Adapted from “When a Contract Isn’t Enough: How to Be Sure Your Agent Gets You the Best Deal,” by James K. Sebenius (Professor, Harvard Business School). First published in “Negotiation Newsletter.”

Top executive pay attorney Joseph Bachelder was representing a client who’d just been chosen as a company’s next CEO. After a first session with the board’s representative to hammer out … read more »

In the business world, why is competition so often the norm, while cooperation seems like an impossible goal? One of the most destructive assumptions we bring to negotiations is the assumption that the pie of resources is fixed. The mythical-fixed-pie mindset leads us to interpret most competitive situations as purely win-lose.

For those who recognize opportunities to grow the pie of … read more »

Adapted from “Are You an Overconfident Negotiator?” by Don A. Moore, Professor, Carnegie Mellon University.

Many negotiators understand the importance of estimating the other side’s reservation price—the worst deal he would accept from you. However, despite the fact that such estimates often are based on hints, clues, and speculation, negotiators are frequently overconfident that their estimates are accurate.

Say, for instance, that … read more »

Adapted from “Can You Break the Cycle of Bad Communication?” by Susan Hackley, Managing Director, the Program on Negotiation at Harvard Law School.

“What happened?”
“How did a pleasant discussion turn sour?”
“Why did the deal unravel at the last minute?”

If you’ve ever come away from a negotiation asking questions like this, poor communication may be to blame, write Roger Fisher, William Ury, … read more »

Adapted from “Don’t Like Surprises? Hedge Your Bets with Contingent Agreements,” by Lawrence Susskind, Professor, Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

A town government and a private fuel-oil company have a standing contract that they have renewed for several years in a row. The contract is again up for renewal, and the town manager is under pressure from his constituents to reduce the … read more »

What would you do if someone threatened you? Strike back? Run away? Beg for mercy? Try to negotiate?

Last April, The New York Times in effect held a gun to the heads of Boston Globe employees – twice. The confrontation, say experts at the Harvard Program on Negotiation, offers valuable lessons in handling high-risk, high-stakes situations.

Background: Sixteen years earlier, The Times … read more »

As a partner at your growing law firm, you’ve been charged with negotiating the lease of much-needed additional office space in your building. The real-estate agent has informed you that if you don’t increase your offer by $10,000 by the end of the day, you’ll lose the space to another company. Is she bluffing, or is she telling the truth?
… read more »

Think about what your house, condominium, or some other valuable asset might be worth in today’s market. Did the price you paid for it affect your answer?

“Ignore sunk costs,” accounting professors and economists tell us. The amount of money and effort we’ve invested in the past, they say, is irrelevant to our future investments. … read more »

Conflict in Global Finance After the Meltdown:

Reconciling Competing Priorities
with

Richard Parker
Lecturer on Public Policy
Shorenstein Center, Harvard Kennedy School
Date: November 10, 2009
Time: 4-6 PM
Where: CGIS Building, Weatherhead Center for International Affairs,
1737 Cambridge Street, Second Floor, N-262 (Bowie Vernon Room), Cambridge MA
Contact Chair: Donna Hicks (dhicks@wcfia.harvard.edu).

Speaker Bio
Richard Parker is Lecturer in Public Policy and Senior Fellow of the Shorenstein … read more »

In challenging economic times, negotiators can find themselves in an entirely new ball game. That’s what happened to actor Brad Pitt, film director Steven Soderbergh, and their production team when Sony Pictures abruptly pulled the plug on their film project Moneyball just days before the start of shooting in late June. … read more »