Discover step-by-step techniques for avoiding common business negotiation pitfalls when you download a copy of the FREE special report, Business Negotiation Strategies: How to Negotiate Better Business Deals, from the Program on Negotiation at Harvard Law School.


negotiation

What is Negotiation?

Negotiation is a bargaining process through which parties attempt to forge an agreement to resolve disputes, establish a business contract, purchase a new home, or conclude a peace treaty.

In the business world, some negotiators always seem to get what they want, while others more often tend to come up short. What might make some people better negotiators than others? People bring different negotiation styles and strategiesto the bargaining table, based on their different personalities, experiences, and beliefs about negotiating.

The Program on Negotiation’s founder Roger Fisher authored the book Getting to Yes with Harvard faculty William L. Ury and Bruce Patton and defines negotiation as a “back-and-forth communication designed to reach an agreement when you and the other side have some interests that are shared and others that are opposed.”

Other experts define negotiation using similar terms. In her negotiation textbook The Mind and Heart of the Negotiator, Leigh Thompson refers to negotiation as an “interpersonal decision-making process” that is “necessary whenever we cannot achieve our objectives single-handedly.” And in their book Judgment in Managerial Decision Making, Max H. Bazerman and Don A. Moore write, “When two or more parties need to reach a joint decision but have different preferences, they negotiate.”

Together, these negotiation definitions encompass the wide range of negotiations we carry out in our personal lives, at work, and with strangers or acquaintances.

You can improve your negotiation skills in business and personal disputes by downloading a complimentary copy of our special report, Negotiation Skills: Negotiation Strategies and Negotiation Techniques to Help You Become a Better Negotiator, from Harvard Law School, right now! We will send you a download link to your copy of the report and notify you by email when we post new business negotiation advice and information.

The following items are tagged negotiation:

NEW! Harvard Mediation Intensive

Posted by & filed under Harvard Mediation Intensive.

Led by mediation experts Audrey Lee and Alain Lempereur, the Harvard Mediation Intensive delves into mediation principles and processes through interactive presentations and hands-on exercises. From employment and business disagreements to public and international conflicts, you will discover effective ways to enable parties to settle their differences across a variety of contexts. … Read NEW! Harvard Mediation Intensive

How to Negotiate in Cross-Cultural Situations

Posted by & filed under Leadership Skills.

Figuring out how to negotiate in cross-cultural situations can seem like a daunting endeavor, and for good reason. Negotiating across the cultural divide adds an entire dimension to any negotiation, introducing language barriers, differences in body language and dress, and alternative ways of expressing pleasure or displeasure with the elements of a deal. As a … Read How to Negotiate in Cross-Cultural Situations

Semester Negotiation and Dispute Resolution — Fall 2024

Posted by & filed under Semester Negotiation and Dispute Resolution.

SEMESTER NEGOTIATION AND DISPUTE RESOLUTION – ONLINE

Course Dates: Tuesdays, beginning September 24, 2024 and ending on December 10, 2024 from 6 to 8 p.m. ET (Note: There will be no class the week of November 26, 2024) Faculty: Toby Berkman and Betsy Fierman Enrollment: Register Now – Fall 2024!

This course wasn’t just theory; it was serious experience. We … Read More

Negotiation and Leadership: Dealing with Difficult People and Problems

Posted by & filed under Negotiation and Leadership.

Negotiation and Leadership: Dealing with Difficult People and Problems THREE-DAY PROGRAM | December 2–4, 2024

Our program will feature:

Role plays and negotiation exercises—You’ll have the opportunity to test what you learn by taking part in realistic negotiations with your fellow participants. One-on-one interaction with top faculty—You’ll have the opportunity to talk one-on-one with negotiation experts from Harvard, and … Read More

Negotiation and Leadership: Dealing with Difficult People and Problems

Posted by & filed under Negotiation and Leadership.

Negotiation and Leadership: Dealing with Difficult People and Problems THREE-DAY PROGRAM | October 21–23, 2024

Our program will feature:

Role plays and negotiation exercises—You’ll have the opportunity to test what you learn by taking part in realistic negotiations with your fellow participants. One-on-one interaction with top faculty—You’ll have the opportunity to talk one-on-one with negotiation experts from Harvard, and … Read More

The 4P Framework for Strategic Negotiation and Leadership

Posted by & filed under 1 Day Courses.

Bonus day for October Negotiation and Leadership program. In this focused one-day session, Harvard Kennedy School lecturer Robert Wilkinson shares a powerful framework for increasing your personal effectiveness as a leader and negotiator. Known as the 4P Framework, this highly effective model will help you negotiate across political and cultural divides, engage multiple stakeholders, and build … Read More

Make the Most of Online Negotiations

Posted by & filed under Free Report.

We said goodbye to breakfast meetings, client lunches, and after-work happy hours. Goodbye to handshakes, fist bumps, and pats on the back. Goodbye to the boots-on-the-ground sales game as we knew it, and hello to Zoom calls and text messaging. To make matters even more difficult, the economy started to trend downwards—and so did the … Read Make the Most of Online Negotiations

New Great Negotiator Case and Video: Christiana Figueres, former UNFCCC Executive Secretary

Posted by & filed under Teaching Negotiation.

The Program on Negotiation (PON) at Harvard Law School periodically presents the Great Negotiator Award to an individual whose lifetime achievements in the field of negotiation and dispute resolution have had a significant and lasting impact. In 2022, PON selected Christiana Figueres as the recipient of its Great Negotiator Award for her efforts to build … Read More

Negotiation and Leadership: Dealing with Difficult People and Problems

Posted by & filed under Negotiation and Leadership.

Negotiation and Leadership: Dealing with Difficult People and Problems THREE-DAY PROGRAM | September 23–25, 2024

Our program will feature:

Role plays and negotiation exercises—You’ll have the opportunity to test what you learn by taking part in realistic negotiations with your fellow participants. One-on-one interaction with top faculty—You’ll have the opportunity to talk one-on-one with negotiation experts from Harvard, and … Read More

Six Guidelines for “Getting to Yes”

Posted by & filed under Negotiation Skills.

In their revolutionary book Getting to Yes: Negotiating Agreement Without Giving In (Penguin, 3rd edition, 2011), Roger Fisher, William Ury, and Bruce Patton introduced the world to the possibilities of mutual-gains negotiation, or integrative negotiation. The authors of Getting to Yes explained that negotiators don’t have to choose between either waging a strictly competitive, win-lose … Read Six Guidelines for “Getting to Yes”

Getting the Deal Done

Posted by & filed under Free Report.

Negotiation is one of the most complex yet important skills to learn. Even individuals who are “born negotiators” need to practice and acquire new strategies to get some deals done. In Getting the Deal Done, you’ll discover bargaining strategies that have been used by many of the world’s most successful leaders. … Read Getting the Deal Done

Negotiation Essentials Online – May 1 – 2, 2024

Posted by & filed under Negotiation Essentials Online.

Designed for maximum impact, this program will feature: interactive Zoom sessions led by a PON instructor; engaging and educational prerecorded videos featuring seven world-class PON faculty members from across Harvard, MIT, and Tufts; case studies based on real-world experience; and opportunities to negotiate and engage in discussion with your fellow participants. … Read Negotiation Essentials Online – May 1 – 2, 2024

Salary Negotiation: How to Negotiate Salary: Learn the Best Techniques to Help You Manage the Most Difficult Salary Negotiations and What You Need to Know When Asking for a Raise

Posted by & filed under Free Report.

Salary negotiations are often stressful and challenging. But with the right strategies, you can negotiate your employment terms with ease. In Salary Negotiation: How to Negotiate Salary: Learn the Best Techniques to Help You Manage the Most Difficult Salary Negotiations and What You Need to Know When Asking for a Raise, you’ll discover innovative ways … Read More

Semester Mediation and Conflict Management – Spring 2025

Posted by & filed under Semester Mediation and Conflict Management.

SEMESTER MEDIATION AND CONFLICT MANAGEMENT – ONLINE

Course Dates: Mondays, beginning January 27, 2025 and ending on April 7, 2025 from 6 to 8 p.m. ET (Note: There will be no class the week of February 17, 2025) Faculty: David Seibel and Stevenson Carlebach Register Now – Spring 2025!

After years working on Wall Street and on the launch team … Read More

Semester Mediation and Conflict Management – Fall 2024

Posted by & filed under Semester Mediation and Conflict Management.

SEMESTER MEDIATION AND CONFLICT MANAGEMENT – ONLINE

Course Dates: Mondays, beginning September 16, 2024 and ending on November 25, 2024 from 6 to 8 p.m. ET (Note: There will be no class the week of October 14, 2024) Faculty: David Seibel and Dan Green Register Now – Fall 2024!

After years working on Wall Street and on the launch team … Read More

Overcoming Resistance: The Influence Equation

Posted by & filed under One-Day Expert Programs.

Through breakout sessions, exercises, role plays, and other hands-on experiences, Carlebach will explain what to do when you encounter resistance. This session will introduce you to the Influence Equation—a simple, high-impact framework that can help you identify and overcome three major factors that fuel resistance in any given negotiation. … Read Overcoming Resistance: The Influence Equation

Negotiation Essentials Online – June 25 – 26, 2024

Posted by & filed under Negotiation Essentials Online.

Designed for maximum impact, this program will feature: interactive Zoom sessions led by a PON instructor; engaging and educational prerecorded videos featuring seven world-class PON faculty members from across Harvard, MIT, and Tufts; case studies based on real-world experience; and opportunities to negotiate and engage in discussion with your fellow participants. … Read More

Harvard Negotiation Master Class: Advanced Strategies for Experienced Negotiators – May 13–⁠15, 2024

Posted by & filed under Harvard Negotiation Master Class.

Strictly limited to 60 participants who have completed a prior course in negotiation, this first-of-its-kind program offers unprecedented access to experts from Harvard Law School, Harvard Business School, and the Harvard Kennedy School—all of whom are committed to delivering a transformational learning experience. … Read More

Business Crisis Management: Crisis Communication Examples and How to Use Police Negotiation Techniques

Posted by & filed under Free Report.

In this free special report negotiation experts offers advice on how to turn crisis situations into collaborative negotiations. Throughout the report, you will discover how to apply the lessons of professional hostage negotiators, avoid disasters through careful planning, diffuse tensions with angry members of the public, and break through impasse with open communication. … Read More

Harvard Mediation Intensive

Posted by & filed under Harvard Mediation Intensive.

Led by mediation experts Audrey Lee and Alain Lempereur, the Harvard Mediation Intensive delves into mediation principles and processes through interactive presentations and hands-on exercises. From employment and business disagreements to public and international conflicts, you will discover effective ways to enable parties to settle their differences across a variety of contexts. … Read Harvard Mediation Intensive

The New Conflict Management: Effective Conflict Resolution Strategies to Avoid Litigation

Posted by & filed under Free Report.

This report reveals how wise negotiators extract unexpected value using an indirect approach to conflict management. An aggressive management style can set you up for repeated failure. Direct conflict management approaches can be overly combative and counter-productive. Experienced negotiators know that compromise seldom succeeds. Win/lose is really lose/lose. The best negotiation strategy results in … Read More

Beyond the Back Table: Working with People and Organizations to Get to Yes

Posted by & filed under Beyond the Back Table.

NEW ONLINE PROGRAM! BEYOND THE BACK TABLE: WORKING WITH PEOPLE AND ORGANIZATIONS TO GET TO YES March 13-14, 2024 | 9:00 a.m. – 5:00 p.m. ET

Go Beyond the Back Table In this two-day online course, you will step back to look beyond the negotiating table and discover how to understand and manage the individuals and groups who are not … Read More

Semester Difficult Conversations: How To Discuss What Matters Most

Posted by & filed under PON Semester Programs, PON Seminars.

Difficult Conversations are an important part of the human experience – at times uncomfortable or painful, however, it is possible to learn how to manage a difficult conversation in a constructive way. From business partners and relationships with customers, clients, supplier and colleagues, to dynamics with family, friends, and members of our communities, the … Read More

The Two Koreas Practice Conflict Management

Posted by & filed under Conflict Resolution.

In August 2015, the decades-long conflict between South Korea and North Korea threatened to reach a breaking point. The causes of conflict between North and South go deep, but in this case, the South accused the North of planting landmines that seriously injured two South Korean border guards. South Korea retaliated with an old tactic … Read The Two Koreas Practice Conflict Management

Negotiation and Leadership: Dealing with Difficult People and Problems

Posted by & filed under Negotiation and Leadership.

Negotiation and Leadership: Dealing with Difficult People and Problems THREE-DAY COURSE | June 10-12, 2024

Our program will feature:

Role plays and negotiation exercises—You’ll have the opportunity to test what you learn by taking part in realistic negotiations with your fellow participants. One-on-one interaction with top faculty—You’ll have the opportunity to talk one-on-one with negotiation experts from Harvard, and … Read More

Download Your Next Mediation Video

Posted by & filed under Teaching Negotiation.

Use Video Examples to Teach Your Students to Become Better Mediators Parties engaged in disputes are often unable to reconcile their differences alone, or fail to reach outcomes that are adequate for everyone. Mediators can add a great deal of value by helping parties to efficiently and effectively examine the issues at hand, take the interests … Read Download Your Next Mediation Video

Harborco: Role-Play Simulation

Posted by & filed under Free Report.

Harborco is a consortium of development, industrial, and shipping concerns that are eager to proceed with the building of a new port, but face hurdles and potential opposition as they advance through the licensing process. The Federal Licensing Agency would like to see them work with other stakeholders to develop a project that is acceptable … Read Harborco: Role-Play Simulation

Negotiation and Leadership: Dealing with Difficult People and Problems

Posted by & filed under Negotiation and Leadership.

Negotiation and Leadership: Dealing with Difficult People and Problems THREE-DAY COURSE | May 6-8, 2024

Our program will feature:

Role plays and negotiation exercises—You’ll have the opportunity to test what you learn by taking part in realistic negotiations with your fellow participants. One-on-one interaction with top faculty—You’ll have the opportunity to talk one-on-one with negotiation experts from Harvard, and … Read More

Negotiating When Parties have Diverse, Deeply Held Convictions

Posted by & filed under 1 Day Courses.

Bonus day for May Negotiation and Leadership program. To help you address conflict-fueled scenarios, this program shares real-life techniques for negotiating with parties with opposing views and strategies for building a culture of respect and acceptance. You will explore your own conflict management strengths and challenges and learn how they can be reshaped for greater effectiveness. … Read More

Mediation Secrets for Better Business Negotiations: Top Mediator Techniques

Posted by & filed under Free Report.

In this Special Report, the experts and editors from Harvard’s Program on Negotiation offer a sampling of advice from past issues of Negotiation to help you learn the techniques you need to resolve your disputes through mediation. You will learn to select the right dispute-resolution process, choose a mediator with appropriate expertise, learn the steps … Read More

Negotiation and Leadership: Dealing with Difficult People and Problems

Posted by & filed under Negotiation and Leadership.

Negotiation and Leadership: Dealing with Difficult People and Problems THREE-DAY PROGRAM | April 8-10, 2024

Our program will feature:

Role plays and negotiation exercises—You’ll have the opportunity to test what you learn by taking part in realistic negotiations with your fellow participants. One-on-one interaction with top faculty—You’ll have the opportunity to talk one-on-one with negotiation experts from Harvard, and … Read More

Negotiation Workshop: Improving Your Negotiating Effectiveness

Posted by & filed under Harvard Negotiation Institute, Harvard Negotiation Institute (Five-Day Programs).

Course Dates: This course is closed Too many negotiators leave value on the table. They painfully divide a small pie after a costly battle while failing to capture offsetting opportunities for joint gain, or win the battle, but at the cost to relationships and reputation that limit long-term value. Reliably negotiating optimal outcomes requires a keen … Read More

Secrets of Successful Dealmaking

Posted by & filed under Harvard Negotiation Institute, Harvard Negotiation Institute (Five-Day Programs).

Course Dates: This course is closed In corporate dealmaking, much of the action happens away from the negotiating table. Successful dealmakers understand that deal set-up and design greatly influence negotiation outcomes. In this program, you will examine the legal, tactical, and structural elements of dealmaking and acquire practical skills and techniques for navigating difficult tactics and … Read Secrets of Successful Dealmaking

Bidding in an International Business Negotiation: Euro-Idol

Posted by & filed under Teaching Negotiation.

Euro-Idol is a four-party, two-round international business negotiation over the selection of the host country and city for the upcoming Euro-Idol music competition. In this bidding simulation from the Teaching Negotiation Resource Center (TNRC), cities must place bids to host the Euro-Idol competition, and therefore gain the economic benefits that come with hosting such a … Read More

Negotiating Difficult Conversations: Dealing with Tough Topics Productively

Posted by & filed under Harvard Negotiation Institute, Harvard Negotiation Institute (Five-Day Programs).

