ABOUT US

Alexandra Mislin, Ph.D. + Chris Mattingly, J.D.

Early in their careers, Alex and Chris worked together in information design consulting, solving business problems by redesigning information for more effective communication. Alex then pursued her passion for research and teaching as a professor of negotiation and decision-making at American University. Chris continued as a strategic consultant for Fortune 500 companies, managing complex conversations and facilitating corporate training.

In their separate pursuits, they discovered barriers that were stopping people from adopting negotiation skills and putting negotiation knowledge into action. They realized a collaboration of their collective expertise could remedy this situation. Seventeen Camels is the result of this joint effort: a new approach to teaching negotiation and developing a solution mindset.

WHY 17 CAMELS?

In an old desert fable a father bequeaths 17 camels to his three sons. His wish was for the camels to be divided among the sons so that the eldest receive one half, the middle receive one-third, and the youngest one ninth of the camels. Frustrated and unable to divide the 17 camels according to their father’s wishes, they approach a wise woman for help. After listening to the brothers and understanding their needs she crafted a solution: I will give you my camel.  

With now 18 camels the brothers realize they can divide the share into half (9 camels), one third (6 camels) and one ninth (2 camels) to resolve their disagreement.  And to their great surprise, one camel remained to return to the wise woman with gratitude.

This fable captures the essence of what we believe makes an effective everyday negotiator – someone who looks at a situation through fresh eyes to come up with an eighteenth camel. We believe developing your everyday human problem solving skills is the key to becoming a next generation negotiator.