Negotiating to Thrive: Lessons From a Hostage Negotiator

Derek Gaunt is a lecturer, author of Ego, Authority, Failure©, and trainer with 29 years of law enforcement experience, 20 of which as a team member, leader, and then commander of hostage negotiations teams in the Washington, DC metropolitan area. He is a hostage negotiation and incident command subject matter expert who frequently speaks at hostage negotiations and SWAT conferences across the country. As a member of the Black Swan Group, he is a negotiation trainer and personal coach. Derek has trained throughout the US and around the world, instructing business organizations on how to apply hostage negotiation practices and principles to their world. His presentations are engaging and filled with useful techniques for understanding human behavior and navigating difficult conversations. His training has helped leaders and their organizations increase their performance by changing the way they think about communicating one person to another.