Course Dates: This course is closed When negotiations become difficult, emotions often escalate and talks break down. To overcome barriers and turn negotiations from difficult to collaborative, from breakdown to breakthrough, you must learn to understand the inter- and intra-personal dynamics at play. In this program, you will examine how your own assumptions and behaviors can … Read More

Training Women to Be Leaders: Negotiating Skills for Success

Posted by & filed under Free Report.

In this Special Report, we offer advice to help women develop the negotiation skills essential to career advancement, and to help organizations encourage women employees to be more effective at the bargaining table. You will learn what hold women back from asking for more, the link between gender and flexible work arrangements, how women can … Read More

What Is an Umbrella Agreement?

Posted by & filed under Dispute Resolution.

Business negotiators tend to want the best of both worlds. When reaching an agreement, they want to pin down parties’ respective rights and responsibilities, but they also want to retain the flexibility they need to deal with ever-changing business conditions. One solution to this apparent dilemma is to craft an umbrella agreement. … Read What Is an Umbrella Agreement?

Conflict Management: Intervening in Workplace Conflict

Posted by & filed under Conflict Resolution.

Question: I’m aware of lots of unresolved personnel issues that seem to be festering in my department, such as complaints about someone who is not doing his share of the work, another person whose griping is causing a drop in morale, and two coworkers who can’t seem to get along. I’m comfortable negotiating with customers, … Read More

Teaching Negotiation: Understanding The Impact Of Role-Play Simulations

Posted by & filed under Free Report.

Negotiation can be challenging. And so can teaching it! At the Program on Negotiation (PON) at Harvard Law School, we help educators, scholars and practitioners like you learn how to more effectively teach negotiation. Notably, role-play simulations are a particularly useful way to facilitate experimentation and introduce participants to new dispute resolution tools, techniques and … Read More

Cognitive Biases in Negotiation and Conflict Resolution – Common Negotiation Mistakes

Posted by & filed under Conflict Resolution.

Negotiators planning to engage in conflict resolution in a personal or business disputes should be aware of cognitive biases in negotiation, particularly when your dispute is being decided by a judge. Before doing so, you should consider carefully what psychologists, political scientists, and legal scholars have learned about judges from negotiation research and social science: … Read More

Price Anchoring 101

Posted by & filed under Negotiation Skills.

Opening offers have a strong effect in price negotiations. The first offer typically serves as an anchor that strongly influences the discussion that follows. In research documenting price anchoring, psychologists Daniel Kahneman and Amos Tversky found that even random numbers can have a dramatic impact on people’s subsequent judgments and decisions. … Read Price Anchoring 101

Check Out the All-In-One Curriculum Packages!

Posted by & filed under Teaching Negotiation.

Introducing a new way to go in-depth when teaching the most important negotiation concepts and to measure learning outcomes. If you are new to teaching negotiation or are looking to go in-depth on teaching key concepts, the All-In-One Curriculum Package will provide you with everything you need. The Teaching Negotiation Resource Center has created All-In-One Curriculum … Read Check Out the All-In-One Curriculum Packages!

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

Aggressive Negotiation Tactics: Threats at the Bargaining Table

Posted by & filed under Daily, Negotiation Skills.

Broadly speaking, a threat is a proposition that issues demands and warns of the costs of noncompliance. Even if neither party resorts to them, potential threats shadow most negotiations. A wise threat satisfies your own interests and targets the other side’s interests. Consider whether the threat will truly help you achieve your broader goals. Issuing … Read More

Types of Mediation: Choose the Type Best Suited to Your Conflict

Posted by & filed under Mediation.

When parties involved in a serious conflict want to avoid a court battle, there are types of mediation can be an effective alternative. In mediation, a trained mediator tries to help the parties find common ground using principles of collaborative, mutual-gains negotiation. We tend to think mediation processes are all alike, but in fact, mediators … Read More

Persuasion in Negotiation: How Tracy Chapman Was Convinced to Play at the 2024 Grammys

Posted by & filed under Negotiation Skills.

Tracy Chapman’s surprise performance of her 1988 hit song “Fast Car” alongside country star Luke Combs electrified the 2024 Grammy Awards. Combs’ cover had introduced the award-winning folk classic to a new audience. But Chapman’s decision to perform it at the Grammys was far from a foregone conclusion. The story of how she came to … Read More

Best Negotiators in History: Nelson Mandela and His Negotiation Style

Posted by & filed under International Negotiation.

The late Nelson Mandela will certainly be remembered as one of the best negotiators in history. He was clearly “the greatest negotiator of the twentieth century,” wrote Harvard Law School professor and former Program on Negotiation Chairman Robert H. Mnookin in his seminal book, Bargaining with the Devil, When to Negotiate, When to Fight. … Read More

BATNA Examples—and What You Can Learn from Them

Posted by & filed under BATNA.

What are BATNA examples in negotiation? In their bestseller Getting to Yes: Negotiating Agreement Without Giving In, Roger Fisher, William Ury, and Bruce Patton (Penguin, 1991) described BATNA, or best alternative to a negotiated agreement, as the path you’ll follow if you don’t reach agreement in your current negotiation. … Read BATNA Examples—and What You Can Learn from Them

Reservation Point in Negotiation: Reach Negotiated Agreements by Asking the Right Questions

Posted by & filed under Negotiation Skills.

A reservation point negotiation is a bargaining scenario in which each side is trying to reconcile the other’s highest offer and the other’s lowest price. This negotiation example can apply to many other bargaining situations and demonstrates the value of open communication with your counterpart at the negotiation table. … Read More

The Best New Simulations

Posted by & filed under Teaching Negotiation.

Looking to update your curriculum with innovative new simulations? Check out these new simulations from the Teaching Negotiation Resource Center (TNRC). Discord at the Daily Herald – New Simulation This two-party, three-hour, multi-issue negotiation is between the co-owners of the Daily Herald newspaper over how to resolve ongoing management issues and implement structural reforms in the face … Read The Best New Simulations

Advice for Peace: Ending Civil War in Colombia

Posted by & filed under Great Negotiator Award, Pedagogy at PON, Teaching Negotiation.

Check out this freely available video of Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos and his Peace Advisory Team as they discuss lessons learned from the Colombian peace process negotiations with the FARC guerrillas.   The civil war in Colombia lasted 52 years, taking the lives of at least 220,000 people and displacing up to seven million civilians. In … Read Advice for Peace: Ending Civil War in Colombia

Taylor Swift: Negotiation Mastermind?

Posted by & filed under BATNA.

What should you do when a negotiation is crumbling? Some people redouble their efforts—conducting more research, holding longer meetings, and scraping together more financing. Others look around for a better deal away from that particular negotiating table—that is, they explore their best alternative to a negotiated agreement, or BATNA. As Matthew Belloni reports for Puck, … Read Taylor Swift: Negotiation Mastermind?

Trust in Negotiation: Does Gender Matter?

Posted by & filed under Negotiation Training.

It can be difficult to assess whether to trust a counterpart in negotiation. As a result, we often fall back on unreliable information, such as gender stereotypes, when making trust-related decisions. Let’s review what we know about the link between gender and trust in negotiation, and then consider effective means of measuring and building trust … Read Trust in Negotiation: Does Gender Matter?

How to Solve Intercultural Conflict

Posted by & filed under International Negotiation.

The question of how to solve intercultural conflict is one of the most difficult ones facing negotiators. Misunderstandings and disputes caused by cultural differences can further complicate already challenging negotiations, whether you are doing business at home, abroad, or online. The following guidelines can help us achieve better results in cross-cultural communication and negotiation. … Read How to Solve Intercultural Conflict

Contract Negotiations and Business Communication: How to Write an Iron-Clad Contract

Posted by & filed under Business Negotiations.

In contract negotiations, writing a contract that both encapsulates the negotiated agreement but also incorporates future elements such as the business relationship and the sustainability of the agreement can be a daunting task for even the most experienced negotiators. Executives often leave the legal issues surrounding their deals to their attorneys. While this division of … Read More

Asynchronous Learning: Negotiation Exercises to Keep Students Engaged Outside the Classroom

Posted by & filed under Teaching Negotiation.

Asynchronous role-play simulations teach valuable negotiation skills outside of a typical class format. Asynchronous learning is a term used to describe education, instruction, or learning that does not occur in the same time or place. Asynchronous learning uses resources that facilitate knowledge sharing outside the constraints of time and place among a group of people. Using … Read More

Mediation Training: What Can You Expect?

Posted by & filed under Mediation.

Organizations have long recognized the value of hiring professional mediators to help resolve disputes. More and more, managers have begun to also see value in securing mediation training for themselves and their employees. Although there are times when the services of an unbiased, professional mediator are needed, there may also be instances in which employees … Read Mediation Training: What Can You Expect?

Negotiation Case Studies: The Bangladesh Factory-Safety Agreements

Posted by & filed under International Negotiation.

We can learn a lot from negotiation case studies. On April 24, 2013 an eight-story building in Bangladesh known as Rana Plaza collapsed, killing an estimated 1,129 people, many of them low-wage garment workers who made goods for foreign companies. In the weeks after the disaster, apparel outsourcers faced mounting public pressure to address hazardous … Read More

Negotiation Skills: Building Trust in Negotiations

Posted by & filed under Negotiation Skills.

Trust in negotiations may develop naturally over time, but negotiators rarely have the luxury of letting nature take its course. Thus it sometimes seems easiest to play it safe with cautious deals involving few tradeoffs, few concessions, and little information sharing between parties. But avoiding risk can mean missing out on significant opportunities. For this reason, … Read More

Teaching Mediation: Exercises to Help Students Acquire Mediation Skills

Posted by & filed under Teaching Negotiation.

Often, disputing parties are unable achieve satisfactory or sustainable outcomes on their own through direct negotiation, and require the assistance of a mediator or facilitator. Mediators can help parties involved in a dispute through examining the issues at hand, uncovering the parties’ underlying interests, and identifying creative solutions. To act as mediator requires a great … Read More

Power and Negotiation: Advice on First Offers

Posted by & filed under BATNA.

Should you make the first offer in negotiation? It’s a perennial question, one that has attracted considerable debate. In a recent study published in the Negotiation Journal, researchers Yossi Maaravi, Ben Heller, and Aharon Levy find that negotiators’ relative power affects their first offers. Here, we take a closer look at issues related to power … Read Power and Negotiation: Advice on First Offers

Emotional Intelligence as a Negotiating Skill

Posted by & filed under Negotiation Skills.

The concept of emotional intelligence burst into the cultural imagination in 1995 with the publication of psychologist Daniel Goleman’s bestselling book of the same name. Experts have predicted that scoring high on this personality trait would boost one’s bargaining outcomes and have found many successful negotiation examples using emotional intelligence in their research. … Read Emotional Intelligence as a Negotiating Skill

Principled Negotiation: Focus on Interests to Create Value

Posted by & filed under Negotiation Skills.

Inexperienced negotiators and even many experienced negotiators tend to assume they have a choice between two main strategies: negotiate in a tough, demanding manner or in a friendly, accommodating manner. In fact, there’s a better, third way of negotiating—one that doesn’t rely on toughness or accommodation, but that will improve your likelihood of meeting your … Read More

What is Anchoring in Negotiation?

Posted by & filed under Negotiation Skills.

What exactly is anchoring in negotiation, and how does it play out at the bargaining table? Consider this anchoring bias example from Harvard Business School and Harvard Law School faculty member Guhan Subramanian. While running a negotiation simulation in one of his classes, Subramanian noticed that one student spent a considerable amount of time explaining … Read What is Anchoring in Negotiation?

Conflict Resolution Success Stories: A Surprising Tale from Congress

Posted by & filed under Conflict Resolution.

Conflict resolution success stories in the news can be few and far between. Too often, when a dispute arises, parties escalate the conflict through hardball tactics in negotiation (threats, lies, and the like) rather than taking steps to address and minimize it. When conflict resolution success stories do appear, we typically fail to absorb their … Read More

Negotiation Advice: When to Make the First Offer in Negotiation

Posted by & filed under Negotiation Skills.

When or when not to make the first offer in negotiations is a question many expert negotiators ask themselves when approaching business negotiations, real estate transactions, or even interpersonal negotiations with friends and family. In this article drawn from negotiation research, we offer negotiating skills and negotiation tips for when, and when not, to make … Read More

Win-Lose Negotiation Examples

Posted by & filed under Win-Win Negotiations.

When we think of win-lose negotiation examples, we think of competitions in which it seemed that one party had to succeed and the other had to fail. In fact, in the majority of win-lose negotiation examples, a win-win negotiation was possible, but parties overlooked opportunities to create value. As a consequence, they reached subpar results. … Read Win-Lose Negotiation Examples

How to Respond to Questions in Negotiation

Posted by & filed under Business Negotiations.

What’s the toughest question you’ve ever been asked during a negotiation? Do you know how to respond to questions when they’re out of your comfort zone? If you negotiate frequently, it might be hard to narrow it down to just one. Focusing on job interviews, here are a few negotiation questions that candidates often dread. … Read How to Respond to Questions in Negotiation

Dealmaking Secrets from Henry Kissinger

Posted by & filed under Dealmaking.

More than 1,600 international relations experts from across the political spectrum overwhelmingly rate Henry Kissinger, who served under former presidents Richard Nixon and Gerald Ford, the most effective secretary of state of the last half-century. In their book, Kissinger the Negotiator: Lessons from Dealmaking at the Highest Level (Harper, 2018), James K. Sebenius, R. Nicholas … Read Dealmaking Secrets from Henry Kissinger

New Simulation: Negotiating a Management Crisis

Posted by & filed under Teaching Negotiation.

How do you negotiate an internal management conflict in the face of looming crisis and a deep loss of trust? In Discord at the Daily Herald, a new simulation from the Teaching Negotiation Resource Center (TNRC), the co-owners of the Daily Herald must grapple with these issues or face the complete dissolution of their partnership … Read New Simulation: Negotiating a Management Crisis

What is Negotiation?

Posted by & filed under Negotiation Skills.

Many people dread negotiation, not recognizing that they negotiate on a regular, even daily basis. Most of us face formal negotiations throughout our personal and professional lives: discussing the terms of a job offer with a recruiter, haggling over the price of a new car, hammering out a contract with a supplier. … Read What is Negotiation?

How to Find the ZOPA in Business Negotiations

Posted by & filed under Business Negotiations.

In business negotiation, two polar-opposite errors are common: reaching agreement when it wouldn’t be wise to do so, and walking away from a mutually beneficial outcome. How can you avoid these pitfalls? Through careful preparation that includes an analysis of the zone of possible agreement, or ZOPA in business negotiations. … Read How to Find the ZOPA in Business Negotiations

Win-Win Negotiation: Managing Your Counterpart’s Satisfaction

Posted by & filed under Win-Win Negotiations.

As the following points of win-win negotiation will demonstrate, ensuring that your counterpart is satisfied with a particular deal requires you to manage several aspects of the negotiation process, including his outcome expectations, his perceptions of your outcome, the comparisons he makes with others, and his overall negotiation experience itself. … Read More

Dear Negotiation Coach: When Silence in Negotiation is Golden

Posted by & filed under Negotiation Skills.

In Western cultures, many people are uncomfortable with silence. We tend to talk on top of one another, with little pause between point and counterpoint. Any silence that occurs often feels awkward, as you’ve experienced. But effective negotiators know that silence in negotiation can be a useful tool. Here are four advantages of silence. … Read More

Top Ten Posts About Conflict Resolution

Posted by & filed under Conflict Resolution.

Conflict resolution is the process of resolving a dispute or a conflict by meeting at least some of each side’s needs and addressing their interests. Conflict resolution sometimes requires both a power-based and an interest-based approach, such as the simultaneous pursuit of litigation (the use of legal power) and negotiation (attempts to reconcile each party’s … Read Top Ten Posts About Conflict Resolution

BATNA and Other Sources of Power at the Negotiation Table

Posted by & filed under BATNA.

BATNA negotiations involve a negotiators knowledge of her best alternatives to a negotiated agreement and are one of three sources of negotiating power at the bargaining table, according to negotiation researcher Adam D. Galinsky and New York University’s Joe C. Magee. … Read More

Individual Differences in Negotiation—and How They Affect Results

Posted by & filed under Business Negotiations.

