Harri Holkeri Quotes

We want everybody to act like adults, quit playing games, realize that it's not just my way or the highway.

We can't always agree on everything.

I am totally down with disagreement. I don't like Haterade, but disagreement is wonderful. When someone disagrees, we try to reach common ground. That's good.

Compromise, contrary to popular opinion, does not mean selling out one's principles. Compromise means working out differences to forge a solution which fits the diversity of the body politic.

The most important thing in an argument, next to being right, is to leave an escape hatch for your opponent, so that he can gracefully swing over to your side without too much apparent loss of face.

Never fight turf on turf. Fight it on the basis of ideas.

You cannot just dictate at negotiations. You must also listen.

We can argue and we can disagree, but we don’t need to poke our fingers in each other’s eyes in order to get our points across.

It ought not to be beyond the intelligence of even the most hidebound local politician to see the benefits of imaginative compromise.

In general ... I tell people not to bang their heads against the wall and to find a compromise.

I think it's important to understand people can disagree on things, and still move forward.

There is no fun in getting into a debate or a contest of wills. If something important comes out of the conversation, okay. If not, that's okay, too.

If you would convince others, seem open to conviction yourself.

Negotiation is empathy. It's almost trite to say that if you can't put yourself in the seat of the other person you're speaking with, you're not going to do well. It's not about being a bully, not about making offers people can't refuse.

If you let things devolve into a shouting match, then it's really difficult to have a discussion, a serious discussion.

When you show no willingness to compromise, then nothing ever happens.

That most dangerous of opponents: the one who took pains to comprehend the position of his adversary.

It's a very important thing to learn to talk to people you disagree with.

Solutions must be based on compromises.

If the auto plants in Detroit would just sit around the table and say, 'What do we gotta do to make this thing work?' Instead of, 'I want this and I want that.' They might make it.

When you let someone else win an argument, often you both end up winners.

We all agree on the necessity of compromise. We just can't agree on when it's necessary to compromise.

Sometimes you need conflict in order to come up with a solution. Through weakness, oftentimes, you can't make the right sort of settlement, so I'm aggressive, but I also get things done, and in the end, everybody likes me.

A good leader can engage in a debate frankly and thoroughly, knowing that at the end he and the other side must be closer, and thus emerge stronger. You don't have that idea when you are arrogant, superficial, and uninformed.

I have always believed in dialogue and in nonviolence, and if you look at my background you will see that it has always been my policy to talk to everyone.