Month: April 2018

  • Smash through the standoff! Introducing issues to unproductive negotiations

    At some point, many negotiations spiral into an unproductive standoff over money—an issue over which the negotiators tend to utterly disagree. Most often, such standoffs end with an escalation of conflict or proliferation of concessions, neither of which is particularly productive. But, as I teach in my negotiation classes, there’s third way that can make…

  • Success as a steadily improving BATNA

    How can you know your life is broadly successful? The question is often asked, but rarely from the perspective of negotiation research. So let me share an answer implicit in that research, an understanding of which can make life negotiable: you can measure success, in part, by the trajectory of your BATNA. Huh? Let me…

  • Negotiating while the iron’s hot

    In many negotiation situations, you have no choice about when to act. If your car breaks down, you’d better negotiate with the dealer. If your teenager brings home a biker, you’d better negotiate now. In more negotiations than you think, though, you can actually choose when to negotiate. Since picking the right moment—the moment when…