The BATNA

[thedarkages]

In Roger Fisher's Getting to Yes, Fisher admits that non-positional, principled bargaining can only get you so far. There will come a day when the person with whom you are bargaining will hold too many of the cards or will refuse to bargain at all. This is the time when you pull out your BATNA -- the Best Alternative To A Negotiated Agreement. If you are bargaining for a salary increase at work, the BATNA may be to seek another job elsewhere. If you are in a failing relationship with worsening communication, the BATNA may be to leave.

I prefer to think of the BATNA as a large bat who flies wherever people are being oppressed and presents them with a livable alternative. Wherever someone is being underpaid and overworked, wherever someone is being crushed by a relationship, the BATNA will arrive and say, "There is another way."

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[mrbalihai.livejournal.com]

After his parents' long and bitter separation, and his significant other's repeated failures to secure a reasonable cost-of-living increase at her place of employment, billionaire psychiatrist Wayne Bruce, swore an oath:

"Divorce lawyers and middle-managers are a superstitious and cowardly lot", said Bruce, "so my disguise must be able to strike terror into their hearts. I must be a presenter of reasonable alternatives, a minimizer of heartbreak and loss of self-esteem..."

As if responding to his desires, a BATNA suddenly flies through the window, inspiring Bruce to assume the persona of the BATNA-man.