Should you make the first offer? Few questions related to negotiation have yield more academic attention and debate among practitioners. … Read More 

Effective negotiators seek opportunities to create value. By making tradeoffs across issues, parties can obtain greater value on the issues that are most important to them. But how can you be sure you’re making the right offer?

Victoria Husted Medvec and Adam D. Galinsky of Northwestern University argued that, in negotiations involving many issues, you can … Read More 

When it comes to business negotiations, you probably understand the importance of being as principled as possible to protect your reputation and ward off legal trouble. You probably expect your counterparts to follow the straight and narrow as well. Yet negotiators often have only a fuzzy grasp of which claims and strategies are legal and … Read More 

Adapted from “Why Your Selling Price May Be Too High,” first published in the Negotiation newsletter, October 2007.

Imagine that you are moving from one city to another and putting your home on the market. How would you determine the true value of the residence? Now imagine that you are in the market for the same … Read More 

Adapted from “What to Do When the Table Gets Crowded,” first published in the Negotiation newsletter, May 2008.

Negotiators often have to deal with more than one party to reach their goals. These situations pose unique challenges, yet most negotiation advice focuses on talks between two parties.

Where can we turn for guidance? For many years, Harvard … Read More