If you’re a hamster, it would be darn helpful to know the snake you’re suddenly sharing a cage with cares more about friendship than food right then. You’d want to figure out how to use that to your advantage (and the snake’s), right? I’ve said in the past that knowing and addressing the other person’s key interests is just plain good negotiating strategy. Now a hamster and snake are driving that point home in a delightful way.

It’s hard to imagine any potential for relationship between a rodent-eating snake and a hamster, but here’s one of those stories that reminds us the universe is full of surprises: Snake Befriends Snack Hamster.

A powerful interest (companionship, apparently, in this instance) can make the expected interest (a fully belly) less important. When you’re negotiating, remember: Don’t underestimate the power of an important interest voiced by the other side.

Conflict Zen® by Tammy Lenski is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License. Based on a work at ConfictZen.Lenski.com.