Negotiation advice is often “one size fits all,” yet we approach negotiations with vastly different experiences and traits. How do individual differences in negotiation play out? In one study, Washington University professor Hillary Anger Elfenbein and her colleagues found evidence that individual differences, including personality, accounted for an impressive 49% of the variance in negotiators’ … Read More

5 Win-Win Negotiation Strategies

Posted by & filed under Win-Win Negotiations.

Business negotiators understand the importance of reaching a win-win negotiation: when both sides are satisfied with their agreement, the odds of a long-lasting and successful business partnership are much higher. But concrete strategies for generating a win-win contract often seem elusive. The following five, from experts at the Program on Negotiation at Harvard Law School, … Read 5 Win-Win Negotiation Strategies

What is the Multi-Door Courthouse Concept

Posted by & filed under International Negotiation.

As a collaboration between UST School of Law and the Program on Negotiation at Harvard Law School, the following is the transcript of a conversation between the creator of the multi-door courthouse, Harvard Law Professor Frank E.A. Sander, and the executive director and founder of the University of St. Thomas (UST) International ADR [Alternative Dispute … Read What is the Multi-Door Courthouse Concept

Teach Your Students to Negotiate Climate Change

Posted by & filed under Teaching Negotiation.

How Can Communities Negotiate Climate Change Risks? With ocean temperatures rising and hurricanes growing more frequent and severe, the impacts of climate change are dramatically affecting many communities. The severe flooding brought on by repeated storms has forced the impacted communities to confront a range of public health risks, as well as evaluations of drainage and … Read Teach Your Students to Negotiate Climate Change

International Negotiations and Agenda Setting: Controlling the Flow of the Negotiation Process

Posted by & filed under International Negotiation.

When two groups are embroiled in a conflict, it is common for the party with less power to have difficulty convincing the more powerful party to sit down at the negotiating table in international negotiations. In such cases, the more powerful player is likely to resist the notion of shaking up the status quo—and thus … Read More

Salary Negotiation: How to Ask for a Higher Salary

Posted by & filed under Salary Negotiations.

For a new employee, salary negotiation skills can be the most important and the most intimidating, but the most important, of difficult conversations to have at the beginning of your career. A new employee, successfully negotiating a salary offer up by $5,000 could make a huge difference over the course of her career. … Read More

A Top International Negotiation Case Study in Business: The Microsoft-Nokia Deal

Posted by & filed under International Negotiation.

Let’s look at the international negotiation case study of Microsoft’s decision to purchase Finnish mobile phone company Nokia’s mobile device business for $9.5 billion. The deal, which closed in 2014, quickly proved disastrous: Microsoft wrote off nearly all of the deal’s value and laid off thousands of workers in July 2015. Although there were many … Read More

Conflict Styles and Bargaining Styles

Posted by & filed under Conflict Resolution.

What type of bargainer are you? Many negotiation strategies are “one size fits all,” but our unique personalities and life experiences will shape how we carry out and react to such strategies. Familiarity with popular models of conflict styles and bargaining styles can help us better understand and work with our own proclivities and … Read Conflict Styles and Bargaining Styles

Managing Emotions in Negotiation: Teaching Students to Turn Emotions into an Opportunity for Mutual Gain

Posted by & filed under Teaching Negotiation.

How do you move from an emotionally charged moment in a negotiation to a mutually beneficial agreement? In negotiations of all types, whether buying a house or negotiating a company acquisition, emotions naturally manifest. Left unaddressed, emotions can derail a negotiation and make agreement seem impossible. … Read More

Using Body Language in Negotiation

Posted by & filed under Negotiation Skills.

Negotiation experts typically advise us to meet with our counterparts in person whenever possible rather than relying on the telephone or Internet. As convenient as electronic media may be, they lack the visual cues that help convey valuable information and forge connections in face-to-face talks. Without access to gestures and facial expressions, those who negotiate … Read Using Body Language in Negotiation

Cross Cultural Communication: Translation and Negotiation

Posted by & filed under International Negotiation.

In previous international negotiation articles from cross cultural negotiation case studies, we have focused on how international negotiators can avoid cognitive biases and overcome cultural barriers. But how do negotiators dealing with counterparts that speak another language modify their negotiation techniques to accommodate for the lack of a common language? … Read More

Power in Negotiation: The Impact on Negotiators and the Negotiation Process

Posted by & filed under Negotiation Skills.

According to Dacher Keltner of the University of California at Berkeley and his colleagues, power in negotiation affects two primary neurological regulators of behavior: the behavioral approach system and the behavioral inhibition system. Powerful negotiators demonstrate “approach related” behaviors such as expressing positive moods and searching for rewards in their environment. … Read More

Negotiation Analysis: The US, Taliban, and the Bergdahl Exchange

Posted by & filed under International Negotiation.

The exchange between the United States and the Taliban of Sergeant Bowe Bergdahl for five Taliban leaders held at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, represented the first public prisoner exchange of a US soldier in the thirteen year US involvement in Afghanistan. The background of the deal including how Private First Class Bergdahl (promoted twice to Sergeant … Read More

Negotiating with Colleagues: Training for Collaborative Human Resources Negotiations

Posted by & filed under Teaching Negotiation.

Human resources representatives are often involved in a wide array of internal company negotiations, including one-on-one disputes between colleagues as well as inter-department budgeting and overall staffing plans. To deftly handle this wide array of negotiations, human resources representatives must balance the various stakeholder concerns, financial assessments, and competing interests with fairness, consideration for relationships, … Read More

What Is Collective Leadership?

Posted by & filed under Leadership Skills.

When we think of successful leaders, we typically envision a solitary person—a president, CEO, or entrepreneur—drawing on their vision, charisma, and drive to inspire and direct others. As our world grows increasingly more connected and complex, however, this top-down approach to leadership is becoming increasingly outdated. … Read What Is Collective Leadership?

10 Hard-Bargaining Tactics to Watch Out for in a Negotiation

Posted by & filed under BATNA.

Some negotiators seem to believe that hard-bargaining tactics are the key to success. They resort to threats, extreme demands, and even unethical behavior to try to get the upper hand in a negotiation. In fact, negotiators who fall back on hard-bargaining strategies in negotiation are typically betraying a lack of understanding about the gains that … Read More

Negotiation Skills for Win-Win Negotiations

Posted by & filed under Negotiation Skills.

A few characteristics of negotiation styles include hard bargaining tactics focused on claiming as much value as possible and integrative negotiation strategies such as value creation or win-win negotiation scenarios. What negotiation styles leads to optimal negotiated agreements and are suitable to win-win negotiations? One skill to cultivate that will have a positive impact on … Read Negotiation Skills for Win-Win Negotiations

Negotiating a Non-Compete Agreement with Employers

Posted by & filed under Conflict Resolution.

In integrative negotiation, each side seeks to create and claim value with an eye towards the future of the negotiating relationship. One way of securing this relationship is a noncompete agreement: Employers sometimes ask potential employees to agree not to work for their competitors in the future but don’t assume such requests are nonnegotiable. … Read More

Case Study of Conflict Management: To Resolve Disputes and Manage Conflicts, Assume a Neutral 3rd Party Role

Posted by & filed under Conflict Resolution.

In their book Difficult Conversations: How to Discuss What Matters Most (Penguin Putnam, 2000), authors Douglas Stone, Bruce Patton, and Sheila Heen tell us how to engage in the conversations in our professional or personal lives that make us uncomfortable by examining a case study of conflict management. Tough, honest conversations are critical for managers, … Read More

BATNA Strategy: Should You Reveal Your BATNA?

Posted by & filed under BATNA.

In their best-selling book Getting to Yes: Negotiating Agreement Without Giving In, Roger Fisher, William Ury, and Bruce Patton (Penguin, 1991) introduced the concept of having a BATNA strategy (best alternative to a negotiated agreement) as “the standard against which any proposed agreement should be measured.” When you know what you’ll do if you don’t reach … Read BATNA Strategy: Should You Reveal Your BATNA?

Cultural Barriers and Conflict Negotiation Strategies: Apple’s Apology in China

Posted by & filed under Dispute Resolution.

When dealing with a difficult counterpart, it helps to take a conciliatory approach to the bargaining table. While apologies necessarily involve moments of vulnerability, they can also open doors to value creation and strengthen the relationship you have with your bargaining counterpart. Let’s look back at Apple’s apology in China for its maligned warranty policies … 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

4 Sales Negotiation Traps—and How to Overcome Them

Posted by & filed under Business Negotiations.

Whether you’re planning to put your home up for sale, trying to unload excess merchandise, or searching for new clients, there’s a good chance you’ll make your next sales negotiation more challenging than it needs to be by falling into common cognitive traps. You can improve your sales negotiation skills by learning about four traps … Read More

Teaching with Multi-Round Simulations: Balancing Internal and External Negotiations

Posted by & filed under Teaching Negotiation.

Whether in business, law, or international diplomacy, many negotiations are actually comprised of a multi-round process with negotiations internal to the organization preceding external ones. Using multi-round negotiation simulations can help students understand the connection between internal and external negotiations, handle more complex scenarios, and better get into their roles. Engaging in a multi-round negotiation … Read More

How to Negotiate Salary: 3 Winning Strategies

Posted by & filed under Salary Negotiations.

The question of how to negotiate salary seems to preoccupy negotiators more than any other—and with good reason, considering how dramatically even a small salary increase can impact our lifetime earnings. The following three salary bargaining tips from leading negotiation experts will help you gain more from your new-job negotiations. … Read How to Negotiate Salary: 3 Winning Strategies

Using Principled Negotiation to Resolve Disagreements

Posted by & filed under Dispute Resolution.

Parties can often reach a better agreement through integrative negotiation—that is, by identifying interests where they have different preferences and making tradeoffs among them. If you care more about what movie you see tonight, but your friend cares more about where you have dinner, for example, you can each get your preference on the issue … Read More

Dealing with Difficult People: Coping with an Insulting Offer in Contract Negotiations

Posted by & filed under Dealing with Difficult People.

The following “Ask the Negotiation Coach” question was posed to Dwight Golann, Suffolk University Law School professor and negotiation expert: “I deal with legal disputes and would like to find reasonable solutions without wasting years in court. But my opponents seem to feel compelled to make extreme—actually, insulting—opening offers. How should I respond to these … Read More

The Door in the Face Technique: Will It Backfire?

Posted by & filed under Dispute Resolution.

Have you ever heard of the door in the face technique? In a classic and rather amusing study from 1975, Arizona State University professor Robert Cialdini and his colleagues sent research assistants around campus posing as employees of the county’s juvenile detention center. They stopped people randomly on walkways and asked them if they would … Read The Door in the Face Technique: Will It Backfire?

A Negotiation Preparation Checklist

Posted by & filed under Negotiation Skills.

Without a doubt, the biggest mistake that negotiators make—and one that many make routinely—is failing to thoroughly prepare. When you haven’t done the necessary analysis and research, you are highly likely to leave value on the table and even to be taken advantage of by your counterpart. A negotiation preparation checklist can help you avoid … Read A Negotiation Preparation Checklist

Undecided on Your Dispute Resolution Process? Combine Mediation and Arbitration, Known as Med-Arb

Posted by & filed under Mediation.

The choice: arbitration vs. mediation. You’re not sure which of two common dispute resolution processes, mediation or arbitration, to use to resolve your conflict. Mediation is appealing because it would allow you to reach a collaborative settlement, but you’re worried it could end in impasse. You know that arbitration would wrap up your dispute resolution … Read More

The Pitfalls of Negotiations Over Email

Posted by & filed under Conflict Resolution.

Negotiation research suggests that email often poses more problems than solutions when it comes to relationships, information exchange, and outcomes in conflict resolution negotiation scenarios. First, establishing social rapport via email can be challenging. The lack of nonverbal cues and the dearth of social norms regarding its use can cause negotiators to be impolite and … Read The Pitfalls of Negotiations Over Email

Strategies to Resolve Conflict: Learning from Star Wars

Posted by & filed under Conflict Resolution.

When we think of conflict-management experts, we tend to think of mediators, lawyers, professors, and hostage negotiators. But what about Jedis, Wookiees, droids, and Sith? After all, “conflict is everywhere in Star Wars,” as Noam Ebner and Jen Reynolds write in the introduction to Star Wars and Conflict Resolution: There Are Alternatives to Fighting. From … Read More

What is Distributive Negotiation and Five Proven Strategies

Posted by & filed under Dealmaking.

Most negotiations call for very different, even opposing, skills: collaboration and competition. To get a great deal, we typically must work with others to find new sources of value while also competing with them to claim as much of that value for ourselves. Before mastering the intricacies of value creation in negotiation, it helps to … Read More

India’s Direct Approach to Conflict Resolution

Posted by & filed under International Negotiation.

In our global economy, organizations have unprecedented opportunities to grow by forming partnerships worldwide. Yet when we are negotiating abroad, cultural, language, and other differences can lead to misunderstandings that may eventually spiral into conflicts ranging from labor strikes to lawsuits to broken partnerships that require conflict resolution. … Read India’s Direct Approach to Conflict Resolution

How To Share a Negotiation Education with Kids

Posted by & filed under Leadership Skills.

There are numerous opportunities for adults to learn and practice their negotiation skills. Whether it’s working through an issue with a coworker, buying a home, or taking actual negotiation education classes, if you want to improve your negotiation outcomes, you can find ways to learn. But what about kids? Are they too young to learn … Read How To Share a Negotiation Education with Kids

Salary Negotiations in the NBA and Beyond

Posted by & filed under Business Negotiations.

In negotiation, one great deal can beget another. For the National Basketball Association (NBA), its stellar 2016 national television contract begat dozens of stellar salary negotiations for top players and even mediocre ones. But after the boom year passed, players’ expectations bounced up against reality. The story, which could repeat itself after the next TV … Read Salary Negotiations in the NBA and Beyond

What is Conflict Resolution, and How Does It Work?

Posted by & filed under Conflict Resolution.

If you work with others, sooner or later you will almost inevitably face the need for conflict resolution. You may need to mediate a dispute between two members of your department. Or you may find yourself angered by something a colleague reportedly said about you in a meeting. Or you may need to engage in … Read More

Police Negotiation Techniques from the NYPD Crisis Negotiations Team

Posted by & filed under Crisis Negotiations.

Few negotiators can imagine negotiation scenarios more stressful than the kinds of crisis negotiations the New York City Police Department’s Hostage Negotiation Team undertake. But police negotiation techniques employed by the New York City Police Department’s Hostage Negotiations Team (HNT) in high-stakes, high-pressure crisis negotiation situations, outlined in an article from Jeff Thompson and Hugh … Read More

Chatbot Negotiations: What Can AI Do for You?

Posted by & filed under Negotiation Skills.

Seemingly all of a sudden, chatbots like ChatGPT and other forms of artificial intelligence (AI) are becoming ubiquitous in everyday life. These virtual conversation partners can do everything from make dinner reservations to write essays to flirt, if sometimes with unsettling results. No surprise, then, that chatbots are beginning to play a role in our … Read Chatbot Negotiations: What Can AI Do for You?

Take your BATNA to the Next Level

Posted by & filed under BATNA.

If your current negotiation reaches an impasse, what’s your best outside option? Most seasoned negotiators understand the value of evaluating their BATNA, or best alternative to a negotiated agreement, a concept that Roger Fisher, William Ury, and Bruce Patton introduced in their seminal book, Getting to Yes: Negotiating Agreement Without Giving In (Penguin, 1991, second … Read Take your BATNA to the Next Level

Essential Negotiation Skills: Limiting Cognitive Bias in Negotiation

Posted by & filed under Negotiation Skills.

In past articles, we have highlighted a variety of psychological biases that affect negotiators, many of which spring from a reliance on intuition, and may hinder integrative negotiation. Of course, negotiators are not always affected by bias; we often think systematically and clearly at the bargaining table. Most negotiators believe they are capable of distinguishing … Read More

Does Using Technology in Negotiation Change Our Behavior?

Posted by & filed under Negotiation Skills.

Technology has infiltrated almost every element of our negotiations, as it has almost every aspect of our lives. Negotiation scholars have studied how negotiating via technological media affects the way we negotiate—concluding, for example, that doing business via email can increase misunderstandings and heighten conflict as compared to face-to-face meetings. But the ubiquity of technology … Read More

Teach Your Students to Take Their Mediation Skills to the Next Level

Posted by & filed under Teaching Negotiation.

Mediation is a critical conflict resolution skill for students in a variety of fields: business, international relations, law, and public policy, to name a few. Once students have mastered mediation basics, they can hone their skills by trying to mediate more complex conflicts as well as by learning the key differences between facilitation and mediation. … Read More

How to Negotiate a Higher Salary after a Job Offer

Posted by & filed under Salary Negotiations.

