The Practical Art of Improvising an Agreement
It’s a fact: negotiation can’t be scripted. That’s true whether you’re negotiating a mega-deal or buying a used car. Whatever the context, you can’t dictate what your counterpart is going to do or say any more than you’d let them dominate you.
Successful negotiation thus requires strategic agility and being nimble moment to moment, so you can adjust and adapt as the process unfolds. Challenging the static model of standard win-win and hardball approaches, Harvard Business School professor Michael Wheeler demonstrates the practical art of improvising an agreement.
Negotiating is a two-way street, after all. The actions we take, the questions we pose, and the offers we make are the signlas that our counterparts respond to, but not in ways that we hope or expect. Our own interests and options change, sometimes quickly and radically. Moreover, people we deal with aren’t entirely predictable. We can make educated guesses about what’s important to them, but they themselves may be uncertain about ends and means. And what they tell us is often ambiguous. Was that really their final offer or merely a bluff?
Yet negotiators have to persist, even when information is ambiguous, boundaries are hazy, and the scene is constantly changing. In this engaging session, Michael Wheeler illuminates real-world negotiation as a dynamic process requiring openness, flexibility, and the ability to improvise. He draws critical lessons from:
- Master negotiators like diplomat George Mitchell, movie and music producer Jerry Weintraub, and the artists Christo and Jean-Claude
- State-of-the-art theory in business strategy, organizational behavior, and complexity science
- Improvisational fields like jazz, military service, and chess
- Sports in which flexible thinking and quick decision-making are required
- His own research on people’s feelings about negotiation
By taking part in this innovative session, you will learn how to:
- Transform the uncertainty of negotiation into positive advantage
- Develop the necessary mindset and emotional balance to thrive in a dynamic environment
- Set goals, weigh trade-offs, and sketch a Plan B in case of unexpected obstacles
- Make agreements that would otherwise slip through your fingers
- Create (and capture) greater value in the agreements you do make
- Reduce the cost of conflict by putting out small fires before they become dangerous blazes
Every participant will receive a free copy of The Master Negotiator: The Practical Art of Improvising Agreement.
Author Session: $1,597
Combine this author session with the Program on Negotiation for Senior Executives and receive a total discounted rate.
Program on Negotiation for Senior Executives: $2,997
Author Session: $1,597
Save $597 when you attend both:
Program on Negotiation for Senior Executives & Author Session: $3,997
Hotel Information:
The Charles Hotel
Harvard Square
One Bennett Street
Cambridge, MA 02138
Reservation instructions:
To reserve your room, call +1 617-864-1200 or toll free at +1 800-882-1818 and request Program on Negotiation Room Block or click here and follow the instructions below.
Online reservation instructions:
- Click on the Groups link at the top of the page.
- Enter the Attendee Code for the event date you are planning to attend.
- Room rates are guaranteed until the date listed above the corresponding attendee code.
Michael A. Wheeler, Class of 1952 Professor of Management Practice, Harvard Business School, Editor of the Negotiation Journal, and author of the upcoming book, The Master Negotiator: The Practical Art of Improvising Agreement