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Used in Risk Board Game and in Real Life

Negotiation is one of the most important skills that one may need to use to resolve different types of conflicts. Negotiation is applicable to everyone as you should know the tricks of the trade if you want to succeed. The ability to negitiate effectivly in Risk game is also critical.

What I have found, as probably the most important element, is the concept of BATNA (Best Alternative To a Negotiated Agreement). Basically, you always need to have something, so that you can walk away from a deal. By having an alternative, you will feel stronger psychologically. People can see this confidence and will act accordingly in a negotiation. In contrast, if you think you don't have an alternative, you may portray yourself as a desperate negotiator which the other party may easily spot and exploit.

When you are involved in a competition such as a game, would you focus on tactics or strategy? Or would you focus on diplomacy instead? Or maybe a combination of them all. How would you improve your game while playing Risk? Which one do you think is more effective?

In my book, I emphasized greatly on the importance of diplomacy. In fact, it seems that a lot is driven by this concept. In this article, I provide an example in the space industry and show you how far diplomacy can take you.

It is sometimes desired to have allies in Risk. Having an ally has many benefits. You will have one less enemy to deal with. In addition, your ally is likely to fight with your enemies reducing their power even further. You may also get him to help you on strategies and initiate a campaign together as part of a global plan.

All in all this sounds great. However, as always there is a catch. The most fundamental problem is that there can only be one winner. As a result, you and your ally will inevitably need to face each other at some point in the game. Therefore, alliances are short term solutions. An alliance is there to benefit the two parties for a while and when the circumstances have changed, the alliance is terminated, expired or broken.

There are many times that you may be confronted with a situation that you like to instantly discover if someone is trying to deceive you. Is there a way to know for certain? Well, it turns out that there is indeed a technique you can use to know if someone is bluffing.

Divide and Conquer is perhaps one of the most famous strategies to gain power. On the outset everyone seems to understand it. Numerous examples in history show that this strategy is indeed effective.

Robert Greene described this strategy beautifully: 

"Never be intimidated by enemy's appearance. Instead, look at the parts that make up the whole. By separating the parts sowing dissension and division, you can bring down even the most formidable foe. When you have troubles or enemies, turn a large problem into small eminently defeatable parts." 

This strategy can be applied to many different situations.

Ever wondered how can you get people to like you. If they like you, the chances are that they will be on your side. There are a number of techniques you can use such as being with positive people, not trying to be too perfect, getting them to do favours and so on. Here, I will explore these and provide a number of examples in the context of Risk.