What's Your BATNA?

You and me may NOT be enforcement officers OR negotiators BUT nevertheless, we need to equip ourselves with our 'BATNA' [Best Alternative to a NEGOTIATED AGREEMENT].  Regardless, it makes sense that we need to equip ourselves with that 'BATNA' capability which is aptly defined as a negotiator's BEST ALTERNATIVE to a negotiated agreement, an ability that's very much part and parcel of dealmaking and negotiating techniques📗📙📘

WHILE one might argue that we SHOULDN'T waste time on this BATNA stuff because we are NOT law enforcement officers OR negotiators, let's admit it, regardless WHETHER you are a layman, a teacher, a student, OR anyone for that matter, from time to time you'll find him/herself in a 'negotiating' table [YES, that could be via an informal but very fleeting 'elevator pitch] BUT once you're right there, jumping from the frying pan straight into the fire, you're on your own.  And at times, like in driving, situations will arise randomly and you've got to make LITERALLY split-second decisions💥💥💥

From my own [limited] 'lighthouse' observation post, many of us [and I was one of them a few times in the past] WHO got stuck with the so called 'modus vivendi', a compromise agreement WHICH, often, blindsides us and makes us [wrongly] believe that that negotiated agreement is the best viable option to safeguard your own interests.  Sadly, sometimes, that's untrue❎❎❎

There's this human experience WHICH, I'm sure, almost everyone went through [maybe many more times than we could recall].  WHEN we are in dire straights, WHEN our back is against the wall, more often, there's only one thing prevailing within us and that's the foregone conclusion that you have a solitary goal and that is, to extricate yourself out of a challenging situation.  WHATEVER it takes, you will grab the first opportunity that will offer to extricate you out of that deep morass😡😡😡

Our takeaway:  UNLESS we're in a 'catch me if you can' situation, it behooves that we literally allocate time, NO matter HOW precious it may be, to 'dice and drill', scrutinize the possibly negotiated agreement at hand and BEFORE you affix your 'wet signature', you should have balanced things out multiple times UNTIL you're damn sure that negotiated agreement is the BEST CARD for you to pull out and play.  So, WHAT's YOUR BATNA dude???