Blog

Our monthly blog

Each month, we muse about some aspect of negotiation, gamification or philanthropy and its effect on our work and world. Comments welcome!
If you want to take part in the discussion, you are kindly invited to join our group 'Gamification and Negotiation' on LinkedIn.

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November 2018

THE WELL-PLAYED GAME: Remembering Bernie de Koven

“On the one hand we have the playing mind—innovative, magical, boundless. On the other is the gaming mind—concentrated, determined, intelligent. And on the hand that holds them both together we have the notion of playing well.”

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October 2018

DIRTY TRICKS AMERICAN STYLE: Renegotiating NAFTA

As someone who had a (minor) role in negotiating the original NAFTA in the early 1990s, I am of course taking a keen interest in the current efforts to renegotiate this agreement and gain better terms for the United States. So far I am not

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September 2018

NO EXIT POSSIBLE:
 Negotiating with Monopoly Suppliers

Facing the challenge of negotiating with single-source supplieres.

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August 2018

THE FRESHBIZ GAME Imagining entrepreneurship playfully

I learned alot about the FreshBiz serious Game while talking to Ronen Gafni at the European Conscious Capitalism Summit in Barcelona.

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July 2018

NEGOTIATION IN THE COLD Lessons from the Ski Slopes

This winter, I was part of a guided ski tour in the snow-covered high alpine mountains in France. In retrospect, this tour made me think about negotiations from a different perspective.

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June 2018

FROM BLUE TO RED AND BACK AGAIN Riding the Trump/Kim Negotiation Rollercoaster

Like most of us in the negotiation community, I have followed the daily gyrations of the lead-up to the on-again-off-again summit between Trump and Kim with more than academic interest.

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May 2018

IS A MILLION DOLLARS ENOUGH? Reflections on “Microphilanthropy”

This year Rational Games passed an important milestone in its philanthropic work: adding match-funded contributions from strategic partners, we have now given away a million dollars to projects using games and play to resolve conflict

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April 2018

CRAZY LESSONS Negotiation Lessons from Bhutan

Drukpa Kunley, an itinerant wanderer who lived to be nearly 100, was most famous for shocking behavior: highly sexual bravado, defiance of all tradition and extreme joy and despair.

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March 2018

IS IT GOOD TO LET IT RIP? On anger in negotiations

In many negotiations, there comes a time when emotions flare up, where people start shouting at each other or stomp out of the room. But the feeling is that this sort of anger is misplaced and will do more harm than good. Is that so?

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February 2018

ARE THEY WELCOME HERE? Introducing a Six-Party Negotiation Game about Refugee Policy

This month I would like to introduce our latest negotiation game – a six-party four-hour simulation drawn from the real world of political negotiation around the (European) refugee crisis.

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