Negotiation Skills

Negotiation is the process of discussion between two or more disputants, who seek to find a solution to a common problem, one that meets their needs and interests acceptably. Learning to be a skilled negotiator can help you make deals, solve problems, manage conflict, and preserve relationships. Negotiation strategies, techniques and tips can be found in our Negotiation Newsletter and skills are taught in our Executive Education programs and graduate programs.

Dealing with choice overload

Filed in Negotiation Skills

When it comes to offering and considering choices in a negotiation, the more the better, right? In fact, the presence of too many options may actually hamper people from coming to any agreement.

A study from the decision-making realm supports this conclusion. Draeger’s Market in Menlo Park, Calif., is renowned for its wide selection of gourmet … Read More 

Be sure to give at the office

Filed in Daily, Negotiation Skills

Reciprocation tactics are tried and true. Politicians “logroll” votes on pet projects, companies offer free product samples to consumers, and charitable organizations include small gifts when soliciting donations. According to the norm of reciprocity, if you’re nice to me, I’ll be nice in return, and vice versa.

In the realm of negotiation, you can gain many … Read More 

Are you being hoodwinked?

Filed in Daily, Negotiation Skills

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 … Read More 

Professor Max Bazerman Publishes a Working Paper: “A Decision-Making Perspective to Negotiation: A Review of the Past and a Look into the Future”

Filed in Daily, Negotiation Skills, News

Professor Max Bazerman, member of the PON Executive Committee and professor of Business Administration at Harvard Business School (HBS), and HBS Ph.D. candidate Chia-Jung Tsay published a working paper titled, “A Decision-Making Perspective to Negotiation: A Review of the Past and a Look into the Future” on August 20, 2009.

Abstract
Through the decision-analytic approach to negotiations, … Read More 

Balancing Competing Interests, Waxman Style

Filed in Daily, Negotiation Skills

What if you were Henry Waxman?

Waxman, in case you haven’t been following the healthcare debate closely, is a man in the middle. The Democratic representative from California is chair of the House Energy and Commerce Committee and a famed Congressional dealmaker. As a key player in health reform, one of the most complex multi-party negotiations … Read More 

Obama healthcare moves follow Harvard playbook

Filed in Daily, Negotiation Skills

President Obama’s healthcare reform game plan is classic “3-D Negotiation,” a strategy developed at the Harvard Program on Negotiation.

We have no idea whether the President or his aides are students of the Harvard approach, as set out by Prof. James K. Sebenius, vice chair of the Program on Negotiation, and co-author David Lax, in their … Read More 

Discussing the bottom line in budget negotiations

Filed in Daily, Negotiation Skills

The PON Clearinghouse offers hundreds of role simulations, from two-party, single-issue negotiations to complex multi-party exercises. Multimode, Inc. is a two-party intra-organization negotiation between a company’s financial and human resources officers regarding the amount of a budget increase.

SCENARIO: T. Boyd, a Vice President of Budget and Finance at Multimode, Inc., (a manufacturing firm) … Read More 

Sharing the market

Filed in Daily, Negotiation Skills

The PON Clearinghouse offers hundreds of role simulations, from two-party, single-issue negotiations to complex multi-party exercises.  The Pepulator Pricing Exercise is a two-team, scoreable, multiple round, “prisoner’s dilemma”-style negotiation between representatives of two companies over the monthly price for fictional products called “pepulators”.

SCENARIO: The pepulator market is controlled by two giant … Read More 

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