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Negotiation start and stop with BATNA - Best Alternative To Negotiated Agreement. The employers BATNA is they go to the pool of 35 other candidates. Yours is y
by brtkdotse 2y ago
Negotiation start and stop with BATNA - Best Alternative To Negotiated Agreement.
The employers BATNA is they go to the pool of 35 other candidates. Yours is you go back to your job.
If your job hunting first when your sick to death of your job, your BATNA isn’t very strong.
If this is your only offer, your BATNA isn’t very strong.
If you’re one paycheck away from being out of the street, your BATNA isn’t very strong.
See where I’m going with this?
- lotsofpulp 2y agoThis comment reads the same to me replacing “BATNA” with “alternative”.
- ffsm8 2y agoObviously, as the other letters of the acronym only describe what kind of alternative it is. I think a better way to phrase your critique would be: "acronyms harm the flow of your text - they're best used sparingly"
- lotsofpulp 2y agoI am struggling to come up with a sentence where using the acronym "BATNA" provides additional utility compared to just using "alternative" (or "option"). In seemingly all situations, a decision maker is considering their most preferred alternatives rather than their least preferred alternatives.
- benji-york 2y agoThe BATNA acronym helps people understand negotiating a bit better, but outside of education, I don't see that it has much use.
- lwhi 2y agoI would have thought the concept of 'leverage' is more useful.
- pdimitar 2y agoI'll do you one even better: "Never land in a situation where you just got fired and have to find a job quickly. Easy, right?". That's what 99.9% of all negotiation advice I ever saw boils down to. Basically beat the game before it beats you. Really cute... until you remember most people don't live to "play the negotiation game". They want a stable paycheck and to raise their family. But who's asking, right.
- lwhi 2y agoIt boils down to being able to walk away .. but you're totally right, most people are never able to be in that position. It's a luxury for most.
- pdimitar 2y agoTrue, and thanks for acknowledging it. I admit I am really tired of cookie-cutter advice lately and sometimes get triggered and call it out in less than a productive tone. Thanks for not reacting to it. :)
- wbl 2y agoBecause it matters that the BATNA is outside the negotiation.
- lotsofpulp 2y agoWhy does that matter? I would like to see a sentence or scenario where “BATNA” is not interchangeable with “alternative” or “option” or some other synonym. I read the Wikipedia page, but I’m still unclear what information I gain from BATNA over just “best alternative” or “second best option/choice”.
- lwhi 2y agoBecause it is more precise. 'Alternative' or 'option', leave the question 'to what?'.
- lotsofpulp 2y agoUnless we’re in a situation where violence concludes every interaction, “negotiated agreement” is the presumed conclusion of every interaction. I declined this job offer because I had BATNA. I declined this job offer because I had a better option. I negotiated more PTO because I had a BATNA. I negotiated more PTO because I had a better alternative.
- lwhi 2y agoIt's an educational concept. Not something you'd use in a sentence like that. I think you're being a pendent.
- lotsofpulp 2y agoSure, but that’s why I originally replied to brtkdotse, since their comment did use it in a sentence like that.
- robotresearcher 2y ago> I think you're being a pendent. Oh god help me....
- hhdhdbdb 2y agoBATNA is kind of a dog whistle that this is a slighty hostile business deal. Hostile under the hood. Smiles and handshakes on the surface.
- lazide 2y agoThat is every negotiation I’ve ever seen, frankly. What else would you expect? Friendly tends to be called ‘charity’
- hhdhdbdb 2y agoFriendly would be win win. We'll pay you so you dont worry about money, and we win because you are great. Batna (looks better as a word) is there but in the distance.
- lazide 2y agoWin/win also has some teeth under it somewhere, or they’d just give you everything yes? In your scenario, why not give you a billion dollars vs a million vs 100k? BATNA (and I am every familiar with the term, as I’ve had to do a significant amount of negotiation) is the ‘plan B’ if there is no acceptable ‘good’ agreement. If someone has no acceptable BATNA, their negotiation is essentially ‘please don’t beat me up too bad’, not ‘let’s see if we can agree on something that works for both of us’. No BATNA means you aren’t effectively negotiating, just begging to not be abused too badly. Sometimes an employer doesn’t have a BATNA option, but that is rare. Usually it’s the employee which doesn’t have a plan B. A BATNA when doing negotiations over salary, for instance, might be taking another offer with an otherwise less desirable company. Or continuing a job search for more time. Or becoming a sugar baby for an older woman somewhere, etc. or filing for bankruptcy. Knowing what your own (and what the other sides) plan B is, is important to actually have a successful negotiation, because when your offer starts to look less desirable than their plan B, it isn’t going to go well.
- pdimitar 2y agoSince you said you have a lot of negotiation experience, how do you negotiate if you were let go and have to quickly find a job?
- brtkdotse 2y agoSure. But it’s a domain specific term within negotiation that easily researchable if someone would want to learn more. Just trying to be helpful :)
- ericmcer 2y agoYeah this was always step 1 to negotiations as I learned it. The goal was always to try and schedule interviews so you could land multiple offers at one time. If you have 2-3 offers and an existing job your position is insanely strong. If you are unemployed and this is your first offer in 3 months you cant really negotiate... just take it if it is a reasonable offer.
- ttymck 2y ago> See where I’m going with this? No. Could you elaborate?