Learn how to negotiate like a diplomat, think on your feet like an improv performer, and master job offer negotiation like a professional athlete when you download a copy of our FREE special report, Negotiation Skills: Negotiation Strategies and Negotiation Techniques to Help You Become a Better Negotiator, from the Program on Negotiation at Harvard Law School.


interest based negotiation

What is Interest-Based Negotiation?

An interest-based negotiation is one in which parties share the interests that underlie their grievances and try to jointly negotiate a solution that satisfies all parties.

Interest-based negotiation, or integrative negotiation, involves exploring the deeper interests underlying parties’ stated positions to identify potential tradeoffs and win-win opportunities across issues and interests.

Negotiation ultimately involves a choice between the deal you’ve been offered and what you would get by walking away from the table. Thus, the negotiation process should involve a search for solutions that leave both parties better off than they would be if they reached an impasse and turned to their outside options.

It turns out that interest-based negotiation has proven to be the most reliable way to create value and resolve conflicts.

When you know the areas of agreement where you and your counterpart are in alignment (and those areas on which you diverge), a skilled negotiator can craft an agreement that most closely approximates her own and her counterpart’s needs while building a bargaining relationship with her counterpart. Rather than antagonistic, the negotiation process becomes a value-creating, integrative situation in which each side gets a “fair share” of the pool of resources.

By listening closely to each other, treating each other fairly, and jointly exploring options to increase value, negotiators can find ways of working together that reduce the need to rely on hard-bargaining tactics and unnecessary concessions.

Learn how to negotiate like a diplomat, think on your feet like an improv performer, and master job offer negotiation like a professional athlete when you download a copy of our FREE special report, Negotiation Skills: Negotiation Strategies and Negotiation Techniques to Help You Become a Better Negotiator, from the Program on Negotiation at Harvard Law School.

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The following items are tagged interest based negotiation:

Teaching the Fundamentals: The Best Introductory Negotiation Role Play Simulations

Posted by & filed under Teaching Negotiation.

Introductory negotiation courses are taught in law and business schools around the world, but are also increasingly taught to undergraduates and in all types of corporate settings. No matter the context, though, the basic elements of negotiation are roughly similar. Teaching interest-based negotiation, the Zone of Possible Agreement (ZOPA), the Best Alternative to a Negotiated … Read More

Business Conflict Management

Posted by & filed under Conflict Resolution.

In the business world, workplace disputes are all too common. Consider these real-life conflict scenarios: a group of employees who, working overtime to make up for staff shortages, complain to their manager that they aren’t getting paid enough for the extra time. A colleague confides about his boss’s verbal abuse. Two employees argue openly about … Read Business Conflict Management

High Stakes Negotiations in the Healthcare Industry

Posted by & filed under Teaching Negotiation.

Teach Your Students to Negotiate One of the Most Critical Global Industries With the COVID-19 pandemic devastating communities around the world, the acute importance of the healthcare industry to community welfare has become even more apparent. Healthcare is one of the biggest economies in the world, with billions of dollars spent on treatments and associated research. … Read More

What an Operatic Role-Play Simulation Can Teach You About Negotiation

Posted by & filed under Teaching Negotiation.

A distinguished older soprano, Sally has not had a lead role in two years. However, when another soprano falls ill, the Lyric Opera is eager to hire Sally…but at what price? Sally Soprano is one of the best-known role-play simulations from the Program on Negotiation’s Teaching Negotiation Resource Center (TNRC). And it’s a classic for good … Read More

Thoughts from Dan Shapiro, Director of the Harvard International Negotiation Program, on the Government Shutdown

Posted by & filed under Negotiation Skills.

This week, Dan Shapiro, Director of the Harvard International Negotiation Program, was quoted in The Christian Science Monitor speaking President Trump’s negotiation style, and how he may get better results through interest-based negotiation. “The basic idea here is, let’s not focus on positions, or what each side says they want: ‘I want a wall;’ ‘Well, we’re … Read More

Teach Your Students Dispute Resolution for Their Everyday Lives

Posted by & filed under Teaching Negotiation.

Negotiation refers to the process of working out agreements that meet each party’s needs and address their interests. People negotiate all the time in their everyday lives: in the workplace, within families, and when buying goods and services. Knowing which negotiation strategies to use in different circumstances can make a significant difference. The Teaching Negotiation … Read More

Why Classic Cases?

Posted by & filed under Daily, Negotiation Skills, Pedagogy at PON.

Why are some negotiation exercises still used in a great many university classes even twenty years after they were written? In an effort to understand more about the enduring quality of some classic teaching materials, we asked faculty affiliated with PON to explain why they think some role play simulations remain bestsellers in the Clearinghouse … Read Why Classic Cases?

Former Clearinghouse Customers Speak!

Posted by & filed under Daily, Negotiation Skills, Pedagogy at PON.

In an effort to understand more about how the former PON Clearinghouse does and doesn’t meet its customers’ needs, we interviewed a number of long-time Clearinghouse clients. We asked what teaching materials they found most valuable and for what reasons. We also asked how they found out about the former Clearinghouse and what additional teaching and … Read Former Clearinghouse Customers Speak!

A Closer Look at Collective Bargaining

Posted by & filed under Business Negotiations, Daily.

Adapted from “Innovation in Labor Relations,” first published in the Negotiation newsletter. In 2004, a team of MIT and Harvard researchers published a study of a bold initiative by health-care giant Kaiser Permanente and its many unions to restructure their relationship. Given the recent spotlight focused on collective bargaining, beginning with a very public battle in … Read A Closer Look at Collective Bargaining

Opening students up to negotiation

Posted by & filed under Negotiation Skills.

Working It Out is a 27-page handbook designed to introduce high school students to problem-solving, interest-based negotiation. Written by Getting to YES co-author Roger Fisher and Difficult Conversations co-author Douglas Stone, Working It Out presents core concepts from both books in a clear, simple format with plenty of age-appropriate examples from family, school, workplace and … Read Opening students up to negotiation

Gravel quarry or hiking grounds?

Posted by & filed under Business Negotiations, Daily.

The PON Clearinghouse offers hundreds of role simulations, from two-party, single-issue negotiations to complex multi-party exercises.  Rockwell Quarry is a five-party, multi-issue negotiation among elected officials, property owners, and a gravel company over a permit for a gravel quarry in a recreationally valuable canyon. The Rockwell Quarry Complex Environmental Negotiation is a five-party, multi-issue simulation that … Read Gravel quarry or hiking grounds?

Salvaging the deal

Posted by & filed under Daily, Negotiation Skills.

The Clearinghouse at PON offers hundreds of role simulations, from two-party, single-issue negotiations to complex multi-party exercises. Tendley Contract is a two-party integrative contract negotiation between a computer consultant and a school district representative at an apparent impasse over different expectations over cost of services. SCENARIO: A school district and a computer consultant are negotiating a … Read Salvaging the deal

Negotiate how you’ll negotiate

Posted by & filed under Daily, Negotiation Skills.

Adapted from “Have You Negotiated How You’ll Negotiate?” by Robert C. Bordone, Professor, and Gillien S. Todd, Lecturer, Harvard Law School. Breakdowns in negotiation are common. In the face of impasse at the bargaining table, managers are quick to blame either the challenges of the issues being negotiated or the hard-line tactics of the opposing parties. … Read Negotiate how you’ll negotiate