Developed by Thomas C. Schelling (The Strategy of Conflict, 1960).
Identifies the outcome people will converge on without talking, because it stands out by precedent, prominence, or shared expectation, to predict and shape coordination.
When to reach for it
When several agreements would all work and the parties must settle on one, as with standards, deadlines, or a negotiation's opening numbers.
How it runs
- Confirm the problem is coordination: several workable outcomes.
- List the candidates that stand out by precedent, roundness, or prominence.
- Predict the one each party expects the others to expect.
- To steer the result, make the preferred outcome the most prominent.
Where it sits in SOLVE eX
Go to the source
- The Strategy of Conflict, 1960