If you’re wondering how to negotiate a higher salary after a job offer, congratulations: You’re aiming higher than many job candidates ever do. It’s common for prospective employees to accept whatever offer the would-be employer puts forth without negotiating for more. Unless the employer explicitly stipulates that their offers are nonnegotiable, that’s typically a mistake. … Read More

Negotiation in International Relations: Finding Common Ground

Posted by & filed under Negotiation Skills.

When thinking of negotiation in international relations, it’s difficult to think of any negotiation with higher stakes than those surrounding nuclear nonproliferation. Often conducted amid international conflict and public scrutiny, complicated by language and cultural barriers, and carried out under tight deadlines, talks aimed at ensuring that nuclear technology is used peacefully and that disarmament … Read More

Managing Difficult Employees: Listening to Learn

Posted by & filed under Dealing with Difficult People.

Managing difficult employees is one of the biggest challenges that leaders face. When employees seem unreasonable, belligerent, or uncooperative, managers may be tempted either to brush aside the problem or, alternatively, to fly off the handle. A better solution when managing difficult staff? Use negotiation techniques to get to the root of underlying problems. The following … Read Managing Difficult Employees: Listening to Learn

The Importance of a Relationship in Negotiation

Posted by & filed under Negotiation Training.

At the negotiation table, what’s the best way to uncover your negotiation counterpart’s hidden interests? Build a relationship in negotiation by asking questions, then listening carefully. Even if you have decided to make the first offer and are ready with a number of alternatives, you should always open by asking and listening to assess your … Read The Importance of a Relationship in Negotiation

Understanding Different Negotiation Styles

Posted by & filed under Negotiation Skills.

In the business world, some negotiators always seem to get what they want, while others more often tend to come up short. What might make some people better negotiators than others? The answer may be in part that people bring different negotiation styles and strategies to the bargaining table, based on their different personalities, experiences, … Read Understanding Different Negotiation Styles

Four Conflict Negotiation Strategies for Resolving Value-Based Disputes

Posted by & filed under Dispute Resolution.

In many negotiations, both parties are aware of what their interests are, and are willing to engage in a give-and-take process with the other party to come to agreement. In conflicts related to personal identity, and deeply-held beliefs or values, however, negotiation dynamics can become more complex and require alternative dispute resolution tactics for conflict … Read More

Top Negotiation Case Studies in Business: Apple and Dispute Resolution in the Courts

Posted by & filed under Business Negotiations.

In August 2012, a California jury ruled that Samsung would have to pay Apple more than $1 billion in damages for patent violations of Apple products, particularly its iPhone. The judge eventually reduced the payout to $600 million. In November 2013, another jury ruled that Samsung would have to pay Apple $290 million of the … Read More

What is Crisis Management in Negotiation?

Posted by & filed under Crisis Negotiations.

Organizations often establish elaborate business crisis management plans. Through a rapid, centralized response, an organization can shift swiftly and efficiently from day-to-day operations into crisis-management mode, whether that crisis involves a building evacuation, a tumble in the company’s stock price, or a product recall. … Read What is Crisis Management in Negotiation?

How to Handle Difficult Customers

Posted by & filed under Dealing with Difficult People.

Every salesperson has his or her war stories: tales of difficult customers who made extreme demands and threats, tried to take advantage, or were extremely rude. Dealing with difficult customers is inevitable in the sales world, and the question of how to handle difficult customers looms large. The following three guidelines can help you stay … Read How to Handle Difficult Customers

How to Use Tradeoffs to Create Value in Your Negotiations

Posted by & filed under Win-Win Negotiations.

How do expectations of fairness and reciprocity at the bargaining table impact negotiator decisions regarding the strategies and tactics they use during bargaining? Sometimes talks get off on the wrong foot. Maybe you and your partner had a different understanding of your meeting time, or one of you makes a statement that the other misinterprets. … Read More

Learn from the Best with the Great Negotiator Case Studies

Posted by & filed under Teaching Negotiation.

No one can provide perspective on conflict resolution like experts who have been involved in some of the world’s most complex negotiations. Since 2001, the Program on Negotiation (PON) has bestowed the Great Negotiator Award upon distinguished leaders whose lifelong accomplishments in the fields of negotiation and dispute resolution have had compelling and lasting results. The Great … Read More

Managing Difficult Negotiators

Posted by & filed under BATNA.

In negotiation, we are often confronted with the task of dealing with difficult people—those who seem to prefer to set up roadblocks rather than break down walls, or who choose to take hardline stances rather than seeking common ground. If you’re skilled in BATNA negotiations, you’ll have an easier time dealing with such people. … Read Managing Difficult Negotiators

Star Wars Stories: George Lucas and a Strong BATNA, Passed Over

Posted by & filed under BATNA.

In negotiation, your best source of power is typically your best alternative to a negotiated agreement, or BATNA. When you are aware that you have an appealing alternative deal to the one you’re working on, you will be less tempted to accept an agreement that doesn’t meet your minimum requirements. A strong BATNA gives you … Read More

Mediation Process and Business Negotiations: How Does Mediation Work in a Lawsuit?

Posted by & filed under Mediation.

How does mediation work in a lawsuit? What benefits can mediation offer businesses that deal with multiple contractual agreements, some of which may end in disputes? These questions were answered by Harvard Law School Associate Professor and negotiation expert Dan Greiner in an “Ask the Negotiation Coach” segment from our Negotiation Briefings newsletter. … Read More

The Benefits of Coalitions at the Bargaining Table

Posted by & filed under Negotiation Skills.

Labor unions may be the most obvious example of a negotiating coalitions. When a company negotiates with an employee individually, it could threaten to hire someone else in the face of the employee’s demands. By contrast, when employees bargain collectively through a union, they avoid the need to compete against one another (at least on … Read More

The Art of Negotiation: Anger Management at the Bargaining Table

Posted by & filed under Dealmaking.

Displays of anger can pay off for negotiators, at least when it comes to claiming value in negotiation, research shows. Viewing angry negotiators as formidable opponents, we respond to their demands by making concessions, professor Gerben A. van Kleef of the University of Amsterdam and his colleagues found in research from 2004. … Read More

New Simulation: International Business Acquisition Negotiated Online

Posted by & filed under Teaching Negotiation.

New from the Teaching Negotiation Resource Center (TNRC), Ren the Robot is a one-and-a-half hour, two-party, multi-issue negotiation between a Tokyo-based robotics company, Grubotics, and a U.S.-based tech company, Delivered, over a potential acquisition deal. It is designed to be conducted using online video conferencing. The use of online video conference technology highlights the conveniences … Read More

Successes & Messes: A Notoriously Bad Business Contract

Posted by & filed under Business Negotiations.

In business contract negotiations, we’re sometimes tempted to break the mold and do things in a new and entirely different way. But if our strategies aren’t supported by sound analysis and advice, we risk winding up with regrets. Take the case of star running back Ricky Williams, now retired, and the sports agency he worked … Read More

Communication Breakdowns: When All We Can See is Red

Posted by & filed under Dealing with Difficult People.

Miscommunication often leads to impasse in negotiation. When we don’t understand what the other party wants, we can grow frustrated by their perceived lack of cooperation with our own wishes and give up prematurely on reaching agreement. Miscommunication also can be a problem when we are consulting advisers for help with an upcoming negotiation, whether … Read More

Do Attitudes in Negotiation Influence Results?

Posted by & filed under Conflict Resolution.

Many people consider negotiations to be stressful and threatening. Others view them as challenges to be overcome. Do these different attitudes influence the outcomes that people reach? New research by professors Kathleen M. O’Connor of Cornell University and Josh A. Arnold of California State University sheds light on this important question. … Read Do Attitudes in Negotiation Influence Results?

Camp Lemonnier: Negotiating a Lease Agreement for a Key Military Base in Africa

Posted by & filed under Teaching Negotiation.

Camp Lemonnier is a United States Naval Expeditionary Base located in Djibouti and is the only permanent U.S. military base in Africa. Djibouti, bordering Somalia, Ethiopia, Eritrea, the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden, has been home to Camp Lemonnier since the September 11, 2001 attacks prompted the United States to seek a temporary … Read More

Salary Negotiations in the Era of Fair-Pay Laws

Posted by & filed under Business Negotiations.

In recent years, some U.S. states have passed fair-pay laws that affect salary negotiations in the workplace. California, for example, passed a law in 2015 that requires all employers operating in the state to prove they pay employees of different genders equally for “substantially similar” work, according to the Wall Street Journal.  … Read Salary Negotiations in the Era of Fair-Pay Laws

5 Types of Negotiation Skills

Posted by & filed under Negotiation Skills.

Businesspeople who are looking for effective negotiation strategies often confront a dizzying array of advice. It can be useful to take a step back and categorize these strategies into various types of negotiation tactics. Highlighting the benefits of negotiation in business, the following five types of negotiation tactics can help you think more broadly about … Read 5 Types of Negotiation Skills

Negotiators: Resist Vividness Bias in Negotiations

Posted by & filed under Salary Negotiations.

Vividness bias is the tendency to overweight the vivid and prestigious attributes of a decision, such as salary or an employer’s status, and underweight less impressive issues, such as location or rapport with colleagues. Let’s talk about a clear vividness bias example from 2015 in Major League Baseball. … Read More

Planning for Cyber Defense of Critical Urban Infrastructure

Posted by & filed under Teaching Negotiation.

Save Fairport: Planning for Social Cyber Defense of Critical Urban Infrastructure Cybersecurity for critical urban infrastructure is a major public safety issue for cities. Cyber-attacks can cause major physical damage, as well as sow chaos and undermine public faith in government. Cyber criminals constantly develop new types of malware, which may not be detectable by current … Read More

How To Avoid a Business Contract Bidding War

Posted by & filed under Business Negotiations.

Back in 2014, Nike was the undisputed king of superstar endorsements, dominating the field by paying top talent millions for the right to sell lines of collectible shoes in their names. But sportswear and footwear supplier Under Armour made a bold play to change the landscape. Basketball star Kevin Durant, then of the Oklahoma City … Read How To Avoid a Business Contract Bidding War

Negotiating the Good Friday Agreement

Posted by & filed under Conflict Resolution.

Retired US Senator George Mitchell played a critical role in negotiating the Good Friday Agreement in Northern Ireland. In an interview with Susan Hackley, Managing Director of the Program on Negotiation at Harvard Law School, in the February 2004 Negotiation newsletter, he describes how he was able to facilitate an agreement between these long-warring parties. … Read Negotiating the Good Friday Agreement

Union Negotiations Show How to Bring Reluctant Parties to the Table

Posted by & filed under Business Negotiations.

On April 24, 2013, an eight-story building in Bangladesh known as Rana Plaza collapsed, killing 1,134 people, many of them low-wage garment workers who made goods for foreign companies. In the aftermath, Western retailers were widely criticized for failing to engage in international labor union negotiations and address hazardous conditions in the factories where their … Read More

Check Out the International Investor-State Arbitration Video Course

Posted by & filed under Teaching Negotiation.

Master Class on International Investor-State Arbitration: What is it? How Does it Work? This two-hour video course is intended to teach students, legal practitioners, business executives, and government officials the essentials of international investor-state arbitration, an area of increasing concern for legal practice, business strategy, and government policy. In the video Master Class on International Investor-State Arbitration: … Read More

Learning from BATNA Examples in Negotiation

Posted by & filed under BATNA.

How should you decide whether to accept or reject your counterpart’s final offer in negotiation? In their influential book, Getting to Yes: Negotiating Agreement Without Giving In, Roger Fisher, William Ury, and Bruce Patton advise comparing the deal to your BATNA, or best alternative to a negotiated agreement. If the offer is better than the best … Read Learning from BATNA Examples in Negotiation

Lessons for Business Negotiators: Negotiation Techniques from International Diplomacy

Posted by & filed under Dealmaking.

Executives rarely view themselves as diplomats engaged in international diplomacy but business negotiators often find the two fields share negotiation skills and negotiation techniques. Rightly or wrongly, diplomacy evokes images of frivolity – days spent wandering exotic capitals, nights spent cruising embassy cocktail parties. … Read More

Four Ways to Manage Conflict in the Workplace

Posted by & filed under Business Negotiations.

Samantha was livid. While making a presentation during a meeting that both attended, Brad, a newcomer in her department, had shared some slides during a presentation that were clearly based on ideas for a project she’d shared with him privately—without giving her credit. Samantha angrily confronted Brad in his office after the meeting; he became … Read Four Ways to Manage Conflict in the Workplace

How to Deal with a Hardball Strategy When You Have a Weak BATNA

Posted by & filed under BATNA.

In negotiation, visions of collaborating to create new sources of value can quickly evaporate when the other party engages in a hardball strategy—such as penalizing us financially, attacking our reputation, walking away, or threatening to do all of the above. Suddenly we find ourselves on the defensive, scrambling to do more than just break even. … Read More

The Pros and Cons of Back-Channel Negotiations

Posted by & filed under International Negotiation.

Back-channel negotiations have been used in numerous conflicts across the globe, including the Israeli-Palestinian peace process from 1994 to 1996 and the Iranian hostage crisis in 1979–1980. In 1985, the imprisoned Nelson Mandela conducted back-channel negotiations with South Africa’s minister of justice, Hendrik Jacobus Coetsee, that laid the groundwork for the end of the apartheid … Read The Pros and Cons of Back-Channel Negotiations

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

How To Create a Better Deal in International Bargaining Situations

Posted by & filed under International Negotiation.

On April 19, 2013, after what was undoubtedly an intensive series of international bargaining and negotiation sessions, Toyota announced that it would begin manufacturing its Lexus luxury car in the United States for the first time. The Japanese automaker planned to invest $360 million in a new production line for its Georgetown, Kentucky, plant, which … Read More

How to Negotiate a Business Deal

Posted by & filed under Business Negotiations.

In late 2016 and early 2017, news stories abounded of companies that were having second thoughts about planned mega-mergers. Abbott Laboratories began looking for ways to exit its acquisition of Alere, citing investigations of the medical test maker, for example. And Verizon started rethinking its acquisition of Yahoo! following a data breach at the tech … Read How to Negotiate a Business Deal

How an Authoritarian Leadership Style Blocks Effective Negotiation

Posted by & filed under Leadership Skills.

Those who favor an authoritarian leadership style, also known as an autocratic leadership style, tend to believe their approach to management is more efficient and decisive than a more collaborative leadership style. But because a top-down approach can heighten the power differential between leaders and those who report to them, it often backfires, generating resentment … Read More

Negotiating Salary: Confronting the Gender Pay Gap

Posted by & filed under Salary Negotiations.

In December 2014, leaks of data hacked from Sony Pictures revealed that when negotiating salary for their roles in the film American Hustle, actresses Jennifer Lawrence and Amy Adams came away with significantly less than their male costars in the ensemble cast. Lawrence and Adams were paid 7% of the film’s profits; Christian Bale, Bradley Cooper, … Read More

Famous Negotiations Cases – NBA and the Power of Deadlines at the Bargaining Table

Posted by & filed under Crisis Negotiations.

It’s a classic famous negotiations case. In the summer of 1988, National Basketball Association (NBA) team owners and players were at loggerheads over their new contract. At midnight on June 30, the owners declared a lockout, halting preparations for the start of the 1998–99 NBA season. The players and owners negotiated for six long months, … Read More

For Business Negotiators, Patience Can be a Virtue

Posted by & filed under BATNA.

Business negotiators know that persistence and tenacity can make all the difference between impasse and a game-changing breakthrough. Take the saga behind Microsoft’s 2013 announcement of its pending $7.2 billion acquisition of Finnish mobile phone company Nokia’s handset and services business. The two parties engaged in many months of fruitless talks before either side believed … Read More

Dispute Resolution Example: The Chicago Symphony’s Contract Dispute

Posted by & filed under Salary Negotiations.

A 2019 contract dispute between the Chicago Symphony Orchestra (CSO) and its musicians led to a disruptive seven-week strike, the longest in the venerable orchestra’s 128-year history. The unlikely intervention of Chicago’s mayor just before he left office managed to draw this thorny dispute resolution example to a mutually satisfactory finale while also highlighting the … Read More

The Winner’s Curse: Avoid This Common Trap in Auctions

Posted by & filed under Dealmaking.

Imagine that a professor shows a jar full of coins to his class and announces he’s auctioning it off. Students are told they can write down a bid and that the highest bidder will win the contents in exchange for the money he or she bid. After everyone has written down their bids, the professor … Read More

Teaching Contract Negotiation: Using the Mutual Gains Approach

Posted by & filed under Teaching Negotiation.

