This article is part of the Negotiation Series.

There are many books and articles that discuss contemporary negotiation basics and I won’t repeat what they have to say. My aim, instead, is to discuss how my experience differed from what I was taught about negotiating basics. This experience includes buying and selling companies, raising funds from investors and shareholders, entering into operating and equity partnerships as well as hiring dozens of employees. My conclusion is that game theory doesn’t apply to negotiating but psychology does.

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This article is part of the Negotiation Series.

Chicken is a famous game by which two drivers drive their cars towards each other at high speed. The first driver to swerve to safety is deemed a “chicken” and the loser. If neither driver swerves then a high speed collision results with serious injury and even death. This negotiating style has gained popularity as the strategy that a hard nosed negotiator uses, it has become sexy. This is a problem as it is completely destructive and after any game of negotiation chicken the working relationship between the parties involved become irreparably harmed. Continue reading →

This article is part of the Negotiation Series.

Implicit assumptions in an argument are assumptions that are assumed true by one or more parties to the argument but not explained or proven to other parties to the argument, especially the decision makers. A simple example, used by parents against their children since time began, is: “If all your friends jumped off a building, would you do that as well?” The implicit assumption is that the friends in this case are not capable of making rational judgments and that if they are jumping off a building they must be foolish. The idea that there may be a good reason to jump is assumed away. We do not expect children to be able to identify such a subtlety. Unfortunately adults would have a hard time identifying this implicit assumption. Continue reading →