Grammer #09.

The problem is that BATNA tricks negotiators into aiming low. Researchers have found that we have limited capacity for keeping focus in complex, stressful situations like negotiations. And so, once a negotiation is underway, we tend to gravitate toward the focal point that has the most psychological significance for us.

Well, this was a time when I was pretending to be an intellectual, and I wanted to impress my grandfather with my opinions about everything I was learning in school. I was ready to show the one who had the biggest influence on my life how smart I was. Good luck! I went to my grandfather’s house, and he received me the way he always did- with a big smile, with enormous love. I started to tell him my point of view about all the injustice in the world, about poverty, about violence, about the conflicts between good and what I called evil.

Hmm… What my grandfather told me was logical, and I understood what he was saying, but I didn’t believe him. How could all the conflict in the world, all of the war, violence, and injustice, be the result of something so simple? Surely it must be more complicated than that.

There was a number of issues I faced in the White House that were not passed on to my successors, either long-standing problems that I was able to resolve or matters that were transient in nature. Everyone warned me not to take on too many projects early in the administration, but it was almost impossible for me to delay things that I thought needed to be done.