Strategy starts with remembering the other person has one too.

It is strangely easy to plan as though everyone else is scenery. You work out your move, your timing, your argument, and the other person turns into something that reacts rather than someone who is also thinking, aiming and preparing. That assumption is the single most common reason good plans fall over.

Before you commit to anything that involves another person, spend a minute on what they are trying to achieve and what they would do if your plan worked. Then check your plan still holds. A plan that only survives their cooperation is not a plan yet.