James K. Sebenius (Program on Negotiation Executive Committee Vice-Chair; Gordon Donaldson Professor of Business Administration, Harvard Business School; Co-author of 3-D Negotiation)

Negotiators are often too confident of their own position and too quick to demonize the other side. In this article, the author describes steps to conquer these damaging biases.

Read More … Read More 

Adapted from “From Handshake to Contract: Draft the Right Agreement,” by Guhan Subramanian (professor, Harvard Business School and Harvard Law School), first published in the Negotiation newsletter.

Experience indicates that communicating with your lawyers the motivations behind a deal is well worth the time. On Wall Street, a common refrain among junior corporate lawyers is that … Read More 

Adapted from “When Good People (Seem to) Negotiate in Bad Faith,” by Max H. Bazerman (professor, Harvard Business School), Dolly Chugh (professor, New York University), and Mahzarin R. Banaji (professor, Harvard University).

You probably can recall times when a negotiating opponent made what appeared to be a blatant misstatement. If you’re like most people, you assumed … Read More 

Adapted from “Know When to Show Your Hand,” by Carrie Menkel-Meadow (professor, Georgetown University Law Center), first published in the Negotiation newsletter.

Suppose that two entrepreneurs, a marketing expert and an IT specialist, are thinking about merging their consulting firms to create a greater synergy of services. As their talks unfold, each wonders how much information … Read More 

Adapted from “Being Fair and Getting What You Want,” first published in the Negotiation newsletter.

Imagine that you and your business partner agree to sell your company. You get an offer that pleases you both, so now you face the enviable task of splitting up the rewards.

Some background: Your partner put twice as many hours into … Read More 

Adapted from “The Deal Is Done—Now What?” by Jeswald W. Salacuse (professor, Tufts University). First published in the Negotiation newsletter.

At last, the deal is done. After 18 months of negotiation, eight trips across the country, and countless meetings, you’ve finally signed a contract. It’s clear and precise. It covers all the contingencies and has … Read More 

Adapted from “The Stressed-out Negotiator,” first published in the Negotiation newsletter.

Conventional wisdom, not to mention the popularity of no-haggle car buying, suggests that many people anticipate important negotiations with the same dread they reserve for root canals.

Unfortunately, stressed-out negotiators tend to be less effective than their calmer counterparts, according to research by Kathleen O’Connor of … Read More 

Tufts Magazine, Tufts University: Negotiating Life

Jeswald W. Salacuse (Henry J. Baker Professor of Law; former Dean, Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, Tufts University; author of The Global Negotiator and Seven Secrets for Negotiating with Government)

Using an objective standard can strengthen your proposal and eliminate emotional bias. In this article, the author illustrates the concept … Read More 

This negotiation video is a segment taken from PON’s “Negotiation Pedagogy Series, Part 2.” MIT Professor Lawrence Susskind uses the case “Teflex Products” to teach an Executive Education Seminar on how to deal with an angry public.

To watch more PON Videos, click here.

To watch PON videos on YouTube, click here. … Read More 

Adapted from “How to Negotiate Successfully Online,” by Kathleen L. McGinn (professor, Harvard Business School) and Eric J. Wilson (Cogos Consulting), first published in the Negotiation newsletter.

The intricacies of electronic negotiation can be dizzying. You’re likely to find yourself communicating with numerous people you’ve never met about issues you each value differently, and you all … Read More