Quizzes
I hope I’ve been able to get the ideas across without getting lost in the numbers. To help confirm and reinforce your understanding, I’ve put together some questions connected to each part of the book. For those who want to achieve Jedi mastery, I’ve also included some mind-mending problems.
Part I: Ordinary quiz
Part I: Mind-bending quiz
Part IV: You always want to improve your fallback. In this video quiz, we see someone offer a no-deal deal as a failsafe, a way to ensure that the parties don’t end up with nothing. Please watch the video below. Then answer the survey question. That will tell you what your fellow learners think. My answer is in the video that follows.
Actors: Thomas Pang and Jesse Yates
In this video, the Zinc-It rep proposed that the two sides pick a lottery if they fail to reach an agreement. Hasan points out that including A makes no sense. Zinc-it agreed. What would you do as Hasan?
1. As Hasan, this is really smart. Now, no matter what happens I am sure to end up with something better than the Zums fallback vote
2. As Hasan, I would say no. I bet there is some trick up Zinc-it's sleeve. vote
Actors: Thomas Pang and Jesse Yates
Negotiation videos
Below are seven examples of what can go wrong in a negotiation. These are discussed in the book in Chapters 16, 17, and 22.
Anchoring: What goes wrong when you start too high.
Actors: Thomas Pang and Jessy Yates
How to put out a fire when faced with an ultimatum
Actors: Jonathan Higginbotham, Juliana Canfield, and Sydney Lemon
A Negotiation Meltdown
Actors: Michael Barker and Meghan Pressman
Lies: What goes wrong when you lie about your BATNA.
Actors: Leland Fowler and Sydney Lemon
How to Start the Negotiation
Actors: Thomas Pang and Jessy Yates
Good Cop / Bad Cop
Actors: Leland Fowler and Juliana Canfield
Alternating Removals
Actors: Leland Fowler, Jonathan Higginbotham, Elizabeth Stahlmann
Online Course (free)
In 2015, I worked with the team at the Yale Broadcast Center and Coursera to create an online version of the course I teach at Yale. As that course evolved, it became Split the Pie. To become a better negotiator takes practice. The course will pair you up with other learners and give you a chance to try your hand at a few cases. Clicking on the image below will bring you to the course.
And, just to be clear, I’m not trying to sell anything. The course is entirely free. (If you complete the course and want a certificate, Coursera will charge $50.) All the material is there whether or not you choose to get a certificate. I appreciate this may not be an ideal business model, but I’m happy with this choice
Questions for a book group
Question 1 — Instead of saying no to the other side, consider coming up with something that you could say to. Let the other side say no to you. Or they might accept your offer.
In my own life, I wanted my eldest daughter to join her high school math team. This was not high on her list. Instead of saying no to me, she said: Yes, if we can get a dog.
Tilly was a great dog. Sadly, my agreement regarding the math team was less great. I failed to specify how many years she had to be part of the team. We did get one glorious year on the math team and 14 wonderful years with Tilly.
Has this strategy ever worked for you? Have you recently said no to something where you might have said Yes, if?
Please note that sometimes you really should just say no, as when the offer is unethical or illegal.
Question 2 — A recent piece in the New Yorker by Peter Hessler tells the story of an entrepreneur in China who retrofits elevators to old partments buildings that were previously walk ups. Those living on higher floors contribute more to the price of the elevator. To prevent people from free riding, the elevator is operated by a key system. Only those who pay get keys and different keys have access to different floors.
While those living on the ground floor pay nothing, their cooperation is required for the permitting process. In some cases these folks have demanded payments by those living on upper floor in order to permit the elevator construction. (The value of apartments on upper floors goes way up after the elevator has been added.) Is that fair or not?
PowerPoint Slides (for teachers)
I am hoping others will choose to teach the material in Split the Pie; To that end, I am sharing some of the PowerPoint slides I use in my classes. Feel free to modify them as needed. I am sharing them royalty free under the Creative Commons license for non-commercial use.
Corrections
In the first printing, the chart on page 191 was correct but missing the 45-degree ine. The updated graph is below. The addition of the 45-degree line helps make it clear that A perfectly splits the pie, B nearly does so, while the other options do not.
