30th October 2011 the first day of the rest of my life

As I come to the end of this part of the journey I feel obliged to give many thanks, first and foremost to God for he/she has given me this amazing life and such an incredible array of opportunities, friends, second and third chances, true love and the best family possible.

I began this leg of the journey 12 years ago by pure chance, I was about to graduate from college and I needed to complete a 4 credits internship and unlike my previous one in the summer of 1998 (I worked as a costumers services agent in a credit card company) I wanted to do something more in line with my studies, so after consulting with my folks, I went to the Vice Minister of Trade Affaires house, who was my neighbor, and asked her, Doña Azucena, for a chance to do this internship. I perfectly remember my blood rushing through my veins as I was walking, unbeknownst to me, towards the rest of my life, all by myself with my best smile. She greeted me nicely, as usual, and after carefully listening to my plea wrote a short note on the back of her presentation card while instructing me to go to the Ministry the very next Monday and present the card to Sonia at the International Trade Negotiations division.

On Monday I went up and down looking for the said division, which was not an easy task, back then the Ministry was lodged in a crapy building that looked more like a maze. I finally arrived and after chatting with the sparkly and funny Secretary for a while, I was called in the office and there she was, a very elegant women with a striking resemblance to Isabella Rosellini and a calm confidence that put me at ease very quickly, she was Sonia, Doña Sonia, AKA "la Jefa".

She read the card and in her calm and collected demeanor she said to me, "you speak English well?" I said yes, and she said "barbaro" they needed help translating some documents for the upcoming WTO ministerial meeting in Seattle. I had book knowledge of the WTO and felt comfortable with the idea of putting my "book knowledge" to use. Karlita introduced me to my "cell mates" Lilliana, Guillermo and Ambrosia, each one of them deserves a whole chapter in my professional life, since each one of them are great friends, mentors and guides that have been with me to this day. Well after the introductions I was placed in my new throne, a corner desk with a loose foot and chair that looked more like a box; next to my throne there was a HUGE stack of papers perhaps a meter high, that Karlita told me was my new assignment. So I started with the translations only to be confronted with fear since, to my utter dismay, I could only understand the conjunctions.

My face must have been a poem since Ambrosia approach me a said "don´t worry chiquito use this dictionary of WTO terms and read through this presentation of the WTO we all attended last year" I did it, and like that my journey into international negotiations and the secrets of the WTO started to unveil. Well into my third month in the internship, I had positioned myself as the handyman of choice at the division; I would help Guillermo with Market Access stuff, thus learning from him the art of tariff negotiations, I would assist Lilliana with Government procurement issues, learning from her the complex world of bids and the regulation behind them. Ambrosia gave me the Rosetta stone for Intellectual Property rights. The word spread that I was eager to help in exchange for knowledge and like that I started working with Margarita in Services Negotiations and with Saramelia in Agricultural Issues. Little did I know what was in store for me and now in hindsight I’m overwealmth with gratitude for those formative months in my cell.

As the months passed and I felt more at ease with my colleagues, I started getting new assignments organizing rounds of negotiations for the Free Trade Agreements with Chile and Mexico. I was working mad hours for a symbolical 500 cordobas (more or less 40 U$) a month and I was extremely happy, because I felt useful and I was performing a valuable service to my country, that at that time was traumatically facing for the first time a globalized world and hard core market economy.

to be continued..

verbal and non verbal

On international negotiations, diplomatic functions, trade talks or even on a family dinner, keeping up with what is being said is often an interesting task, not because you may be easily distracted, or because you may not be interested in the specifics of each exchange of information, it is interesting because you need to see, hear and feel what is being said, using all of your senses.

In my career as a Diplomat/Lobbyist/Negotiator I have learned that human communications are not always verbal, as a matter of fact according to most studies in this subject over 70% of the messages deliver in a communication are non verbal. Understanding and clearly identifying that 70% will make or break your objective.

Growing up I was always branded as the distracted "what in the hell are you thinking" boy, yet another attribute associated with me is that of a sympathetic listener. My friends and family have always berated my perceived distraction but have always commended my said capacity to make the person talking to me feel that he or she has my total and undivided attention whenever they are talking to me. I never gave much thought to any of this claims, until I started working as a trade negotiator.

At the very beginning just like any other junior, I was in the negotiations taking notes and watching eager to learn the tricks of the trade. I those formative years I started noticing a relation between success and delivery of message. For instance there was one time in the Free Trade Agreement negotiation between Nicaragua and Chile that our team was very much lost in terms of knowing the degree of sensitivity our counterpart had for certain products in a very long exclusions list. The proposed list was long and we knew for sure that many of the products in it where just bulk that the Chileans included in order to hide the real "untouchables". The issue was that our team was out of time, out of resources and out of negotiating leverage (We were actually defending our real "untouchables"). Our head negotiator started to go item by item in order to get a feel on the Chilean delegations reactions, allowing her to transform those "feels" in concrete proposals, and for the first time in my professional life I was observing rather than listening, much like in a poker game. I was astonished to see eyes opening more than usual, a great deal of leg crossing and arms crossing, plenty of fumbling with pens and paper clips, plenty of fists covering mouths and more importantly, very little hands opened and extended towards our side of the table.

