Negotiation Skills Jeopardy

BATNAs, anchoring, interests, and classic tactics in one negotiation workshop game. Copy the board free and let participants buzz in on their phones.

6 categories · 30 clues · Final Jeopardy · everyone buzzes in from their phone

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Preparation

$200
This list of topics to be discussed, often shared in advance, sets the order of a negotiation.
What is an agenda?
$400
Before talks begin, it pays to identify this person on the other side who has the final say.
Who is the decision-maker?
$600
Rehearsing a negotiation with a colleague acting as the other side is known by this hyphenated term.
What is role-playing?
$800
Good preparation includes listing these, the things you are willing to give up in exchange for something you value more.
What are concessions?
$1,000
To prepare for a salary talk, you might check the Occupational Outlook Handbook published by this federal agency.
What is the Bureau of Labor Statistics?

BATNA and Walk-Away Points

$200
In a job search, having this in hand from another employer is a classic example of a strong alternative.
What is a competing job offer?
$400
Your walk-away point is also called this price, the least favorable deal you would still accept.
What is the reservation price?
$600
This four-letter acronym names the range between the two sides' walk-away points where a deal is possible.
What is ZOPA?
$800
Fisher and Ury warn that this, a rigid worst acceptable outcome fixed in advance, can stop you from seeing better options.
What is a bottom line?
$1,000
The counterpart to BATNA, this acronym names the worst alternative to a negotiated agreement.
What is WATNA?

Anchoring and First Offers

$200
A buyer's opening offer set far below fair value is known as this kind of offer.
What is a lowball offer?
$400
Rather than haggling from an extreme opening number, you can re-anchor by making this, your own proposal in response.
What is a counteroffer?
$600
When a first offer is accepted instantly, the feeling that you gave away too much is named for this 'curse' from auction theory.
What is the winner's curse?
$800
Amos Tversky and this psychologist described the anchoring effect in a 1974 paper on judgment under uncertainty.
Who is Daniel Kahneman?
$1,000
Making three or more offers at once, each equally acceptable to you, is known by this four-letter acronym.
What is MESO?

Interests Versus Positions

$200
Asking this one-word question is the simplest way to uncover the interest behind a position.
What is why?
$400
In Getting to Yes, two sisters split this fruit in half, though one wanted only the fruit to eat and the other only the peel for baking.
What is an orange?
$600
The first principle of Getting to Yes is to separate these from the problem.
What are the people?
$800
In Getting to Yes, two men in a library argue over whether to open this until the librarian asks each what he really wants.
What is a window?
$1,000
Getting to Yes urges insisting on these, such as market value or expert opinion, instead of a contest of wills.
What are objective criteria?

Tactics and Countermoves

$200
Borrowed from police interrogation, this tactic has one negotiator play tough while a partner plays friendly.
What is good cop, bad cop?
$400
Letting a pause hang after an offer, so the other side rushes to fill it, uses this tactic.
What is silence?
$600
Asking for one small extra concession just after the deal seems closed is known by this word for a small bite.
What is the nibble?
$800
Visibly reacting with shock or a wince to the other side's number is this tactic, named for a physical recoil.
What is the flinch?
$1,000
Common in recruiting, this kind of offer expires within hours or days to pressure a quick yes.
What is an exploding offer?

Famous Negotiations

$200
In 1803 the United States paid France about $15 million for this vast territory.
What is the Louisiana Purchase?
$400
In 1867 Secretary of State William Seward agreed to buy this territory from Russia for $7.2 million.
What is Alaska?
$600
A 1962 standoff over Soviet missiles on this island ended with a deal that quietly included removing US missiles from Turkey.
What is Cuba?
$800
Jimmy Carter hosted Anwar Sadat and Menachem Begin for 13 days in 1978 to reach these agreements.
What are the Camp David Accords?
$1,000
Negotiated at an Air Force base in Ohio in 1995, these accords ended the war in Bosnia.
What are the Dayton Accords?

Final Jeopardy — Negotiation Terms

Popularized by Roger Fisher and William Ury in Getting to Yes, this acronym names the best alternative to a negotiated agreement.

What is BATNA?

How to run this board

This board covers the concepts that separate prepared negotiators from lucky ones: preparation, alternatives and walk-away points, anchoring and first offers, uncovering interests, common tactics and how to counter them, and a few famous negotiations from history and business.

It makes a good opener for a negotiation workshop, before the role-plays begin, because it gives everyone the same vocabulary. Teams of three work well, with one person answering and two advising, which is a small negotiation of its own.

For a twist, let teams trade the right to choose the next clue for points, and ask the winners afterward how they decided what to offer.

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