Return to The power of deadlines
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The Clearinghouse
Preparing for Negotiation
Understanding how to arrange the meeting space is a key aspect of preparing for negotiation. In this video, Professor Guhan Subramanian discusses a real world example of how seating arrangements can influence a negotiator’s success. This discussion was held at the 3 day executive education workshop for senior executives at the Program on Negotiation at Harvard Law School.
Guhan Subramanian is the Professor of Law and Business at the Harvard Law School and Professor of Business Law at the Harvard Business School.
Articles & Insights

BATNA

Business Negotiations

Conflict Management

Conflict Resolution
- Conflict Resolution and Negotiation Across Cultures
- “Confronting Evil” Panel Videos Now Available Online
- Conflict Resolution Lessons from the Home: How Conflict Management Skills Transform Discord Into Harmony
- Working with Your Agent – and Someone Else’s – In Negotiation
- Confronting Evil: Interdisciplinary Perspectives Conference underway

Crisis Negotiations
- PON co-sponsored conference addresses the challenges of “Confronting Evil”
- Finding the Right Process in India
- The Fiscal Cliff and the Debt Ceiling: Program on Negotiation Chair Robert Mnookin Discusses Recent and Future Negotiations Between Congressional Republicans and the White House
- Robert Mnookin Joins Panel to Discuss the Fiscal Cliff Negotiations on NPR’s Forum
- BATNA for the Holidays? Program on Negotiation Co-Founders Bruce Patton and William Ury Discuss the ‘Fiscal Cliff’ with NPR

Dealmaking

Dispute Resolution

International Negotiation
- Tips for Navigating Negotiations in China
- Negotiating in China: The Gold Rush Mentality
- PON panel discusses Track II Negotiations, Islands of Coordination and Unilateral Moves in the New Middle East
- Complexity Personified: International Standards Negotiations from a Microsoft Manager’s Perspective
- An International Negotiation for an All-American Brand

Mediation
- Mediating Tragedy: Managing the Boston Victim’s Compensation Fund
- What’s Wrong with Traditional Arbitration?
- Hiring a Mediator: A Checklist
- Social Perceptions at the Crossroads: Why Sex (Still) Impacts the Perception and Evaluation of Other Status-Linked Identities
- Dispute Resolution Using Online Mediation

Meeting Facilitation

Negotiation Skills

Negotiation Training
- Register Now for the Program on Negotiation’s Negotiation and Dispute Resolution Seminar!
- Negotiate Relationships
- Negotiation Training: What’s Special About Technology Negotiations?
- For Better Negotiation Training, Study the U.S. Government’s Mistakes
- Negotiating for Continuous Improvement: Use a Negotiation Preparation Worksheet

Pedagogy

Sales Negotiations

Win Win

Women and Negotiation








Andrew Boughton /
Lisa, You make excellent points on deadlines. Time is the ultimate lever when it comes to establishing power. You have to be careful when using deadlines, if you are in a distributive negotiation, revealing a deadline could cause the other party to use that information against you. The Owners were effective because the players had more to lose by missing the rest of the season. The owners effectively placed the deadline onto the players. The idea is to place your time pressure onto the other party. Otherwise, if you walk into the deal saying, "I've gotta have this closed by Friday", some negotiators will make you pay by using your deadline against you. You want to change that statement to "You've got my attention until Friday, and then we are moving on to other priorities", etc. For more information check out http://bit.ly/61YfKZ
Gary Boettcher /
Liz, I agree with much of the article as deadlines may artificially help balance power and force folks to establish their BATNA. The FLSA allows for such deadlines as labor contracts generally expire. This facet of negotiation worked for us while negotiating a multi-million dollar contract. The deadline helped the parties focus on closing a fair deal for both groups. Yet I have also been involved in negotiating 10 digit contracts under the Railway Labor Act where no such deadline can occur. The NMB must declare an impasse and even then the President and Congress can interfere with the process -- all in the name of preventing disruptions to the American public. Under the RLA, contracts have gone on for as long as 15 years without resolution because of failure to establish a deadline that would force counterparts to focus on settlement -- to bring them to the table in a good faith effort of creativity and collaborative problem-solving. How would you propose the RLA be re-drafted to address this inequitable difference between the FLSA and the RLA? Gary Boettcher Adjunct Professor Sullivan University gboettcher@sullivan.edu