For me it was a revelation to see a group of 10 very seasoned professional trade negotiators acting in very similar ways when one product or group of products where on table under scrutiny.

From that moment onwards in every single negotiation or presentation I have participated on, I have been quite aware of those signals that I now know, are universal and most of the time, involuntary.

As I participated in more negotiations I concentrated more and more on those details to the point that at times I was completely oblivious to the verbal component of the exchange. Some of my bosses and peers gave me a hard time because I was so "distracted", and Indeed I was at times, for instance there was an occasion that I was supposed to take notes on a speech delivered by Trade Commissioner of the EU Mendelssohn, and was so interested in reading his true intends that at the end I did not know what the speech was about. My Ambassador asked me ¿did he mentioned anything about his intentions for the Agreement? and I responded, I don’t know, but he is definitely uncomfortable with the French Ambassador. My boss was not happy, but in retrospect I was on the money. Later on we learned that the French were exercising a lot of pressure on the Commission in order to dismiss our Agreement, for it was at odds with their policy favoring the ACP countries. Back then we knew the French were trouble for us, but we didn’t know if the Commission was really on our side or not, Mr. Mendelssohn’s reaction to the French representative in that room, proved (at least to me) that he was really trying to get our negotiations with the EC moving, something that later on he championed with lots of energy.

Covering your mouth denotes that this person  may
be hidding something or he is eager to reply to a statement
he does not agree with 

This entry is not meant to imply that verbal communications are to be ignored or put in a second degree of importance to their nonverbal counterparts, I´m just saying that in order to get the bigger picture you need to assess both lines of communications. For example I have a theory that would help you identify bullshit very efficiently and that is " if the verbal communication is incompatible or dissimilar to the nonverbal part, BE CAREFULL" it may be that the speaker is not comfortable with the message he is delivering, he or she may not be in total agreement with the things he or she is saying or the speaker is trying to conceal his or hers true intentions.

In a relationship, if you ask your partner point blank about something, for instance the proverbial “Do you love me?" and he or she say "but off course I do" you should pay attention to what the body is saying too for example:

• Physical expression will be limited and stiff, with few arm and hand movements. Hand, arm and leg movement are toward their own body the liar takes up less space. Try to remember how dogs try to shrink whenever they have done something bad.

• A person who is lying to you will avoid making eye contact.

• Hands touching their face, throat & mouth. Touching or scratching the nose or behind their ear. Not likely to touch his chest/heart with an open hand.

• Timing and duration of emotional gestures and emotions are off a normal pace. The display of emotion is delayed, stays longer it would naturally, and then stops suddenly.

• Timing is off between emotions gestures/expressions and words. Example: "But of course I love you”, and then smile after making that statement, rather than at the same time the statement is made.

• Expressions are limited to mouth movements when someone is faking emotions (like happy, surprised, sad, awe,) instead of the whole face. For example; when someone smiles naturally their whole face is involved: jaw/cheek movement, eyes and forehead push down, etc.

• Words may be garbled and spoken softly, and syntax and grammar may be off. In other words, his sentences will likely be muddled rather than emphasized

No matter what we say or how we say it, we need to understand that we are communicating even when we are silent, I would say even more when we are silent. And finally, No I´m not distracted or aloof, I’m just reading what you are saying.

Have a great week people.

Santiago

here we go on a new adventure!!!

I have always wanted to see the world and meet the people populating in it, and so far, i think i have made a excellent use of my 33 years on this watery marble we all call home. I chose diplomacy as a vehicle that would take me out of lovely, yet limited, Nicaragua and kazaam! i have been a constant traveler for this last decade. All was cool and clear, at least in my wish list, but from November last year i started having a number of situations that have come to change my paradigm.

First and foremost, i had a chance encounter with love and when I say "chance encounter" is because i was not looking for love, or expecting it to come anytime soon; I was happy meeting new people in this vibrant and challenging city and love came to me out of nowhere, kind of like a hit and run, with the beautiful difference that the two parties involved have decided to stay together.

The second situation was a conversation with my parents, well conversation is a small euphemism, it has been more like an ongoing dialogue that have bridge some differences clearing the air in a relation that was beginning to look like a stage act. I do not know if i will be able or willing to be a parent someday, but if i do, just like my parents did, i would tell my hypothetical offspring that you can always do better in any aspect of your life because its your universal god given right.

The third issue is simple, "I started hating my job" it became too predictable, monotonous, unrewarding and uninspiring. Put all this together and mix them with 13 days to "enjoy the silence" on the coasts of Seychelles and you will be probably embarking on the same kind of adventure I am on now, "LEAVING TROPICAL DIPLOMACY" at least for a while and reinvent myself educationally and professionally.

So here I go again, I once wanted to be a diplomat, travel the world and be free, now I am free, i have travel a good chunk of the world and I am a Diplomat, it is time continue with the journey. My mom always says that crisis are important and necessary and if you don´t experience one every once in a while, you need to create them because they enhance your creativity, relaunch your surviving instincts and make you overall a stronger fish that would not be panned easily.

See you soon pips and I will keep you all posted!!!!!

S.