Yes, coconuts.
On day three of CUES CEO Institute I, coconuts were on the agenda. It was part of a negotiation simulation led by Professor Eric Max, and it was as entertaining as it was revealing. Each team held a different resource, and the goal was to walk away with the best possible deal. Simple on the surface, but beneath it? A masterclass in human behavior, trust, and the stories we tell ourselves in a negotiation.
What played out in that room wasn’t just about strategy. It was about assumptions. About miscommunication. About how easy it is to get stuck in the idea of “winning” instead of looking for a shared outcome.
Some of us walked away with a better deal. Some didn’t walk away with much at all. But all of us walked away with a little more awareness of how we show up at the table and how we might do it differently next time.
It was a playful, powerful reminder: leadership isn’t always about being the smartest person in the room. Sometimes, it’s about pausing long enough to ask,
“What do we really want here and how do we get there together?”
Turns out, you can learn a lot from coconuts.