How do you use the mutual gains approach in contract negotiations? In contract negotiations, parties can often resort to positional bargaining instead of using the mutual gains approach. Teaching students to generate creative options in contract negotiations can help them avoid positional bargaining and achieve more beneficial and sustainable agreements. The Teaching Negotiation Resource Center (TNRC) … Read More

Entrepreneurs: Prepare for Challenging Conversations in Key Negotiation

Posted by & filed under Negotiation Briefings Articles, Negotiation Skills.

Start-ups and individual entrepreneurs often encounter challenging conversations when negotiating with potential partners and investors. When you are trying to sell others on your big idea or venture, you face the daunting challenge of convincing them that it’s worth their time, money, and effort. And even as you’re drawing on all your powers of persuasion … Read More

Teach Your Students to Negotiate Cross-Border Water Conflicts

Posted by & filed under Teaching Negotiation.

With the south-western United States experiencing a years-long drought which has dramatically depleted the Colorado River, there are many signs that water conflicts will become more frequent. Negotiating cross-border water conflicts requires balancing political interests, power dynamics, scientific research, and legal parameters. Success in water negotiations hinges on prediction and monitoring arrangements as well as … Read More

Renegotiation: When a Sweetheart Deal Isn’t So Sweet

Posted by & filed under Business Negotiations.

It was perhaps “the sweetest of sweetheart deals” negotiated by a Major League Baseball (MLB) team, according to the New York Times. So why did the Kansas City Royals throw out their old agreement with star catcher Salvador Perez, midcontract, in favor of a renegotiation that was far more favorable to the Golden Glove winner? … Read More

Should Women “Lean In” to Create More Value in Negotiations?

Posted by & filed under Dealmaking.

Back in early 2008, Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg began thinking about hiring Sheryl Sandberg, a vice president at Google and a former chief of staff for the U.S. Department of the Treasury, as the social-media company’s new chief operating officer. The two met several nights a week for almost two months to discuss … Read More

Dressing for Success: How Wealth and Status Cues Affect Business Negotiation

Posted by & filed under Negotiation Skills.

In business negotiations, we know we’re supposed to focus on substance: which issues matter to both sides, what each party can afford, what each side’s outside alternatives are, how to build a strong relationship, and so forth. Yet we’re often swayed by more superficial, often irrelevant aspects of negotiation, such as the shape of the table, whether … Read More

Michael Scott, Negotiation Genius? Lessons from TV Negotiations

Posted by & filed under BATNA.

Business negotiators can get useful advice from a variety of sources, from books to blogs to training and classes—and even, as it turns out, from TV shows. As you may have noticed, negotiations frequently play out on TV: from hostage negotiators on police procedurals to fast-talking lawyers in corporate boardrooms to the real-life entrepreneurs and … Read More

10 Negotiation Failures

Posted by & filed under Negotiation Skills.

Here’s a list of 10 negotiation failures drawn from recent negotiations in the news—including deals that were over before they started and those that proved disastrous after the ink had dried. These cautionary tales offer ample lessons to business negotiators. … Read 10 Negotiation Failures

Why Negotiations Fail

Posted by & filed under Negotiation Skills.

When we think of failed business negotiations, most of us picture negotiators walking away from the table in disappointment. But that’s only one type of disappointing negotiation. Failed business negotiations also include those that parties come to regret over time and those that fall apart during implementation. The following three types of negotiation failures are … Read Why Negotiations Fail

Managing Cultural Differences in Negotiation

Posted by & filed under International Negotiation.

It’s important to educate yourself about your counterpart’s culture so that you don’t risk offending her or seeming unprepared. At the same time, it would be a mistake to focus too narrowly when preparing for cross-cultural communication in business. Research on international negotiation can help us think more broadly when it comes to managing cultural … Read Managing Cultural Differences in Negotiation

Register Now for the PON 40th Anniversary Symposium and Gala! Space is Limited

Posted by & filed under Teaching Negotiation.

Celebrate our past, present, and future on Saturday, December 9th at two very special events for the Program on Negotiation 40th Anniversary What began in 1983 as a small research project is now recognized as the world’s premier hub for negotiation training, pedagogy and scholarship. And that’s something to celebrate. Please join us in Cambridge to commemorate … Read More

6 Bargaining Tips and BATNA Essentials

Posted by & filed under BATNA.

The best bargaining tips taught by the experts should offer ways to enhance your bargaining power in negotiation. To do this, you must cultivate a strong BATNA, or best alternative to a negotiated agreement. The more appealing your best alternative is, the more comfortable you will feel asking for more in your current negotiation—secure in … Read 6 Bargaining Tips and BATNA Essentials

Team Negotiation: Tackle Common Pitfalls

Posted by & filed under Dealmaking.

When a team negotiates on behalf of an organization, it can often achieve more than an individual would, thanks to team members’ cumulative knowledge and experience. Yet team negotiation can create new problems. Groupthink—the tendency to go along with the dominant point of view rather than challenging it—can promote overly simplistic decision making in teams … Read Team Negotiation: Tackle Common Pitfalls

How to Control Your Emotions in Conflict Resolution

Posted by & filed under Conflict Resolution.

To guard against acting irrationally or in ways that can harm you, authors of Beyond Reason: Using Emotions As You Negotiate Roger Fisher and Daniel Shapiro advise you to take your emotional temperature during a negotiation. Specifically, try to gauge whether your emotions are manageable, starting to heat up, or threatening to boil over. … Read More

Negotiation Logistics: Best Practices for Better Deals

Posted by & filed under Dealmaking.

Negotiators are often so intent on preparing for the substance of a negotiation—researching the other party, analyzing their alternatives, and so on—that they neglect to devote adequate time to critical negotiation logistics, such as where to negotiate, how formal or informal talks should be, and even the shape of the negotiating table. … Read More

Dispute Resolution: Building Momentum through Small Wins

Posted by & filed under Dealing with Difficult People.

Sometimes disputes are left to fester for years, even decades, until parties decide there is something to be gained from reaching agreement. In 2015, the nations of Bangladesh and India seized on an opportunity to push the “restart” button on a contentious border disagreement through dispute resolution. Such international conflict resolution examples can illustrate how … Read More

Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) Training: Mediation Curriculum

Posted by & filed under Mediation.

In 2009, we collected many types of curriculum materials from teachers and trainers who attended the Mediation Pedagogy Conference. We received general materials about classes on Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) as well as highly specific and idiosyncratic units like Conflict Resolution through Literature: Romeo and Juliet and a negotiating training package for female managers … Read More

Ripeness Theory in Dispute Resolution: Seizing the Day

Posted by & filed under Conflict Resolution.

The longer a dispute drags on, the less likely a collaborative solution often appears to be. But that view may be pessimistic: At a certain point, the time will be ripe for agreement. A labor dispute between the Minnesota Orchestra’s musicians and management highlights negotiation mistakes that can drive us apart—and ripeness theory suggests how … Read More

For Greater Value Creation, Look Beyond Your BATNA

Posted by & filed under BATNA.

For value creation in negotiation, you may need to look beyond your greatest source of power. You may have learned— perhaps in this newsletter or in Roger Fisher, William Ury, and Bruce Patton’s landmark negotiation book Getting to Yes: Negotiating Agreement Without Giving In (Penguin, 1991)—that your most powerful asset is often a strong BATNA, or … Read More

Taking the Plunge: How a Controversial Business Partnership Agreement was Born

Posted by & filed under Business Negotiations.

“A huge mistake.” “A shot in the dark.” “An audacious move.” Those are just a few of the media’s characterizations of the business partnership agreement between wireless carrier AT&T and media and entertainment firm Time Warner (now known as WarnerMedia). It was the biggest merger of 2016, with $85.4 billion in cash and stock transferring … Read More

Negotiation Examples in Real Life: Buying a Home

Posted by & filed under Business Negotiations.

While many of our articles discuss negotiation theory and the latest research, sometimes it helps to discuss negotiation examples in real life when offering negotiation tips and advice. The following negotiation example is based on bargaining in real estate, a negotiation scenario many of us may face in our lifetime. … Read Negotiation Examples in Real Life: Buying a Home

What is a Win-Win Negotiation?

Posted by & filed under Win-Win Negotiations.

In an episode of the American television show The Office, bumbling manager Michael Scott consults with a manual on conflict resolution while attempting to mediate a dispute between two of his subordinates, Angela and Oscar. After Scott explains that there are five approaches to resolving conflict, beginning with “win-lose,” an annoyed Angela interrupts: “Can we … Read What is a Win-Win Negotiation?

Negotiation Research: To Curb Deceptive Tactics in Negotiation, Confront “Paranoid Pessimism”

Posted by & filed under Teaching Negotiation.

Business negotiators often worry about deceptive tactics in negotiation, and understandably so. The potential for being lied to or swindled can be high in negotiation, given that our counterparts typically have access to information about preferences, alternatives, product quality, and so on, that we lack. Yet research shows that negotiators often behave honestly even when … Read More

The Importance of Negotiation in Business and Your Career

Posted by & filed under Business Negotiations.

What are the essential ingredients to getting ahead in the workplace? Hard work, communication skills, and a generous dose of luck all play a role, of course. Another key ingredient—one that is often overlooked—is the ability to recognize and capitalize on opportunities to negotiate for your career success. Why is negotiation in business important? Because … Read More

Expert Job Negotiation Advice for Long-Term Success

Posted by & filed under Salary Negotiations.

When you enter a job negotiation, what goals are foremost on your mind? If you’re like most people, you are primarily preoccupied with making a great impression and winning the job. Acing the interviews can seem like the only thing that matters, especially if you’ve been out of work or desperate to escape a miserable … Read More

5 Common Negotiation Mistakes and How You Can Avoid Them

Posted by & filed under Negotiation Skills.

Sometimes our negotiation mistakes are glaring: We accidentally reveal our bottom line, criticize the other party when patience was warranted, or get our numbers mixed up. More often, though, our negotiation mistakes are invisible: We get a perfectly good deal but are unaware that we could have gotten a better one if we hadn’t succumbed … Read More

Consensus On the Court Through Team Negotiation

Posted by & filed under Conflict Resolution.

“It’s my job to call balls and strikes, and not to pitch or bat,” Supreme Court chief justice John Roberts famously said at his 2005 confirmation hearing. The baseball metaphor appeared to be designed to reassure Democratic members of Congress and the public that Roberts would lead the court in nonpartisan team negotiation, despite a … Read Consensus On the Court Through Team Negotiation

7 Tips for Closing the Deal in Negotiations

Posted by & filed under Dealmaking.

“ABC: Always Be Closing.” That’s the sales strategy that actor Alec Baldwin’s character Blake shared in the 1992 film Glengarry Glen Ross as he tried to motivate a group of real estate salesmen. In his verbally abusive, profanity-laced speech, Blake presented a ruthless model of closing a business deal that ignores customers’ needs and cuts … Read 7 Tips for Closing the Deal in Negotiations

How Emotions Affect Negotiations

Posted by & filed under Negotiation Skills.

Emotions play a critical but little-understood role in negotiation. Strong emotions such as anger can derail negotiations, yet keeping emotions under wraps can lead to misunderstandings and impasse. Increasingly, researchers are looking more closely at how emotions affect negotiations. The results of two studies offer lessons related to the impact of emotions in negotiation. … Read How Emotions Affect Negotiations

5 Good Negotiation Techniques

Posted by & filed under Negotiation Skills.

You’ve mastered the basics of good negotiation techniques: you prepare thoroughly, take time to build rapport, make the first offer when you have a strong sense of the bargaining range, and search for wise tradeoffs across issues to create value. Now, it’s time to absorb five lesser-known but similarly effective negotiation topics and techniques that … Read 5 Good Negotiation Techniques

How to Resolve Cultural Conflict: Overcoming Cultural Barriers at the Negotiation Table

Posted by & filed under Conflict Resolution.

After recently losing an important deal in India, a business negotiator learned that her counterpart felt as if she had been rushing through the talks. The business negotiator thought she was being efficient with their time. In this useful cross-cultural conflict negotiation example, how should this negotiator improve her negotiation skills? … Read More

Preparation for Negotiation: Get Off on the Right Foot

Posted by & filed under Negotiation Skills.

The opening stages of negotiation can be filled with uncertainty. How assertive should you be? How can you set yourself up for success? What should an opening offer look like? To answer these questions accurately, thorough preparation for negotiation is key. Negotiation research offers guidelines to get talks off on the right track. … Read More

Save the Date: 40th Anniversary Celebration

Posted by & filed under Teaching Negotiation.

Celebrate our past, present, and future on Saturday, December 9th at the PON 40th Anniversary Symposium & Gala (registration info to follow) What began in 1983 as a small research project is now recognized as the world’s premier hub for negotiation training, pedagogy and scholarship. And that’s something to celebrate. Please join us in Cambridge to … Read Save the Date: 40th Anniversary Celebration

Negotiation Skills and Strategies: Winning Over Reluctant Counterparts

Posted by & filed under Conflict Resolution.

In the aftermath of the December 2012 killing of 20 children and six adults at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut, then-president Barack Obama moved gun control to the top of his legislative agenda. By April 2013, the Senate was considering requiring universal criminal background checks for all gun purchases and banning assault weapons … Read More

When Armed with Power in Negotiation, Use It Wisely

Posted by & filed under Business Negotiations.

The buzz of excitement that arose in February 2015 at the news that Harper Lee, author of the beloved novel To Kill a Mockingbird, would be publishing a second novel quickly turned to concern. The 88-year-old Lee, who suffered a stroke in 2007 and resided in an assisted-living facility in her hometown of Monroeville, Alabama, … Read More

Planning Your Syllabus for Next Semester? Check Out the Brief Course Outlines from the TNRC

Posted by & filed under Teaching Negotiation.

Planning a new course for next semester or looking to reinvent a current one? Check out our brief course outlines to get started planning your syllabus. The Teaching Negotiation Resource Center (TNRC) now offers brief outlines for eleven different course types which include recommended simulations and books and highlight key teaching points. While all teaching materials … Read More

Should Salary Expectations Be a Laughing Matter?

Posted by & filed under Business Negotiations.

In salary negotiations, job candidates are often at a disadvantage relative to the hiring organization. Due to the well-documented anchoring effect, the first figure introduced into the discussion tends to strongly influence the salary expectations. Unfortunately for candidates, the first figure mentioned in a negotiation often is not in their favor. … Read Should Salary Expectations Be a Laughing Matter?

Negotiation Mistakes: Apple TV’s Botched Expansion Deals

Posted by & filed under Business Negotiations.

Apple isn’t used to making negotiation mistakes. The company has often found success by charging headfirst into unfamiliar industries, from book publishing to music to mobile phones, and disrupting its long-standing business models. In the early 2000s, for example, the company’s cofounder, Steve Jobs, pressured music labels to switch from selling $15 CDs to selling … Read More

Bargaining Power in Negotiations: Leveling the Playing Field

Posted by & filed under Negotiation Skills.

Powerful negotiators can be formidable opponents. That’s in part because their bargaining power in negotiations—such as a high position in a hierarchy, wealth, or a great BATNA (best alternative to a negotiated agreement)—gives them considerable leverage. In addition, powerful individuals tend to demand more for themselves, in violation of fairness norms. Here’s a closer look … Read More

Negotiation Mistakes: When Fear of Impasse Leads to Bad Deals

Posted by & filed under BATNA.

Experienced negotiators understand that they should reject any deal on the table that is inferior to their best alternative to a negotiated agreement, or BATNA. At an auto dealership, for example, you shouldn’t buy a used car if you are pretty sure you can get a better deal on a comparable car elsewhere. Yet in … Read More

How Timing Can Influence the Anchoring Effect

Posted by & filed under Dealmaking.

Back on July 11, 2000, we were offered an excellent case study on the anchoring effect when U.S. president Bill Clinton welcomed Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak and Palestinian Authority Chairman Yasser Arafat to a summit at Camp David aimed at resolving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict once and for all. The summit covered various contentious issues, … Read How Timing Can Influence the Anchoring Effect

Threats in Negotiation: When and How to Make Effective Threats

Posted by & filed under Negotiation Skills.

What should you do when the other party won’t give you what you want in negotiation? Many negotiating tactics are available: Offer multiple proposals to find out what they value most, make tradeoffs to convey you’re willing to concede, find a different negotiating partner, and so on. Making threats in negotiation is another common strategy—one that … Read More

Stonewalling in Negotiations: Risks and Pitfalls

Posted by & filed under Negotiation Skills.

