Negotiation geeks and "Best Alternative to Negotiated Settlement"

2012-10-29T15:00:24Z

One of the many blogs I've happened upon is by a self-describednegotiation geek who went to harvard business school and became a trained mediator. Which is really interesting, because most westerners, and geeks specifically, rather hate negotiation. But it's really interesting to see some of the basic concepts explained by someone who knows about it, but thinks about it in the sort of abstract game-theoretic way that makes sense to people like me.

One key concept is in one of his first posts: http://negotiatewithchad.blogspot.co.uk/2011/03/batna-and-zopa-quick-introduction.html

Best Alternative to Negotiated Settlement (BATNA) is what you get if you walk away now. Eg. if you're trying to buy a koala-kayak, and you walk away, the worst that happens is that you don't have a koala-kayak. Which is fine, since koala-kayaks are only useful in really, really specific circumstances, so you probably didn't need it. But if you're trying to navigate koala-phobic-shark creek, you really, really need that koala-kayak, and if he only knows, the koala-kayak saleman can ask an awful lot of money and you'll probably have to just pay it.

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jack

Negotiation geeks and "Best Alternative to Negotiated Settlement"