What can you do when a difficult person is the main obstacle to a promising deal? There are a number of strategies you can use to bring the deal back from the brink of failure. In a series of posts, the Program on Negotiation will offer ten suggestions.
legitimacy
A feeling of being treated fairly in a negotiation. Often an interest in legitimacy and feeling fairly treated is the main driver in a dispute. However, parties with differing views on what is fair may fail to realize that beneath their conflicting positions is the same underlying interest. For example, in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, the perceived legitimacy of where the border is drawn between Israel and a Palestinian state is at least as important as how many acres are on each side. (Michael L. Moffitt and Robert C. Bordone, eds., Handbook of Dispute Resolution [Program on Negotiation/Jossey-Bass, 2005], 281-282)
The following items are tagged legitimacy.
The Pulitzer Board Stands in Judgment
On April 16, the Pulitzer Prize board announced its annual writing prizes, with two notable omissions: the board chose not to award Pulitzers in the categories of fiction and editorial writing. The reaction from the publishing industry to the Pulitzer’s fiction snub, in particular, was swift and hostile. “If I feel disappointment as a writer and indignation as a reader, I manage to get all the way to rage as a bookseller,” writes Ann Patchett, a fiction writer and bookstore owner, in a New York Times editorial.
The Pulitzer Board’s decision comes at a difficult time for the publishing industry, which has faced steadily declining book sales in recent years. And just five days before the Pulitzer announcement, the Department of Justice filed a lawsuit against five of the biggest U.S. publishers for colluding to set e-book prices. Now the industry must do without the annual boost the Pulitzer gives to the winning author and publisher – and cope with the implication that it was a miserable year for literary fiction.
Closing the Deal is Only the Beginning of the Endgame
Often it is the relatively small details of an agreement that can cause the most consternation in negotiation. When viewed in light of the big picture, these details can be of minor importance, but while in the heat of the action they can become points of contention capable of derailing the process altogether, especially if these points are left unresolved and the two parties have to come back to the negotiating table again in the future. Tufts University Fletcher School of Diplomacy professor and Program on Negotiation faculty member Jeswald Salacuse recently described four such scenarios in his article “The Endgame” for the Winter 2012 edition of Tufts Magazine.
Professor Salacuse emphasizes that having good negotiation skills while in the midst of battle is important, but of equal importance is the ability to execute a good endgame. Professor Salacuse offers four methods to close the deal:
Set a deadline.
Not all issues have to be decided immediately.
Invite an influential third-party.
Solicit the opinions of an expert.
Dr. Ehud Eiran reflects on Israel’s strategic options in changing Middle East
With rising political instability in its surrounding environment, Israel will have to adapt its foreign policy to deal with new strategic challenges, Dr. Ehud Eiran, a faculty affiliate of PON’s Middle East Negotiation Initiative, noted in a recent ynetnews article. Challenges facing Israel include the difficulties that come with weaker border control and the risk
Selling an Asset? Choose the Right Type of Auction
Adapted from “On the Block: Choose the Best Type of Auction,” by Guhan Subramanian (professor, Harvard Law School and Harvard Business School) and Richard Zeckhauser (professor, Harvard Kennedy School), first published in the Negotiation newsletter, December 2004.
Suppose you’ve weighed the pros and cons of selling an asset via auction or negotiation and decided an auction
Norwegian Foreign Minister visits PON
On December 6, 2010, faculty and associates from the Program on Negotiation at Harvard Law School met at a private lunch with Norway’s Foreign Minister, Jonas Gahr Store, and the ambassador of Norway to the U.S., Wegger Chr. Strommen. At the meeting, the Foreign Minister described how he helped bring decades of negotiation with the
Managing the Millennials
Adapted from “Managing the Millennial Generation,” by Robert C. Bordone (professor, Harvard Law School) and Matthew J. Smith (lecturer, Harvard Law School), first published in the Negotiation newsletter.
DEAR NEGOTIATION COACH: Over the past few years, employees who have joined my firm directly from undergraduate and graduate programs have seemed to me like creatures from a
Budget turmoil inside a hospital
The PON Clearinghouse offers hundreds of role simulations, from two-party, single-issue negotiations to complex multi-party exercises. Negotiating Budget Cuts at Newtowne Hospital is a six-person negotiation among hospital administration and employee representatives to reach consensus on budget cuts in three departments.
SCENARIO:
Dr. Van Hagen, a distinguished heart surgeon, will soon join the staff at Newtowne Hospital,
Criminal plea bargain
The Clearinghouse at PON offers hundreds of role simulations, from two-party, single-issue negotiations to complex multi-party exercises. State v. Huntley is a two-party criminal plea bargain negotiation between a prosecutor and a public defender for a man charged with aggravated rape.
SCENARIO: Two police officers on routine patrol were stopped at 2:30 a.m. by
Mediating disputes on the job
Adapted from “Resolve Employee Conflicts with Mediation Techniques,” first published in the Negotiation newsletter.
If you manage people, disputes will show up at your door. The marketing VP protests that the budget cap you and your new finance VP proposed is hindering a research initiative you supported. Two young sales representatives are embroiled in a
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