Contract negotiations between Jason Pierre-Paul and the New York Giants demonstrate the hazards of intentionally stonewalling your counterpart in negotiations. A successful defensive end with the Giants since 2010, Pierre-Paul was renegotiating his contract after a couple of mildly disappointing seasons. The Giants’ offer of a “franchise tag” designation did not sit well with Pierre-Paul, … Read Stonewalling in Negotiations: Risks and Pitfalls

How to Overcome Barriers and Save Your Negotiated Agreement at the Bargaining Table

Posted by & filed under Negotiation Skills.

Back in November 2012, Hostess Brands announced that it had failed to reach a negotiated agreement with its second-biggest union and, as a result, was permanently shutting down its operations. The news was met with dismay by baby boomers and others who had grown up with the 80-year-old company’s shelf-stable confections. But consumers had been passing … Read More

International Negotiations and Cognitive Biases in Negotiation

Posted by & filed under International Negotiation.

In discussing international negotiations and cognitive biases in negotiation, professor Cheryl Rivers of Queensland University of Technology in Brisbane, Australia, highlights in a negotiation research literature review, seasoned negotiators often hear stories about the unethical behaviors of people of other nationalities. Perhaps the toughest problems arise surrounding what Rivers calls “ethically ambiguous” negotiation tactics and … Read More

In Business Negotiations, Eat Before You Negotiate

Posted by & filed under Business Negotiations.

When preparing for your next business negotiation, you may want to strategize not only about what you’ll put on the bargaining table, but also how much food you’ll put in your belly beforehand. That’s the message of new research that Cornell University professor Emily Zitek and Dartmouth College professor Alexander Jordan presented at the annual … Read More

Arbitration vs Mediation: What’s Wrong with Traditional Arbitration?

Posted by & filed under Mediation.

Arbitration vs mediation: Traditionally, the arbitrator is not limited to selecting one of the parties’ contract proposals but may determine the contract terms on his own. If negotiators know that impasse will lead to traditional arbitration, they typically assume that the arbitrator will reach a decision that’s an approximate midpoint between their final offers. … Read More

Leadership Skills in Negotiation: How to Negotiate Equity Incentives with Senior Management

Posted by & filed under Leadership Skills.

How can you use your leadership skills in negotiation to divide the pie of resources with those that helped you grow it in the first place? In this negotiation case study, Kevin Mohan, Senior Lecturer at  Harvard Business School examines how executives can expand the pie while helping those who contribute claim equitable value. … Read More

The Negotiation Journal Wants to Hear From You!

Posted by & filed under Teaching Negotiation.

The Negotiation Journal would like your feedback on their Fall 2022 issue. The Negotiation Journal is a quarterly peer-reviewed journal published by the Program on Negotiation at Harvard Law School. The journal publishes articles that expand theoretical and practical knowledge in the realms of negotiation, mediation, other forms of alternative dispute resolution, and conflict resolution in … Read The Negotiation Journal Wants to Hear From You!

Negotiation in Business: Ethics, Bias, and Bargaining in Good Faith

Posted by & filed under Business Negotiations.

As we’ve discussed in previous articles about negotiation examples in business, a negotiator’s beliefs concerning negotiation ethics are affected by cognitive biases. You probably can recall times when a negotiating opponent made what appeared to be a blatant misstatement. If you’re like most people, you assumed the person was lying to gain an advantage. … Read More

Why Great Negotiators Earn More Money

Posted by & filed under Salary Negotiations.

What’s the best way to claim more money in a negotiation? Many professional negotiators would recommend hard-bargaining tactics, such as asking the other party to disclose their bottom line, standing firm on price, and threatening to walk away. But truly great negotiators recognize that using haggling strategies alone may leave significant money on the table. … Read Why Great Negotiators Earn More Money

Group Decision Making: Best Practices and Pitfalls

Posted by & filed under Crisis Negotiations.

When engaged in a complex group negotiation or dispute, how should you come to agreement? Members might separate into factions and fight to have their voices heard. They might take a vote and let the majority rule. Or they can try to negotiate their way to consensus. There are almost as many forms of group decision … Read More

Bargaining for a New Car: Real World Negotiations Examples

Posted by & filed under Business Negotiations.

When it comes to bargaining for a new car, are women negotiating harder bargains than men? According to a recent report from NPR Morning Edition’s Sonari Glinton, women not only negotiate harder bargains than men when it comes to vehicle purchases, but also they do more extensive preparatory work (See: Negotiating for What You Really Want- … Read More

When Sacred Values Lead to An Ideological Impasse

Posted by & filed under Conflict Resolution.

In October 2013, the two houses of Congress failed to reach agreement on appropriations funding for fiscal year 2014, triggering a government shutdown that lasted 16 days. The deadlock was rooted in the insistence of the Tea Party caucus of the Republican Party that the appropriations bill include language defunding President Barack Obama’s signature piece … Read When Sacred Values Lead to An Ideological Impasse

MESO: Make Multiple Equivalent Simultaneous Offers to Create Value in Dealmaking Table

Posted by & filed under Conflict Resolution.

MESO negotiation, a negotiation strategy for creating value with a counterpart who may be reluctant to negotiate, allows negotiators to propose multiple offers without signaling commitment or preference for any one option. Business negotiators that practice integrative negotiation strategies often complain that although they try to focus on creating value, they run into far too many difficult … Read More

Negotiation Skills and Bargaining Techniques from Female Executives

Posted by & filed under Leadership Skills.

Dozens of female CEOs and other high-level women negotiators have told us about their experiences negotiating in traditionally masculine contexts where standards and expectations were ambiguous. Their experiences varied according to the gender triggers that were present in the negotiations and they adapted their negotiation skills to accommodate these shifts. … Read More

Power in Negotiations: How to Maximize a Weak BATNA

Posted by & filed under BATNA.

In business negotiations, we tend to assume that it’s the more financially successful party that has an edge. But if that party has a weak BATNA, or best alternative to a negotiated agreement, it could be the seemingly weaker party that comes out on top. … Read More

Business Negotiation Skills to Curb Your Overconfidence

Posted by & filed under Business Negotiations.

To avoid the pitfalls of overconfidence, you need a clear understanding of how overconfidence is likely to affect your judgments and decisions (and those of your counterparts) at the bargaining table. Fortunately, new research suggests exactly when to expect overconfidence and offers insight into how you can prevent it from getting you into trouble in … Read More

How To Find a Mutually Satisfactory Agreement When Negotiators are Far Apart

Posted by & filed under Dispute Resolution.

In 2013, negotiators from Citigroup and the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) began meeting to find a mutually satisfactory agreement regarding what penalties the bank should face for allegedly defrauding investors in 2006 and 2007. The DOJ accused Citigroup of ignoring signs that a significant portion of the mortgages it had packaged and sold had … Read More

Negotiation Skills: Four Steps for Changing Negotiation Practices in Your Organization

Posted by & filed under Business Negotiations.

Individual negotiators are sometimes overwhelmed by the idea of leading organization-wide changes to negotiation practices. In fact, it doesn’t take much time or effort to set the wheels of reform in motion, write Hallam Movius and Lawrence Susskind in Built to Win. Here are four simple steps to implement in your workplace. … Read More

Business Negotiations: How to Improve Your Reputation at the Bargaining Table

Posted by & filed under Business Negotiations.

In multi-issue business negotiations, research suggests that the advantage goes to negotiators with a reputation for collaboration rather than competition. In a series of studies by Catherine H. Tinsley and Kathleen O’Connor, participants were told they would be negotiating with someone who had either a tough reputation, a cooperative reputation, or an unknown reputation. Although … Read More

Dear Negotiation Coach: Finding New Ways to Improve Hiring Practices

Posted by & filed under Leadership Skills.

Many people overlook the fact that hiring is a type of negotiation. We negotiate with our colleagues and ourselves about making the right choices, and we negotiate with candidates over expectations. As many people have experienced, however, hiring is anything but straightforward, and we often make mistakes. We spoke to Michael Luca, Lee J. Styslinger … Read More

Great Women Leaders Negotiate

Posted by & filed under Leadership Skills.

Great women leaders are no different than great male leaders—except that they may have faced more discrimination, lower expectations, and stronger resistance along the way. When women in leadership succeed, they often do so by cultivating successful negotiating skills. Here, we examine strategies that three top women in negotiation employed to become great women leaders. … Read Great Women Leaders Negotiate

Power Tactics in Negotiation: How to Gain Leverage with Stronger Parties

Posted by & filed under Crisis Negotiations.

When the other side seems to have all the power in a negotiation, what should you do? In recent years, that question has been an urgent one for many universities and libraries negotiating subscription agreements with the academic publishers that produce peer-reviewed scientific research journals. Confronted with skyrocketing pricing demands, several of these institutions have … Read More

Limiting Strategic Miscalculation in Business Negotiations

Posted by & filed under Negotiation Skills.

Over-precision doesn’t necessarily lead us to think we’re better negotiators than we actually are. Rather, it causes us to trust our initial instincts too much. Sometimes we’re actually overconfident that we’ll perform worse than others. This tendency applies to competitive situations, including negotiation. Those who underestimate their ability to be competitive usually will choose to stay out … Read More

Self-Analysis and Negotiation

Posted by & filed under Negotiation Skills.

“Separate the people from the problem,” advises the best-selling negotiation text Getting to Yes. That’s certainly good counsel when tempers flare and bargaining descends into ego battles, but it’s a mistake to ignore the psychological crosscurrents in negotiation. Unless they are addressed, a deal may never be reached. … Read Self-Analysis and Negotiation

Dispute Resolution for India and Bangladesh

Posted by & filed under International Negotiation.

Sometimes in international negotiation, disputes are left to fester for years, even decades, until parties decide there is something to be gained from reaching agreement. In an example of a cross cultural negotiation case study, the nations of Bangladesh and India seized on an opportunity to push the “restart” button on their bumpy relationship by … Read Dispute Resolution for India and Bangladesh

Negotiation Research Examines Ethics in Negotiating

Posted by & filed under Negotiation Skills.

Lack of transparency regarding negotiations between hospitals and the insurers known as preferred provider organizations, or PPOs, is a key contributor to spiraling health-care costs in the United States, back in a 2013 article in the New York Times. This topic has many questioning ethics in negotiating within the healthcare industry. The problem starts with the … Read More

Hardball Negotiation Tactics: Time Pressure in Major League Baseball

Posted by & filed under Business Negotiations.

Major League Baseball (MLB) games are known for their leisurely pacing. In recent years, off-season negotiations between teams and free agents have sometimes proceeded at a similarly glacial rate, to the consternation of players. Changing power dynamics have led teams to resort to hardball negotiation tactics, such as dragging out talks. As a result, players … Read More

Dear Negotiation Coach: Having Difficult Conversations Online

Posted by & filed under Conflict Resolution.

Engaging in difficult conversations online about politics and other hot-button issues often spiral quickly into conflict, leaving us feeling misunderstood, angry, and sometimes even ashamed of our own behavior. We spoke to Harvard Law School lecturer Sheila Heen—coauthor of Thanks for the Feedback: The Science and Art of Receiving Feedback Well (Viking, 2014) and Difficult … Read More

Negotiation in Business Without a BATNA – Is It Possible?

Posted by & filed under BATNA.

In a negotiation scenario, you always have a best alternative to a negotiated agreement. Negotiation research and negotiation strategy helps negotiators find their BATNA, leverage it at the bargaining table, and illustrates the impact that knowing your BATNA has on a negotiation. … Read More

Developing Negotiation Skills for Integrative Negotiations – Does Personality Matter?

Posted by & filed under Negotiation Skills.

Imagine that after some negative experiences at the bargaining table or if you are frustrated in your efforts to improve your negotiation skills, you’ve started to worry that you simply don’t have the right personality to be a great negotiator let alone a value-creating, integrative negotiations expert. The other party always seems to get the … Read More

Negotiating Strategies for Navigating Sensitive Topics

Posted by & filed under Negotiation Skills.

When devising negotiating strategies, some topics seem off-limits: difficult to bring up and perhaps impossible to resolve. Consider the following anecdotes: – In the process of negotiating an acquisition that would include key personnel, members of the buyer’s team are concerned about rumors that a top executive from the target firm has a serious drinking problem … Read More

Will You Avoid a Negotiation Impasse?

Posted by & filed under Negotiation Skills.

In the summer of 2016, Illinois became the only U.S. state in the past 80 years to go an entire year without a full operating budget, according to Reuters. It reached that dubious milestone thanks to an epic negotiation impasse between Republican governor Bruce Rauner and the Democratic-controlled state legislature. The story of the negotiation … Read Will You Avoid a Negotiation Impasse?

Ask A Negotiation Expert: How Can Women in the Workplace Gain Ground?

Posted by & filed under Teaching Negotiation.

Deborah Kolb, the Deloitte Ellen Gabriel Professor for Women in Leadership (Emerita) at Simmons College, shares strategies that women in the workplace can use to overcome pay and promotion gaps at work. Kolb is the coauthor (with Jessica L. Porter) of Negotiating at Work: Turn Small Wins into Big Gains (Jossey-Bass, 2015). Past research has suggested that … Read More

Negotiation Skills: Threat Response at the Bargaining Table

Posted by & filed under Negotiation Skills.

When someone issues a threat or an ultimatum, take a step back and diagnose the problem. Consider how you would respond to threats and ultimatums such as these during negotiation. In the face of such tough talk, should you strike back with a counterthreat? Probably not. Because counterthreats raise the emotional temperature of a negotiation, … Read More

Dealing with Difficult People? Negotiation Lessons from Ronald Reagan

Posted by & filed under Conflict Resolution.

In recent months, U.S. President Barack Obama and other world leaders have struggled to find a winning strategy to convince Russian President Vladimir Putin to back away from his aggressions toward Ukraine. In a Wall Street Journal editorial, Ken Adelman, U.S. President Ronald Reagan’s ambassador to the United Nations and arms-control director, writes that recently … Read More

Implicit and Explicit Bias: When Negotiators Discriminate Based on Race

Posted by & filed under Leadership Skills.

Implicit and explicit bias are common, whether the guilty parties are aware of it, or not.  On July 14, 2015, American Honda Finance Corporation (AHFC), the U.S. financing division of Japanese car manufacturer Honda, agreed to refund $24 million to minority borrowers to settle federal investigations. AHFC was alleged to have racially discriminated against the … Read More

The Process of Business Negotiation

Posted by & filed under Business Negotiations.

Negotiators are more satisfied with the outcome of a negotiation when they think the process has been fair, research shows. To maximize satisfaction and build a strong working relationship, don’t leave the process of business negotiation up to chance. Given the importance of negotiation in business communication, you’d be wise to consider the following seven … Read The Process of Business Negotiation

Techniques for Improving Your Negotiating Ability

Posted by & filed under Negotiation Skills.

Many organizations subject their executives to rigorous performance reviews, yet few companies include negotiation effectiveness as one of the core competencies they track. Instead, negotiation is usually subsumed under categories such as “emotional intelligence,” or “persuasiveness” and negotiation techniques and their improvement through negotiation training are not a regular part of employee training programs. … Read Techniques for Improving Your Negotiating Ability

Negotiating Skills: How to Bargain “Behind the Table”

Posted by & filed under Negotiation Skills.

After the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989, U.S. president George H. W. Bush and his secretary of state, James Baker, were eager to win international support for German reunification and German membership in NATO. But Soviet president Mikhail Gorbachev faced strong opposition to these measures from members of his own Communist Party. Both … Read More

How to Have Difficult Conversations During the Holidays and Beyond

Posted by & filed under Dealing with Difficult People.

In the United States and many other places, people seem more divided than ever before. Disagreement on political issues is common, but often we can’t even seem to agree on basic facts. As families come together during the winter holidays or simply post-quarantine, many wonder how to have difficult conversations regarding hot-button issues while preserving … Read More

Learning from Feedback without Losing Your Mind

Posted by & filed under Conflict Resolution.

During the coronavirus pandemic, you might have gotten a lot of feedback, whether from the new “coworkers” in your home, the boss you only see in video meetings, or strangers critical of your social-distancing practices. You can begin learning from feedback, though. Instead of retreating after receiving feedback, open up a conversation, Heen and Stone … Read Learning from Feedback without Losing Your Mind

How to Overcome Cultural Barriers in Negotiation

Posted by & filed under International Negotiation.

Imagine that you’re the American representative of a U.S. food company, and you’re hoping to procure a new ingredient for several of your products from a German company. A representative from the company is flying in to meet with you. Do you expect your German counterpart to behave differently than the Americans you typically deal … Read How to Overcome Cultural Barriers in Negotiation

Dear Negotiation Coach: Negotiation Interpreters Leave Space for Interpretation

Posted by & filed under International Negotiation.

