Adapted from “On the Block: Choose the Best Type of Auction,” by Guhan Subramanian (professor, Harvard Law School and Harvard Business School) and Richard Zeckhauser (professor, Harvard Kennedy School), first published in the Negotiation newsletter, December 2004.

Suppose you’ve weighed the pros and cons of selling an asset via auction or negotiation and decided an auction … Read More 

Adapted from “Take the Long View,” by Kimberly A. Wade-Benzoni (professor, Duke University), first published in the Negotiation newsletter, April 2006.

Negotiators often overlook the long-term consequences of various issues on the table. Amid the pressures to meet short-term financial targets, it’s difficult to remember that the effects of managerial decisions may be felt years, even … Read More 

Adapted from “The Deal Is Done—Now What?” by Jeswald W. Salacuse (professor, Tufts University), first published in the Negotiation newsletter, November 2005.

Whether you’re manufacturing audio components in China, providing data-processing services in Chicago, or constructing a cement plant in Cheyenne, Wyoming, the quality of your relationship with a contractual partner is often the difference … Read More 

Lawrence Susskind (Ford Professor of Urban and Environmental Planning, The Massachusetts Institute of Technology; author of Built to Win; co-author of Breaking Robert’s Rules and Breaking the Impasse)

Making public policy about energy has been a scattered, uncoordinated disaster. In this posting, the author argues for a negotiated, consensus building approach to energy planning.

Read More … Read More 

In an op-ed article in today’s edition of The New York Times, Max H. Bazerman, Straus Professor of Business Administration at the Harvard Business School, and Ann E. Tenbrunsel, Martin Professor of Business Ethics at the University of Notre Dame, discuss the reasons why ethical lapses occur so often in business settings.

According to … Read More 

Adapted from “Innovation in Labor Relations,” first published in the Negotiation newsletter.

In 2004, a team of MIT and Harvard researchers published a study of a bold initiative by health-care giant Kaiser Permanente and its many unions to restructure their relationship. Given the recent spotlight focused on collective bargaining, beginning with a very public battle in … Read More 

Adapted from “Option Overload? Manage the Choices on the Table,” by Chris Guthrie (professor, Vanderbilt University Law School), first published in the Negotiation newsletter.

Consider what happened when Randy, who was opening his first restaurant, met with Albert, the general manager of Best Appliances, to negotiate a deal. Albert pulled out a stack of brochures and … Read More 

Adapted from “A Fresh Look Through the Glass Ceiling,” first published in the Negotiation newsletter.

Women are less likely to seize opportunities to negotiate than men, Linda Babcock and Sara Laschever documented in their widely-read book Women Don’t Ask. Subsequent research has indicated that, when they do negotiate on their own behalf, women ask for and … Read More 

Adapted from “Three Keys to Navigating Multiparty Negotiation,” by Elizabeth A. Mannix (professor, Cornell University), first published in the Negotiation newsletter.

Multiparty negotiations—in which more than two people are bargaining on behalf of themselves or others—create many opportunities to generate value. As the number of people at the table increases, so does the potential to make … Read More 

Adapted from “Putting More on the Table: How Making Multiple Offers Can Increase the Final Value of the Deal,” by Victoria Husted Medvec and Adam D. Galinsky (professors, Northwestern University), first published in the Negotiation newsletter.

Suppose you open talks with an important customer by making an aggressive first offer. He becomes offended. You back off … Read More