How about teams?

I hate it. I hate it when someone's my representative and s/he loses. Why should I ever trust anyone? Does it even make sense? I know my issue best, I can do whatever I want on my own.

Well, no. Here come the times, when you're not able to be a sole warrior. One man is simply not as creative, or has as much knowledge as his/her friends combined in negotiations. Are you selling a house? You don't have an agent? Good luck! Remember that you may not have enough data about the industry. You may not have enough connections. Some negotiations are so much complex that you'll simply not be able to perform well without an ally.

And now my little thoughts from the class - I really love to work individually. It is difficult, yes, but gives much more satisfaction. But sometimes there are times, when I'm not prepared enough. What's then? My team members are my salvation. What's the catch? Conflicts. Unfortunately, I don't have much experience about that, as mostly we had "instant" agreements within a group. But I wish I were in a very complex, very difficult situations and I made many mistakes. Why? To learn and remember. I wish you all some difficult experiences, so you can grow stronger.

Happy thanksgiving!

Decision-Making Biases

The most prominent assumption is that decision-makers are rational. What's the truth? How does it correspond to the reality? Every day world proves that people make mistakes (and they will). Sometimes, however, being irrational is a good thing. I remember that once in a class we had a negotiation where we had to agree on a very important contractbetween two companies. Although bluffing might have been stupid, I lied about having second offer from different company to threaten the opposite party, so they become anchored and set their price lower. That was one of the decision-making biases - risk seeking. Individuals will take irrational risks when the potential payoff is unusually large. They could have not believed me. I could have lost the entire contract... But they did believe me and we agreed, although it was irrational for them to make a deal.

Another bias I (this time) suffered from was my very first negotiation in this course. I was so much anchored, so much closed minded that I couldn't see that there's no payoff from the deal we had. That is called "Escalation of Commitment" and I will remember that good lesson 'til the rest of my life.