Negotiators tend to view language interpreters as neutral in international negotiation, but reality is more complicated, according to Sanda Kaufman, a professor of Planning, Public Policy, and Administration at Cleveland State University who studies negotiation and intervention in urban, environmental, and organizational contexts. Fluent in four languages, Kaufman is also an experienced negotiation interpreter who … Read More

“No One is Really in Charge” Hostage Taking and the Risks of No-Negotiation Policies

Posted by & filed under Crisis Negotiations.

In the business world, we sometimes are tempted to avoid negotiating with people or groups we view to be immoral, untrustworthy, or simply unlikable. Imagine a counterpart who works in a business that you believe to be immoral, someone who has a reputation for gossiping about colleagues, or a longtime client who routinely falls back on hardball … Read More

Renegotiation Lessons from the NAFTA Talks

Posted by & filed under Dealmaking.

During the 2016 presidential campaign, Donald Trump blamed the trilateral North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) among Canada, Mexico, and the United States for the U.S. trade deficit with Mexico and for lost American manufacturing jobs. Upon taking office, Trump said he was determined to either engage in renegotiation of NAFTA or walk away from the … Read Renegotiation Lessons from the NAFTA Talks

Negotiation Tactics for Bargaining with Difficult People: The Comcast Merger

Posted by & filed under Dealing with Difficult People.

If a competitive bargaining session shifts in a counterpart’s direction, your anger could send the wrong signals to your negotiation counterpart. In this instance, strong emotions portray desperation rather than strength. Here are some bargaining and negotiation tactics for dealing with difficult situations in relationships. … Read More

VIDEO: William Ury on “Getting to Yes with Yourself”

Posted by & filed under Negotiation Skills, Videos.

At the Program on Negotiation at Harvard Law School, William Ury, a founding member of the Program on Negotiation and co-author of the seminal book Getting to Yes, spoke about his latest book, Getting to Yes with Yourself (and Other Worthy Opponents). Over 250 community members, students, and faculty members filled Austin Hall to hear Ury … Read More

Dear Negotiation Coach: Negotiating a Win Win Relationship with Friends

Posted by & filed under Dealmaking.

Though we’re often advised against mixing friends and business, it’s not only inevitable at times; it can also be beneficial to everyone involved. The key is to negotiate in a way that ensures a win win relationship between parties, and in bigger business deals, that may include seeking outside help. We connected with Guhan Subramanian, Joseph … Read More

How Your Communication Style Impacts Value Creation

Posted by & filed under Negotiation Skills.

In negotiation, we bring our unique personalities and styles to the table. A reserved, cautious person is likely to bargain differently than someone who is outgoing and proactive, for example. There is much we can do to improve our negotiation performance—such as preparing thoroughly and using proven persuasion strategies. But can we also improve our … Read More

Dear Negotiation Coach: Managing Expectations of Our Own

Posted by & filed under Dealmaking.

When we negotiate for others, managing expectations is often part of our job, especially if they aren’t familiar with the sometimes complex nature of negotiations. Similarly, we may find it necessary to deal with the expectations of our counterparts. However, it’s easy to overlook the fact that we have expectations of our own that we … Read More

BATNA Strategy: Negotiating When Negotiation Is Not the Norm

Posted by & filed under BATNA.

Many U.S. law schools are in crisis, to hear some tell it. During the recent recession, many law firms instituted mass layoffs and pay cuts, and few have fully recovered. As a result, college graduates are thinking twice about becoming lawyers, and many law schools have fewer high-quality applicants to choose from. In the past … Read More

Dear Negotiation Coach: What Happens When a Business Contract Falls Apart?

Posted by & filed under Business Negotiations.

We recently received a question from a reader regarding a business contract conflict. Robert Mnookin, Williston Professor of Law at Harvard Law School, chair of the Program on Negotiation, and author of Bargaining with the Devil: When to Negotiate, When to Fight (Simon & Schuster, 2010), explains that you may have more options than it … Read More

Negotiation Research: Using Hypothetical Questions in Aggressive Negotiations

Posted by & filed under Negotiation Skills.

Even when we’re engaged in aggressive negotiations, we can still frame things to keep the proceedings amicable. In a paper published in the Negotiation Journal, University of Amsterdam researchers Diyan Nikolov Grigorov and A. Francisca Snoeck Henkemans suggest that a particular kind of question may be especially useful when delivering offers and proposals in negotiation: hypothetical … Read More

3 Keys to Effective Leadership in Difficult Negotiations

Posted by & filed under Conflict Resolution.

A medical facility might not be the first place you think of for effective leadership in a negotiation. But that’s precisely what took place between a doctor and his patients. At Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center (MSKCC) in New York City, a leading cancer research and treatment institution, doctors often will advise men who are … Read More

Dear Negotiation Coach: How Can You Simplify Complex Negotiations with Stakeholder Alignment?

Posted by & filed under Business Negotiations.

In complex, multiparty negotiations, the task of value creation can quickly become overwhelming because of the large number of parties and interests at stake. An emerging process called “stakeholder alignment” can help construct order from chaos in complex negotiations, according to Joel Cutcher-Gershenfeld, a professor at the Heller School for Social Policy and Management at … Read More

Job Negotiation Advice from Leading Ladies

Posted by & filed under Salary Negotiations.

Thanks to a series of cultural events and news stories, job negotiation advice has become a hot topic among women professionals and businesspeople more generally. First came Facebook CEO Sheryl Sandberg’s book Lean In: Women, Work, and the Will to Lead (Knopf, 2013) and corresponding movement, which encouraged women to take on leadership roles and … Read Job Negotiation Advice from Leading Ladies

The Opposite of Autocratic Leadership Styles

Posted by & filed under Leadership Skills.

While the advantages and disadvantages of leadership styles are not always readily apparent, one thing is certain – being decisive while avoiding autocratic leadership tactics is necessary for successful leaders and negotiators alike. Navigating these treacherous waters can be extraordinarily challenging, but it can also give rise to creative decisions that help resolve disagreements in … Read The Opposite of Autocratic Leadership Styles

Business Negotiation Skills: How to Deal with a Failing Business Partnership

Posted by & filed under Business Negotiations.

It had seemed like the beginning of a fruitful relationship. In April 2012, six wealthy businessmen teamed up to buy the Philadelphia Inquirer and several affiliated businesses for $61.1 million, promising to work together to reverse the newspaper’s flagging fortunes. Their infusions of cash and appointment of a Pulitzer Prize–winning reporter, William K. Marimow, as … Read More

Dear Negotiation Coach: What Are Business Negotiation Skills for Entrepreneurs?

Posted by & filed under Teaching Negotiation.

To get an idea or innovation off the ground takes strong business negotiation skills as an entrepreneur. Yet, in their book Entrepreneurial Negotiation: Understanding and Managing the Relationships that Determine Your Entrepreneurial Success (Palgrave/Macmillan, 2018), Program on Negotiation instructor Samuel Dinnar and MIT professor Lawrence Susskind write that many entrepreneurs are falling short. Here, Susskind explains … Read More

Dear Negotiation Coach: Managing Expectations With Work Assignments

Posted by & filed under Leadership Skills.

Managers often find themselves managing expectations in the workplace. Sometimes, however, managing expectations isn’t just about employees and staff, it can be about our own ideas of how the workplace functions. Such was the case with a question we received regarding the delegation of a new project. Here’s the original question: I recently asked one of our … Read More

A Negotiation Impasse Between England and France Leads to Skirmish Over Scallops

Posted by & filed under Dispute Resolution.

When parties are fighting for scarce resources, disputes can become intense. Negotiation is often the answer, but agreements may need to be continually revisited to keep the peace, and a negotiation impasse can result in renewed conflict. That’s the main takeaway from the dispute that erupted in the English Channel between French and British fishermen … Read More

Dear Negotiation Coach: Eliminating Unconscious Biases at Work By Naming Them

Posted by & filed under Leadership Skills.

Black men and women continue to be vastly underrepresented in leadership roles in corporate America due to unconscious biases in the workplace, amongst other reasons that may be more conscious. Those who advance in majority-white organizations encounter both covert and overt bias, and often struggle to feel authentic and connected, write contributors to the book … Read More

Negotiation Research Says to Make Stronger First Offers in Multi-Issue Negotiations

Posted by & filed under Negotiation Skills.

Should you make the first offer in a negotiation? What about multi-issue negotiations? It’s not a trivial question. The negotiator who makes the first offer can powerfully anchor the discussion in her favor, research has found. In fact, the first offer accounts for between 50% and 85% of the variance in a negotiation’s final outcome, Adam … Read More

Labor Relations: Negotiating Collective Bargaining Agreements

Posted by & filed under Teaching Negotiation.

Contract bargaining in labor relations is one of the most complex areas of negotiation and dispute resolution. There are rarely clear cut or mutually agreed upon notions of what a fair salary and benefits package would be, so employers and workers, either individually or collectively, often find themselves at odds. Furthermore, contract bargaining in a … Read More

Dear Negotiation Coach: Building Trust with Reluctant Counterparts

Posted by & filed under Dealing with Difficult People.

Tetsushi Okumura is a professor at the Tokyo University of Science and has been a visiting scholar at Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management. His research articles have appeared in leading management and psychology journals, and he has translated into Japanese many popular books on negotiation. Recently, Okumura has been interviewing Japanese government negotiators to … Read More

Three-Party Coalition All-In-One Curriculum Package Now Available!

Posted by & filed under Teaching Negotiation.

Introducing a new way to go in-depth on the fundamental negotiation concepts and measure learning outcomes.  If you are new to teaching negotiation or are looking to go in-depth on the fundamental negotiation concepts, the Three-Party Coalition All-In-One Curriculum Package will provide you with everything you need to teach negotiation. Three-Party Coalition, one of the Teaching Negotiation Resource Center’s most popular … Read More

Dealing with Difficult People – Even When You Don’t Want To

Posted by & filed under Dealing with Difficult People.

In your negotiations, have you ever faced a truly difficult negotiator—someone whose behavior seems designed to provoke, thwart, and annoy you beyond all measure? We often have strong incentives to negotiate with those we find obstinate, unpredictable, abrasive, or untrustworthy. When we avoid dealing with difficult people, we risk missing out on important opportunities. But … Read More

Are Introverts at a Disadvantage in Negotiation?

Posted by & filed under Negotiation Skills.

Are extroverts by nature better negotiators than introverts? Or are they at a disadvantage in negotiation? As we’ll see, the answer is far from decided. However, we all have clear opportunities to build on our own strengths and learn from those of others. Introversion is a personality trait marked by a desire to think through ideas … Read Are Introverts at a Disadvantage in Negotiation?

We Want Your Feedback!

Posted by & filed under Teaching Negotiation.

Your opinion really matters. Please take a moment to complete our short survey. Dear TNRC Community, We want to be sure that the Teaching Negotiation Resource Center (TNRC) at the Program on Negotiation at Harvard Law School is meeting your needs. We regularly develop new role play simulations, case studies and teaching videos, as well as host pedagogy-focused … Read We Want Your Feedback!

Parker-Gibson All-In-One Curriculum Package is Now Available!

Posted by & filed under Teaching Negotiation.

New to Teaching Negotiation?  If you are new to teaching negotiation or are looking to go in-depth on the fundamental negotiation concepts, the Parker-Gibson All-In-One Curriculum Package will provide you with everything you need to teach negotiation. Parker-Gibson, one of the Teaching Negotiation Resource Center’s most popular simulations, is a two-party, single-issue, distributive negotiation between two neighbors regarding the potential sale … Read More

Managing Difficult Negotiations: Lessons from the 2015-2017 Illinois Budget Impasse

Posted by & filed under Dispute Resolution.

On July 6, 2017, the state of Illinois finally resolved a 793-day budget impasse, the longest such impasse in U.S. history. The economically devastating stalemate between Republican then-governor Bruce Rauner and the Democratic-controlled state legislature, triggered by hardball negotiation tactics, offers lessons to negotiators managing difficult negotiations. An Agenda and a Condition As Illinois politicians approached negotiations … Read More

Dear Negotiation Coach: Breaking Bad News in Negotiation

Posted by & filed under Negotiation Training.

Like it or not, we sometimes have to deliver bad news in negotiation. We spoke with Leslie John, Associate Professor at Harvard Business School, to find out how to accomplish this without ruining a relationship. It began with this question. Q: I am a real-estate agent working in a relatively active market. Unfortunately, market conditions mean … Read More

Harborco All-In-One Curriculum Package Now Available!

Posted by & filed under Teaching Negotiation.

Introducing a new way to go in-depth when teaching the most important negotiation concepts and to measure learning outcomes. If you are new to teaching negotiation or are looking to go in-depth in teaching key concepts about multiparty negotiation, the Harborco All-In-One Curriculum Package will provide you with everything you need. Harborco, one of the Teaching Negotiation … Read More

The Importance of Communication in Multiparty Negotiations

Posted by & filed under Negotiation Skills.

When a team is preparing for a critical negotiation, members need to appoint a leader, allocate roles and responsibilities, and discuss their at-the-table strategy. Another key objective that teams sometimes fail to discuss is the importance of staying “on message” – that is, making sure that statements by individual members don’t contradict the group’s agreed-upon … Read More

Government Negotiations: The Brittney Griner Case

Posted by & filed under International Negotiation.

In February 2022, Women’s National Basketball Association (WNBA) star Brittney Griner was arrested in Russia, where she plays for a professional basketball team during the WNBA offseason, after being accused of bringing vape cartridges with cannabis oil into the country. She faces 10 years imprisonment in a Russian penal colony. Given the extreme tensions between … Read Government Negotiations: The Brittney Griner Case

When Business Negotiation Tactics Fail

Posted by & filed under Business Negotiations.

When business negotiation tactics fail to consider outside interests, especially in the case of international mergers, deals can fall apart quickly. Automakers Renault and Fiat Chrysler discovered this when they ignored other stakeholders in an ill-fated attempt at a deal. The idea of a merger was sparked because of tightening global competition and demand for new … Read When Business Negotiation Tactics Fail

The Collective Leadership Approach to Negotiating Climate Action

Posted by & filed under Teaching Negotiation.

Former UNFCCC Executive Secretary Christiana Figueres received the Program on Negotiation’s 2022 Great Negotiator Award. On April 14, 2022, the Program on Negotiation (PON) presented its Great Negotiator Award to Christiana Figueres, formerly the Executive Secretary of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and one of the architects of the 2015 Paris Climate Agreement. … Read More

Sally Soprano All-In-One Curriculum Package is Now Available!

Posted by & filed under Teaching Negotiation.

New to Teaching Negotiation?  If you are new to teaching negotiation or are looking to go in-depth on the fundamental negotiation concepts, the Sally Soprano All-In-One Curriculum Package will provide you with everything you need to teach negotiation. Sally Soprano, one of the Teaching Negotiation Resource Center’s most popular simulations, is a two-party negotiation between the agent … Read More

Ask A Negotiation Expert: Learning From Humanitarian Negotiations Amid International Conflict

Posted by & filed under Negotiation Skills.

International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) president Peter Maurer views negotiation as integral to the ICRC’s mission of providing humanitarian aid to people in international conflict zones. A former Swiss minister of foreign affairs and ambassador to the United Nations, Maurer is the ICRC’s chief negotiator and promotes the development of negotiation skills within … Read More

Dear Negotiation Coach: Deal Structuring and Negotiating with “Bad Acts”

Posted by & filed under Dealmaking.

Deal structuring and negotiating can feel challenging in the best of situations. But when you’re dealing with “bad acts,” there are additional factors to consider when you structure your negotiation strategy. This is what one reader asked about when facing a deal to buy out a company. Here’s their question: Q: I work for an international … Read More

Negotiation Research: When Many BATNAs Are Worse Than One

Posted by & filed under BATNA.

Negotiators are often taught that the more alternatives they have, the more fortunate they are. If it’s good to have one strong best alternative to a negotiated agreement, or BATNA, then it’s better to have many BATNAs, right? Not necessarily, results from a study by Michael Schaerer of INSEAD and his colleagues show. In a series … Read More

Bakra Beverage All-In-One Curriculum Package is Now Available!

Posted by & filed under Teaching Negotiation.

New to Teaching Negotiation? If you are new to teaching negotiation or are looking to go in-depth on the fundamental negotiation concepts, the Bakra Beverage All-In-One Curriculum Package will provide you with everything you need to teach negotiation. Bakra Beverage, one of the Teaching Negotiation Resource Center’s most popular simulations, is a two-party negotiation between a beverage manufacturer and a … Read More

Ask A Negotiation Expert: Trends in Merger and Acquisition Strategies

Posted by & filed under Teaching Negotiation.

