The Friction Dispatch

The Friction Dispatch™ by Multilateral Studio — weekly British-LatAm friction insights, from a decade inside diplomatic negotiations. Free. Subscribe now.

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You sent the agenda four days out. Three items. Tight. Time-boxed. One page attached to the calendar invite so everyone could come prepared. They confirmed attendance. Nobody pushed back. You walked in with a deck for each point and ten minutes to spare. By 11:15, you were still on item one. The ...

by Cecilia Lipovsek — Jun 09, 2026 temporal dimension

The yes that wasn’t

‘We'll certainly take that on board.’ You leave the meeting satisfied. The questions were good. Someone on their side even mentioned exploring next steps. You make a note: deal moving. Two weeks later, nothing. You follow up. Warm reply, no movement. Another week. Still nothing. Eventually a mutu...

by Cecilia Lipovsek — May 26, 2026 conversational dimension

Something to hold in your hands

Nine days. On 18 June, Slot v. Flow™: The Systems for British-LatAm Professionals goes on sale. I’ve been sitting on this thing for years. Now it’s a physical object you can hold, and that still doesn’t quite feel real. Before it ships, here’s what’s inside. What's in the book Two systems. The Sl...

by Cecilia Lipovsek — May 19, 2026 slot v. flow™

They liked you. That wasn’t the problem.

By the time the coffee arrived, you’d been introduced to two people who weren’t on the original invite, the conversation had moved well off the agenda, and nobody in the room seemed to mind. You left thinking: this one’s going somewhere. Three weeks later, you’re still waiting for the contract. T...

by Cecilia Lipovsek — May 12, 2026 relational dimension

The follow-up that disappeared

You sent the follow-up the same afternoon. Summary of what was agreed, action points, a suggested date for the next call. Clear, prompt, professional. Then nothing. A week goes by. Then another. You send a gentle chase. Still nothing. You start wondering if you misread the room. The situation I'v...

by Cecilia Lipovsek — May 05, 2026 temporal dimension

There is no such thing as Latin American Spanish

Contrary to what most British professionals assume, interpreting a technical meeting about infrastructure is often simpler than interpreting the lunch that follows it. In a meeting about bridges, water supply, or electrical grids, the Spanish is largely standardised across Latin America. The voca...

by Cecilia Lipovsek — Apr 29, 2026 conversational dimension

You both spoke English. That was the problem.

There is a particular kind of British-LatAm meeting that runs entirely in English, goes smoothly by all appearances, and produces a follow-up where both sides discover they understood something different. Not because anyone was unclear. Not because the English was poor. But because the two sides ...

by Cecilia Lipovsek — Apr 29, 2026 conversational dimension

The meeting went well. Then nothing.

You know the feeling. The meeting was warm, engaged, maybe even overran by twenty minutes. Everyone left smiling. You sent the follow-up that evening. Then silence. Not a cold silence. A polite one. Which, as it turns out, is harder to read. The situation A British consultant I know — senior, exp...

by Cecilia Lipovsek — Apr 28, 2026 temporal dimension

There’s a season inside The Season. And you're missing it.

Between late March and September, something shifts in the way British professionals relate to each other. The diary fills differently. Conversations have a different register. There are invitations that carry more weight than they appear to, events that function as professional rituals disguised ...

by Cecilia Lipovsek — Apr 28, 2026 relational dimension

When ‘now’ means different things on each side of the call

There is a phrase that became a kind of shorthand during the pandemic years, when every meeting moved online and every delegation that used to fly into London started joining from a screen instead. ‘Good morning, good afternoon, or good evening, whatever applies to you.’ I heard it dozens of time...

by Cecilia Lipovsek — Apr 28, 2026 temporal dimension

When your body says more than your words

Most professionals preparing for a British-LatAm meeting think about what they are going to say. Very few think about what their body is already saying before they open their mouth. The spatial dimension of the Slot v Flow™ systems is the one that operates entirely below the level of language. Yo...

by Cecilia Lipovsek — Apr 28, 2026 spatial dimension

The conversation your counterpart is having in their head

Most people assume an interpreter’s job is to translate what is said. It is. But only partly. The more interesting part of the job is managing what goes unsaid. The moment when someone understands perfectly well but cannot find the words, or finds them and hesitates, or has the words and the conf...

by Cecilia Lipovsek — Apr 28, 2026 conversational dimension

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