THE PERFORMANCE OF NEGOTIATION

Introducing the Rational Games Players

By Mark Young

President, Rational Games, Inc.

June 2024

Rational Games has always been about play: games, simulations, roleplays and more. Now we are pleased to announce that we are “upping our game” by extending our offerings to include participation by professional actors: the “Rational Games Players”.

Our challenge: how do we make roleplays more meaningful?

How do we transport the content that we teach, specifically creativity, improvisation, empathy and resilience, all key skills in negotiation, in a way that is not only entertaining and memorable, but that really helps the lesson stick more deeply, perhaps even changing inner behavior?

We owe our first connection to theater as executive education to the organization Silver Key, a professional theatrical agency in Berlin bringing together English, German and Russian actors with a connection to executive education.

These are performers who not only perform convincingly but also who understand what we teach. By mutual consent, we are “acquiring” these actors and now seek a more proactive method to offer their work to clients. In the sense of experiencing things rather than talk about them, we want our participants to directly experience the delights and challenges of negotiation and leadership skills.

And we are going one step further: the Rational Games Players go beyond the theater to the world of dance. In the spirit of our Harvard Negotiation Journal “The Rhythm of the Deal: Negotiation as a Dance” they guide our participants in experiencing that in real time. Experiential learning at its best!

Would you like to know more? Then contact us at https://www.rationalgames.com/rgi-players. We will a thoroughly meaningful theatrical experience for you, one that your participants will remember for many years to come.

And it is a lot of fun in the process!