negotiation techniques

The following items are tagged negotiation techniques.

Bruce Patton

Posted by & filed under Affiliated Faculty, PON Affiliated Faculty.

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Bruce Patton is a Distinguished Fellow of the Harvard Negotiation Project (HNP), which he co-founded with Roger Fisher and William Ury in 1979 and administered as Deputy Director until 2009. With Fisher, Patton pioneered the teaching of negotiation at Harvard Law School, where he was Thaddeus R. Beal Lecturer on Law for fifteen years.

How Status Conscious are You?

Posted by & filed under Business Negotiations.

Sometimes in negotiation, we’re forced to deal not only with the issues on the table but also with concerns about status. One famous instance took place in the late 1980s, when Robert Campeau, head of the Campeau Corporation, tried to acquire Federated Department Stores, the parent company of the prestigious department store Bloomingdale’s. A bidding war over Bloomingdale’s escalated between Campeau and R.H. Macy. Campeau won with an irrationally high offer—and had to declare bankruptcy shortly thereafter.

When We Expect Too Much

Posted by & filed under Business Negotiations.

How often have you heard a friend or colleague refer to a contract as being “in the bag,” only to find out later that the deal didn’t go through? There always turns out to be a good reason a negotiation fell apart. Yet the fact remains that most negotiators are overconfident about their chances of reaching agreement. A common cognitive bias, overconfidence causes us to have unrealistically high expectations of success, in negotiation and in many other aspects of life.

Let Them Know How You Feel

Posted by & filed under Business Negotiations.

Just before a meeting with her boss, Cindy peeks into his secretary’s office and whispers: “How’s his mood today?” When the secretary gives a thumb’s up, Cindy decides the time is right to ask for a big raise.

Allies and Enemies

Posted by & filed under Business Negotiations.

Imagine that you and a colleague get into an argument about the layout of a final report in front of a coworker you both like. Now suppose the same argument occurs in front of someone your colleague likes but you do not or vice versa—in front of an ally who is your colleague’s foe. As it turns out, the presence of various team members during a negotiation with another teammate may affect your negotiating ability.

Should You Trust Your Agent?

Posted by & filed under Business Negotiations.

You’ve found a beautiful condo that you’d like to call your own. You conduct a thorough assess¬ment of its value and identify several other ap¬pealing properties in the same neighborhood and price range. Believing you’ve found the magic bid, you phone your real-estate agent.

Learning from the Soda Wars

Posted by & filed under Business Negotiations.

This past November, in an unusual move, Costco, the largest wholesale club in the United States, removed Coca-Cola products from its shelves and posted messages telling shoppers that Coke products would not be available until the company lowered its prices.

Business Negotiations: Spoiler Alert!

Posted by & filed under Business Negotiations.

At one time or another, most of us have confronted a fellow negotiator who seemed intent on blocking even our most reasonable requests and actions. This was the situation faced by Alexis, the CIO at a midsize publishing company. Phil, the company’s CEO, hired Alexis to create an online information system tailored to the needs of their largest customers.