Picture an old-fashioned organ grinder on a busy street corner. There's a little monkey in a vest, dancing, charming the crowd, holding out a tin cup. You smile, you toss in a coin — you interact with the monkey. But the monkey doesn't choose the tune. It doesn't decide when the show ends. It has zero power. The grinder turns the crank.

In business, most of us spend weeks negotiating with the monkey and never realize it. In this episode, we unpack one of the most overlooked principles in Jacopo Romei's Extreme Contracts framework: Talk to the Grinder.

Through real-world case studies — from a high-stakes consulting tender to a software agency that used a five-day money-back guarantee as a grinder-detection device — we show how to identify who actually holds the power, and how to get them to the table before you waste another month talking to the wrong person.

Extreme Contracts is a framework for negotiation and collaboration in knowledge work, by Jacopo Romei.

Learn more: extremecontracts.com
About Jacopo: jacoporomei.com

This episode includes AI-generated content.