You will take one action that improves your BATNA and update your numbers.
Knowing your BATNA is useful. Improving it is better, and it's the one part of a negotiation you can work on entirely on your own, before anyone else is in the room. This exercise asks you to do exactly that: list your alternatives, take one real step to improve the best of them, and then redo the numbers from lesson 2.2, Set a reservation point and a target.
Set aside about 20 minutes now, plus whatever time the action itself takes during the week. Wei Ling's job offer is the worked example again, with figures that are examples.
Start with a blank page and write down everything you could do if this negotiation produced no deal, without filtering anything out. Include the dull options, like staying where you are, and the awkward ones, like asking a relative for help with a deposit.
Wei Ling's list has five lines. She could stay in her current job, carry on applying, or chase the promotion her manager mentioned. She could take a short break between jobs to retrain, which she can't really afford. And there's a recruiter who contacted her about a role at a logistics software firm.
Now pick the best one as things stand today. For Wei Ling, it's still staying in her current job. The recruiter's role isn't an alternative yet, because there's no offer. That's an important habit: only count what you could actually do tomorrow, as lesson 2.1 explained.
Choose one action that could make your best alternative better, or turn a weaker one into a real option, and do it this week. Good actions are small and specific:
Reply to a recruiter and book the call Apply for two roles that match your experience Ask your manager for a conversation about the promotion timeline Request a second quote from another contractor View two flats in a nearby estate so the cost of moving is real
Wei Ling replies to the recruiter, and the software firm moves quickly. Two weeks later she has a written offer: S$5,700 a month, with a 13th month payment and no variable bonus. The office is near one-north too, so the commute is the same as the first offer, and the risk of starting somewhere new is the same as well.
Your action may not produce a new offer, and that's fine. A rejection, a quote that comes in higher than you hoped, or a flat viewing that shows moving would cost more than you thought all tell you where you really stand.
Now redo the sum. Wei Ling's BATNA has changed. It's no longer staying in her current job. It's the software firm's offer, which is worth 13 months of S$5,700, or S$74,100 a year.
When she compares it with the first company, the commute and the risk of a new job cancel out, because both offers share them. So she doesn't need the S$150 and S$200 adjustments any more. The first company pays about 13 months a year as well, 12 months of base plus a variable bonus of about a month. To beat S$74,100, its base needs to be at least S$74,100 divided by 13, which is S$5,700.
Her reservation point has moved from S$5,500 to S$5,700. Her estimate of the first company's limit is still about S$5,900, so the zone of possible agreement from lesson 2.3 has narrowed from S$400 to S$200. A narrower zone can look like bad news, but here it means any deal she accepts is worth at least S$2,600 a year more than her old walk-away line would have allowed, and she can turn down anything less without worrying.
Notice too that the first company's bonus is variable and the software firm's 13th month is contractual. If Wei Ling values certainty, she might push her reservation point a little higher still. That's a judgement call. Write it down with the reason.
The other side may ask, "Are you talking to anyone else?" Decide your answer now, so you're not improvising under pressure.
Your answer should be true. Inventing a competing offer is the kind of bluff lesson 6.3, Where hard bargaining becomes dishonest, warns about, and it's easy to get caught in a small market. You don't have to give details, though. Wei Ling plans to say: "Yes, I have another offer, and I'd prefer to join you if we can make the package work." She doesn't name the firm or the figure unless she decides it helps.
If your BATNA is weak, you don't need to announce it. "I'm happy where I am, so I'm only moving for the right role" is honest and doesn't invite a lowball.
You've finished when you have a list of alternatives with the best one marked, one action completed or booked, a reservation point recalculated in writing with the old figure beside it, and a one-line answer to the alternatives question. The activity asks you to record the action and show how your reservation point moved.
Take one action to improve your BATNA this week, then rewrite your reservation point and note how it changed.
Junxiong-WFG Organisation is an authorised representative of AIA Financial Advisers Private Limited (Reg. No. 201715016G).