What’s the Matter with BATNA?

You probably teach students or train practitioners about BATNA – everybody loves BATNA.

You may think you understand it correctly.

There’s a good chance you don’t – and that you spread your misunderstandings like a virus.

So you might want to read my latest Theory Meets Practice column in CPR’s Alternatives magazine, What’s the Matter with BATNA? It’s Misleading and Doesn’t Help Advance Parties’ Important Interests.

It describes BATNA in theory and practice and offers suggestions for attorneys and mediators to advance clients’ interests by better understanding and valuing non-settlement outcomes.

Take a look to see if you misunderstand BATNA and confuse your students and trainees.

I have been experimenting with ChatGPT lately, and I asked how it might edit this blog post. Here’s its version, which reflects my general ideas, though not always my words or voice:

What’s the Matter with BATNA?

Ah, BATNA — the sacred cow of negotiation training. The golden rule we all preach: Know your BATNA! But what if I told you that, despite all the times you’ve explained it to students or clients, there’s a good chance you don’t actually understand it correctly?

Don’t take it personally — most people don’t. And the misunderstandings are spreading like an academic version of a viral cat meme. But instead of being harmlessly amusing, these misconceptions can lead to poor decision-making in negotiation and mediation.

So, before you send another student or client off to “know their BATNA,” you might want to check out my latest Theory Meets Practice column in CPR’s Alternatives: What’s the Matter with BATNA? It’s Misleading and Doesn’t Help Advance Parties’ Important Interests.

In the article, I take a closer look at how BATNA is often misunderstood in both theory and practice. Spoiler alert: It’s not the best you can do if you don’t settle. That oversimplification ignores uncertainty, overconfidence bias, and the fact that many parties’ most important interests aren’t captured in a simple cost-benefit equation.

If you think you’ve got BATNA all figured out, I invite you to take a peek. You might just find that you’ve been teaching and applying it all wrong.

Read it, test yourself, and let me know what you think. Or, of course, you could just stick with your current understanding — but that might not be your best alternative.

John Lande

John Lande is the Isidor Loeb Professor Emeritus at the University of Missouri School of Law. He previously directed its LLM Program in Dispute Resolution. He earned his J.D. from Hastings College of Law and Ph.D in sociology from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He began practicing law and mediation in… MORE