Climate change risks are an increasingly important consideration in many decisions with long-term implications, such as choices around economic development and infrastructure investment. It does not make sense to invest in projects that will be destroyed by sea-level rise or undermined by sustained drought. The enormous uncertainty associated with climate change makes it difficult, however, for decision-makers to plan ahead. This is particularly true in developing countries, where pressing needs like poverty reduction often trump long-term considerations about sustainability.
health
The following items are tagged health.
Harvard Negotiation and Mediation Clinical Program is Nominated for an Innovating Justice Award
The Harvard Negotiation & Mediation Clinical Program (HNMCP) is nominated for an Innovating Justice Award for its proposal, “Retooling Legal Education and Dispute Systems Designers.”
Too Many Parties at the Table? Try a Side Deal
When a large number of parties is involved in jointly hammering out a deal or dispute, agreement can be elusive, as illustrated by the failure of recent global climate change negotiations. The difficulty of coordinating a wide range of perspectives and interests often results in delays, disagreement, and impasse.
In the article, “Too Big to Succeed? The Copenhagen Climate Talks” in our March 2010 issue of Negotiation, we explained how an attempted negotiation among the 192 member states of the United Nations fell apart due to a clash between two factions – developing and developed nations – on how to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. The large number of parties involved led to chaos, confusion, and very little progress.
Negotiating with your children
Getting a good night’s sleep and eating a healthy dinner might seem like obvious goals for parents to have for their young children, but kids won’t always agree. When faced with back talk, tantrums, and tears, most parents vacillate between laying down the law and giving in, depending on how irritated or exhausted they are
Avoid conflict and broken trust
While negotiations are inherently risky, there are proven ways to reduce risk and improve your odds of success. To do so, you must focus on the very basis of your relationship with the other party: trust.
Think about a time when you lost trust in a fellow negotiator. Did you try to renegotiate the terms of
Dr. William Ury and Dr. Gary Slutkin speak at the PON screening of The Interrupters
The Program on Negotiation Film Series recently screened The Interrupters, a documentary film that follows three “violence interrupters” as they work to prevent violence in Chicago’s neighborhoods. The interrupters are outreach workers who were once notorious for their past gang-related experience, but who now work for an organization called CeaseFire, an initiative of the Chicago
When women negotiators thrive
Adapted from “What Happens When Women Don’t Ask,” first published in the Negotiation newsletter, June 2008.
Some negotiation research has found that men generally initiate negotiations to advance their own interests much more often than women do. Yet researchers also have identified certain contexts in which women routinely negotiate and achieve outcomes that match or exceed
What’s Relevant?
Adapted from “Option Overload? Manage the Options on the Table,” by Chris Guthrie (professor, Vanderbilt University Law School), first published in the Negotiation newsletter, August 2007.
When choosing among multiple options, negotiators should identify and evaluate the relevant attributes of each option and, if possible, make tradeoffs among them. This approach requires us to factor in
Shapiro named 2011 Burke Global Health Fellow
Professor Daniel Shapiro, Associate Director of the Harvard Mediation Project, has been selected as one of four 2011 Burke Global Health Fellows by the Harvard Global Health Institute. During his fellowship, Professor Shapiro will develop materials for a new Harvard course designed to train leaders on how to mediate conflicts with a strong emotional or
The Art of Saying No: Save the Deal, Save the Relationship, and Still Say No
How can you say “No” to customers – external or internal – who are pressing you to do something not in your organization’s interest? How can you say “No” to an overly demanding employee or a demanding boss without hurting a valuable relationship? How can you save the deal and the relationship and still say “No”?
Saying “No” the right way may be the single most valuable skill in negotiation—absolutely key to getting to “Yes”. As you will learn in this one-day course, the secret to saying “No” while protecting and advancing your core interests without compromising relationships lies in the art of a “Positive No.”









