The skilled in extremis negotiator focuses on turning negotiation into side-by-side problem solving rather than a test of wills.
Captain Andrew Williams, an artillery battery commander in Ghazni, received a report that his soldiers had seen an improvised explosive device being placed along a roadside.
He instructed them not to use force but to monitor the site and identify the men who were planting IEDs. (His team would eventually remove and detonate the devices in a controlled environment.) Once he had this information in hand, Williams went to the village where the men lived, gathered the elders, and told them he wanted IED placements in the area to stop. The elders said that as long as they received money in return, they would make sure the villagers complied.