Negotiating the Impossible

3THE LOGIC OF APPROPRIATENESS

Negotiating in the Shadow of Cancer

YOU MAY HAVE THE best, most innovative proposal, but how do you present it to someone who insists on doing things the way they’ve always been done? You may have the person’s best interest in mind, but how can you negotiate in the face of severe resistance to change? You may be right, but how do you make your case when the other side is emotionally attached to an alternative course of action?

Consider the case of patients who are diagnosed with low-risk prostate cancer.¹ Most prostate cancer cases in the United States are detected using a screening test called the prostate-specific antigen test (PSA).² There is considerable evidence that many PSA-detected cancers are overdiagnosed—that ...