Here’s how you can negotiate with someone who keeps changing their mind.
In business and politics, we value consistency and predictability. It’s great for market stability and great for making deals.
So, what do you do when your counterpart in a negotiation is unpredictable? What if the other party keeps moving the goalposts—changing terms midstream, contradicting themselves, or appearing to pivot wildly for no apparent reason?
You might be dealing with someone who is out of control—or you might be playing with someone who has a deeper strategic game.
Consider President Donald Trump’s current approach to tariff negotiations. From China to the United Kingdom, Trump may appear impulsive, confrontational, and even erratic. One week, there’s a tariff threat. Next, a pullback. Then a doubling down. Look at the markets and the highs and lows they’re experiencing. To the untrained eye, it looks like chaos. However, to seasoned dealmakers, it’s something else: strategic volatility. Crazy like a fox.
“Crazy like a fox” describes someone who appears irrational or reckless on the surface while executing a clever, calculated plan beneath it. Some people also call these sudden turns “Crazy Ivans” after the film Hunt for Red October.
As a talent agent, mediator, media attorney, and professor at the USC Gould School of Law, I do negotiations on a daily basis. I am also teaching people how to win deals and when to walk away. In my upcoming book on dealmaking, TILT the Room, I explore how high-stakes environments often favor the player who can hold their center while tilting the balance of the room—using pressure, unpredictability, and presence to disrupt conventional dynamics.
This is precisely what we see with President Trump’s negotiating posture. It’s not just negotiation—it’s disorientation as leverage.
So, what can you do if your counterpart plays the volatility card in negotiations? What strategy should you take when they change their mind, contradict past agreements, or constantly shift tone?
Here are four ways to hold your ground.
1. Assume intent, not chaos.
Erratic behavior doesn’t always mean irrationality. In fact, unpredictability can be weaponized. Trump’s whiplash-inducing negotiations keep leaders and markets on edge. It also creates urgency. When you’re unsure what’s next, you start reacting instead of leading. Don’t fall for it.
TILT tactic: Assume their moves are intentional. Map out what their unpredictability achieves and respond to the pattern, not the panic.
2. Control the narrative, not the noise.
If your negotiating partner is shifting constantly, they’re trying to control the tempo and story. Step back. Reset the narrative to verifiable facts and concrete outcomes. Keep bringing the room back to clarity—even if they’re tossing smoke grenades.
TILT tactic: Use stillness as your sharpest move. Calm is contagious. Reframe chaos with clarity.
3. Redefine “walking away.”
Trump frequently threatens to walk away—from trade deals, alliances, and agreements he just praised the week before. Why? Because walking away is leverage only if the threat feels real. Don’t get stuck thinking walking away means giving up. It can also mean resetting power.
TILT tactic: Walking away isn’t failure—it’s design. It can force the reset you need to renegotiate on your terms.
4. Unpredictability is a language. Learn to embrace it.
Erratic negotiators aren’t always trying to confuse you. Sometimes, these negotiators are speaking a different dialect of power. It’s emotional, symbolic, and primal. Think of it as psychological positioning more than rational persuasion.
TILT tactic: Don’t speak back in the same chaotic terms they use—instead, learn to hear what the chaos is saying. Respond in the tone of presence, not panic
Final thought: Don’t be a brick wall—be a tuning fork.
In TILT the Room, one of my core ideas is power in negotiations isn’t about being rigid or overly agreeable—it’s about vibrating at the right frequency with the other party. You don’t absorb chaos or mirror it. You match it with reason. That’s how you hold the center in a room designed to throw you off.
When someone keeps changing their mind, they might not be crazy. They might just be crazy like a fox.
Of course, there is the chance they really don’t know what they want. For advice when that happens, read “4 Ways to Know the Deal Isn’t Happening.”
This article was originally published by Inc Apr. 26, 2025.