behavior you are striving for in all you do - especially in your deals.
There are a lot of unknowns in the deal world, but one thing is crystal clear to us: you need to ask the right questions. In September we wrote about some good questions to ask your opponent while at the negotiation table, but those aren’t the questions we’re talking about now. What we’re interested in are the three questions you need to ask yourself before you make a decision on your deal.
