(CNN) -- Jeff Weiss had spent 20 years teaching negotiation skills to top executives when he realized those techniques might be just as valuable to soldiers on the battlefield.

So a decade ago, he approached the U.S. Military to teach officers negotiation tools and strategies they could use in a theater of war. The West Point Negotiation Project was founded, and before long, Weiss made another realization: the lessons could go the other way, too.

"There's a ton to take from the military back to the corporations," says Weiss, a partner at Vantage Partners, a Boston-based negotiation training and consulting firm that works with Fortune 500 companies. "Business leaders have a lot to learn from military leaders who, in extreme situations, are able to take a deep breath, get perspective and negotiate through a set of strategies."

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Perhaps counter-intuitively, the best military negotiators adopt a creative, problem-solving approach. A more macho, "Rambo style" of negotiation -- in which the negotiator digs in inflexibly to a position they believe to be right -- is "just not effective," Weiss says, and could lead to fatal errors.

"When we're under pressure to act fast in a high-stakes situation, it often leads us to a set of traps," he adds. "We often act on perception and assumptions, we tend to use a strong position and dig in, we tend to use threats and we play a concessions game far too frequently."

Below are five key points into which Weiss has distilled the essence of successful deal-making, which he says are equally applicable whether you're dealing with potentially hostile stakeholders on the battlefield, or a fellow boardroom warrior.

1. What's the name of the article's subject?
2. What's his job?
3. Of what?
4. Who has he mostly taught?
5. For how long?
6. Who did he start teaching instead?
7. When did he start that?
8. Does Weiss think that the military can teach the executives something?
9. What kind of strategies do military officers take in negotiations?
10. What kind of strategy is not effective?
11. What are military leaders able to do?
12. What happens when we're under pressure?
13. What does Weiss say we do too often?
14. What kind of companies does Weiss's company work with?
15. What's the name of his company?
16. Where is it located?
17. What is his position there?
18. What's the name of the military program he started?
19. How many people took part in the program?
20. Does Weiss still work in the program?

Numbered answers:
1. Jeff Weiss
2. Teacher
3. negotiation skills
4. executives
5. 20 years
6. military officers
7. a decade ago
8. Yes
9. a creative, problem-solving approach
10. A more macho, "Rambo style" of negotiation
11. take a deep breath, get perspective and negotiate through a set of strategies in extreme situations
12. it often leads us to a set of traps
13. use threats and play a concessions game
14. Fortune 500 companies
15. Vantage Partners
16. Boston
17. partner
18. The West Point Negotiation Project
19. unknown
20. unknown