We recently spoke with Guhan Subramanian, the Joseph H. Flom Professor of Law and Business at Harvard Law School and the H. Douglas Weaver Professor of Business Law at Harvard Business School, regarding trends in merger and acquisition strategies and how that’s impacting negotiations.  Negotiation Briefings: In your research, you’ve found that the way in which … Read More

When Good Negotiations Go Sour: When Mark Wahlberg Asked for More

Posted by & filed under Dealmaking.

Good negotiations can easily be spoiled when the outcome is in poor taste. After actor Kevin Spacey faced multiple accusations of sexual misconduct in late 2017, director Ridley Scott and Imperative Entertainment, the company that produced and financed the film All the Money in the World, decided to edit Spacey out of the film and hire … Read More

Dear Negotiation Coach: Is There a Negotiating Strategy That Will Make Ideas Resonate?

Posted by & filed under Negotiation Skills.

Q: I’ve pitched many great ideas for change to my organization, but management never takes action on any of them. Even when my organization specifically requests ideas for new products or processes, it’s always a colleague’s idea that gets chosen over mine. Negotiators are good at persuasion. Do you have any tips to increase my … Read More

Teaching Critical Leadership Skills

Posted by & filed under Teaching Negotiation.

Running a multinational corporation, starting a small business, or leading a diplomatic mission all require critical leadership skills. Being an effective leader necessitates negotiating both within your organization and with external partners. In Real Leaders Negotiate, author Jeswald Salacuse explains that leaders can increase their effectiveness by using negotiation in each of the three phases … Read Teaching Critical Leadership Skills

Negotiating with the Enemy

Posted by & filed under Dealing with Difficult People.

Should negotiating with the enemy always be off the table? The 2014 Bergdahl exchange offers insights for negotiators who are deciding whether to do business with a known enemy. On May 31, 2014 the White House made the surprise announcement that the Taliban had released Sergeant Bowe Bergdahl, the sole American prisoner of war in the … Read Negotiating with the Enemy

Dear Negotiation Coach: Can Negotiation Theory Help Us Understand Our Religious Identity?

Posted by & filed under Negotiation Skills.

Negotiation theory suggests you focus on interests, not positions; separate inventing from committing; invest heavily in “What if?” questions; insist on objective criteria; and try to build nearly self-enforcing agreements. But what if the negotiation is with yourself, or about your own religious identity? For example, what does it mean to be Jewish in America? What challenges … Read More

Relationship-Building in Negotiation

Posted by & filed under Business Negotiations.

Forging close bonds typically helps negotiators reach better deals, work together effectively over time, and manage conflict—yet negotiators often rush through the process of relationship-building in negotiation. Here’s advice on how to approach this important aspect of negotiation more methodically. Overcome Partisan Perceptions An unconscious bias often gets in the way of relationship-building in negotiation: partisan perceptions, or … Read Relationship-Building in Negotiation

Dear Negotiation Coach: Can External Advisers Hinder a Problem Solving Approach?

Posted by & filed under Mediation.

There are numerous advantages to hearing from external advisers and experts in a high-stakes negotiation. However, when talks are at an impasse, limiting the negotiation to a small number of participants may be a more beneficial problem solving approach than including outside opinions. This was at the heart of a recent question answered by Guhan Subramanian, … Read More

Collective Leadership and the Paris Climate Change Agreement

Posted by & filed under Leadership Skills.

On April 14, the Program on Negotiation presented its 2022 Great Negotiator Award to Costa Rican diplomat Christiana Figueres for her success in spearheading the 2015 Paris Agreement on climate change. In a daylong series of events, including a public interview led by Harvard Kennedy School professor Hannah Riley Bowles and Harvard Business School professor … Read More

In Crisis Negotiations, Stay Rational Under Pressure

Posted by & filed under Crisis Negotiations.

At the time, it seemed to be an example of coolheaded dealmaking in the midst of disaster. In 2009, hit hard by the 2008 financial crisis and changes in consumer preferences, U.S. automaker Chrysler was on the brink of collapse. The U.S. Treasury Department stepped in to run a crisis negotiation. In exchange for about … Read More

How Serious is Your Agent’s Conflict of Interest?

Posted by & filed under Dispute Resolution.

The television industry has undergone seismic changes in recent decades, first with cable TV joining broadcast TV, followed by the rise of digital streaming companies such as Netflix, Amazon Prime, and Hulu. In today’s “peak TV” era, companies are producing hundreds of shows to fill viewers’ binge-watching appetites. In some ways, it’s a golden age … Read More

Dear Negotiation Coach: Is Age a Factor to Bargaining in Good Faith?

Posted by & filed under Dealmaking.

Perhaps even more than in person, bargaining in good faith is essential in negotiations conducted through email. With no visual cues or body language, there can be numerous assumptions, both beneficial and otherwise, that can impact a deal between two people. Such was the case in a recent question we received regarding whether age should … Read More

BATNA Analysis Can Help You Avoid the Agreement Trap

Posted by & filed under BATNA.

In both our personal and our business negotiations, “getting to yes” is typically the ultimate goal. Negotiation research and advice tend to focus on identifying the conditions that can help people overcome their differences, relax firm positions, and reach harmonious terms that could lead to a mutually fulfilling long-term relationship. This mindset risks downplaying the fact … Read More

Tough Negotiator: Insights on Vladimir Putin from Former U.S. Secretaries of State

Posted by & filed under International Negotiation.

How should you prepare to negotiate effectively with an exceptionally tough negotiator? That’s the question the United States and its allies have faced since Russian president Vladimir Putin sent his troops to wage war on Ukraine on February 24. The experiences and insights of five former U.S. secretaries of state who negotiated directly with Putin … Read More

Moving Toward Group Conflict Resolution

Posted by & filed under Conflict Resolution.

Over the years, what many believe to be Jesus’s tomb in Jerusalem’s Old City has been the site of tensions that have at times escalated into violence. Inside the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, Greek Orthodox, Armenian Orthodox, and Roman Catholic communities guard the shrine surrounding the tomb, which they consider the holiest site in … Read Moving Toward Group Conflict Resolution

Dear Negotiation Coach: Plan Ahead for Negotiation Mistakes

Posted by & filed under Negotiation Skills.

We recently had a question about some common negotiation mistakes people make while they’re still preparing for a negotiation. Kessely Hong, Senior Lecturer in Public Policy and the Faculty Chair of the MPA Programs and the Mid-Career MPA Summer Program at the Harvard Kennedy School, took time to discuss these mistakes and steps we can … Read More

In Business Disputes, Conflict Resolution Styles Can Make All the Difference

Posted by & filed under Negotiation Skills.

Business disputes don’t have to be antagonistic. Nor does litigation need to be the go-to method of solving conflicts. Thoughtful negotiation can often often result in an amicable solution. To see the difference between two different conflict resolution styles, take a look at two real-life copyright cases in the music industry. Imagine that you’re an up-and-coming … Read More

For Hollywood Writers, a Heavily Negotiated Business Contract

Posted by & filed under Conflict Resolution.

In its negotiations for a new business contract with entertainment companies back in 2017, the Writers Guild of America (WGA) delivered at the bargaining table what many film and TV viewers crave onscreen: plenty of suspense and a hard-won, if imperfect, victory. The WGA, which represents more than 12,000 film and TV writers, negotiated for seven … Read More

Dealing with Difficult People and Unethical Negotiation Tactics

Posted by & filed under Business Negotiations.

The fallout from unfair and ill-advised negotiated agreements can reverberate for years to come, as the City of Miami learned from its 2009 stadium deal with former Florida Marlins owner Jeffrey Loria. The story highlights aspects of dealing with difficult people, including their threats, questionable claims, and other potentially unethical negotiation tactics. The Great Switcheroo Back in … Read More

Government Negotiations and Beyond: Using Carrots and Sticks Effectively

Posted by & filed under International Negotiation.

In 1987 government negotiations, U.S. president Ronald Reagan and Soviet General Secretary Mikhail Gorbachev took early steps to end the Cold War by signing the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) arms control treaty in Washington, D.C. Banning all ground-launched nuclear and conventional missile systems within a certain range, the INF treaty put in place a strict … Read More

Facing an Email Negotiation? Take a Proactive Approach

Posted by & filed under Negotiation Skills.

As a format for complex deals, email negotiation has a bad reputation. Negotiators are more likely to deceive one another when using email, and they have trouble building trust and rapport in email messages. Furthermore, some research has found that negotiators achieve less joint gain and are less satisfied with their outcomes when negotiating over … Read More

Trump’s Negotiating Style as President-Elect

Posted by & filed under Dealmaking.

Donald J. Trump entered the Oval Office with considerable dealmaking experience in the business world. But his blank slate as an elected official combined with his fluctuating positions on key issues such as immigration and tax policy throughout the presidential race left many wondering what his negotiating style would be. In the months between being elected U.S. president … Read Trump’s Negotiating Style as President-Elect

Ask the Negotiation Coach: Questioning Negotiation Dialogue

Posted by & filed under Negotiation Skills.

A common question around negotiation dialogue is how to elicit information from a counterpart. Here’s one such question from a reader: I’ve been told that learning information about my counterparts—their preferences, fears, goals, strengths, and weaknesses—is critical for success in negotiation. I need to understand what others care about to be able to trade for issues … Read More

Dear Negotiation Coach: Find Out How To Resolve Conflict By Addressing Dignity Concerns

Posted by & filed under Negotiation Skills.

Dignity violations can often be found at the core of interpersonal conflicts, according to Dr. Donna Hicks, an associate at Harvard’s Weatherhead Center for International Affairs. The author of Leading with Dignity: How to Create a Culture That Brings Out the Best in People (Yale University Press, 2018), Hicks shared with us how to resolve conflict … Read More

Dear Negotiation Coach: Is There Promise in Online Negotiation?

Posted by & filed under Negotiation Skills.

In this edition of Dear Negotiation Coach, Harvard Business School professor Max H. Bazerman describes how online negotiation could increase efficiency and trust in many realms. In-person negotiations can offer advantages over electronic negotiations—for example, in terms of rapport building and value creation. But what advantages might online negotiation have over face-to-face negotiation? Max H. Bazerman: Online … Read More

Negotiation Research You Can Use: Are Women More or Less Likely than Men to Use Deceptive Tactics in Negotiation

Posted by & filed under Business Negotiations.

Men tend to claim more resources than women in negotiation. Why? Gender discrimination and men’s greater propensity to negotiate are two explanations backed up by research. In a study, University of North Carolina professor Jason R. Pierce and Northwestern University professor Leigh Thompson identified another reason: men are more willing than women to resort to … Read More

Adapting the BATNA for International Cultural Differences

Posted by & filed under BATNA.

The BATNA (best alternative to a negotiated agreement) concept, popularized by Roger Fisher, William Ury, and Bruce Patton in their book Getting to Yes (Penguin Books, third edition, 2011), has been disseminated all over the world and doubtless helped thousands avoid settling for less than what they want in negotiations. When you have identified your … Read More

Dear Negotiation Coach: How Can You De-bias Job Negotiations?

Posted by & filed under Teaching Negotiation.

In many organizations, policies and systems perpetuate gender and racial discrimination and inequality, including higher pay for white men as compared to others for the same work. Harvard Kennedy School professor Iris Bohnet, the author of What Works: Gender Equality by Design (Belknap Press, 2016), overviews steps professionals can take to promote wiser, more equitable … Read More

Negotiation Research You Can Use: Moving from In-Person to Online Mediation

Posted by & filed under Mediation.

Laptops, smartphones, databases, and project-management software have become common tools of the negotiation trade. Meanwhile, even as online dispute resolution has risen in popularity, online mediation remains elusive, with mediation being a largely technology-free zone, with smartphones often turned off and tucked away. “The field of mediation has proved surprisingly resistant to technological influence, an island … Read More

Dear Negotiation Coach: Does Communication Style Matter in Negotiation?

Posted by & filed under Teaching Negotiation.

We recently spoke with Harvard Business School Professor Francesca Gino about communication style in negotiations. The question arises frequently of whether you can achieve better results with a tough, no nonsense approach or through a coming across as more approachable and warm. The reality is more nuanced, however, as Professor Gino describes.

Negotiation Skills

Claim your FREE copy: Negotiation Skills

Build powerful negotiation skills and become a better dealmaker and leader. Download 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.

NB: In your research, … Read More

Managing Negotiators? Avoid 3 Common Negotiation Mistakes

Posted by & filed under Leadership Skills.

In 2019, face-to-face meetings between then U.S. president Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, held in Hanoi, Vietnam, came to an abrupt end after Kim insisted that the United States lift all economic sanctions against his country in return for denuclearization. Trump refused and ended the talks, telling reporters, “Sometimes you have to … Read More

Dear Negotiation Coach: Will a Flexible Schedule Change Salary Expectations?

Posted by & filed under Leadership Skills.

Even before the coronavirus pandemic, remote work and flexible schedules were gaining popularity. While plenty of surveys tout the popularity of this flexibility, Alexandre Mas, Professor of Economics and Public Affairs at Princeton University and Amanda Pallais, Professor of Economics at Harvard University put it to the test to find out if employees would lower … Read More

Dear Negotiation Coach: Determining the Right Compensation Offer After a Disaster

Posted by & filed under Dispute Resolution.

In the aftermath of a large-scale catastrophe or disaster in the United States—such as 9/11, the opioid epidemic, and mass shootings—the courts can be ill-equipped to take on the complex task of negotiating a compensation offer for large numbers of claimants. Instead, “special masters” are often assigned to create and administer victim-compensation programs, a job … Read More

Leadership Principles: The Importance of Follow-Through

Posted by & filed under Leadership Skills.

Major-league sports franchises in the United States have a history of moving from town to town in search of bigger markets and higher profits—often breaking hearts and promises in the process. The story of how the National Football League (NFL) team formerly known as the St. Louis Rams came to move to Los Angeles in … Read More

Dear Negotiation Coach: The Case for Lowering Your Salary Expectations

Posted by & filed under Dealing with Difficult People.

We received a question regarding salary expectations and the potential problems with lowering those expectations. Francesca Gino, Tandon Family Professor of Business Administration at Harvard Business School and author of Sidetracked: Why Our Decisions Get Derailed, and How We Can Stick to the Plan (Harvard Business Review Press, 2013) shared an answer that’s applicable not … Read More

New Negotiation Tactics for Your Multiparty Negotiation Toolkit

Posted by & filed under Dealmaking.

“Confessionals.” “Informal informals.” “Indabas.” Delegates from the 196 nations participating in the U.N. Climate Change Conference, held in Paris at the end of 2015, cycled through an eclectic variety of negotiating formats in their race to make binding commitments to lower greenhouse-gas emissions. According to media reports, the participants’ willingness to shake up the complex … Read More

Ask A Negotiation Expert: Making Our Good Negotiation Skills Even Better

Posted by & filed under Teaching Negotiation.

We recently spoke to Harvard Business School professor Michael Wheeler about the challenges and opportunities of learning good negotiation skills from our real life bargaining situations. Wheeler is the author of The Art of Negotiation: How to Improvise Agreement in a Chaotic World (Simon & Schuster, 2013) and the “Negotiation 360” preparation app, which is … Read More

Dear Negotiation Coach: Negotiating Equity Compensation with Senior Managers

Posted by & filed under Salary Negotiations.

Negotiating equity compensation isn’t as straightforward as it might seem, especially in privately held businesses. We shared a question from one of our readers with Kevin Mohan, Senior Lecturer of Business Administration at Harvard Business School, to gain insight on how to deal with this increasingly common negotiation scenario.

Negotiation Skills

Claim your FREE copy: Negotiation Skills

Build powerful negotiation skills and become a better dealmaker and leader. Download 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.

How to approach negotiating equity compensation in … Read More

The Value of Using Scorable Simulations in Negotiation Training

Posted by & filed under Teaching Negotiation.

At a Teaching Negotiation Resource Center (TNRC) faculty pedagogy seminar, members of the PON faculty and negotiation community gathered to hear Gordon Kaufman (MIT Morris A. Adelman Professor of Management, Emeritus) speak about how he uses quantifiable data to plot student-learning trajectories. The conversation focused on the ongoing debate within the negotiation pedagogy community regarding the way … Read More

Dear Negotiation Coach: How Do I Handle Reverse Auctions in a Business Contract Negotiation

Posted by & filed under Negotiation Skills.

Reverse auctions are becoming a more frequent reality of business contract negotiations as companies work to cut expenses. In most negotiations, however, price is not the only issue. Guhan Subramanian, Joseph Flom Professor of Law & Business at Harvard Law School and Douglas Weaver Professor of Business Law at Harvard Business School, answered a question … Read More

When Negotiation Mistakes Compound over Time

Posted by & filed under Business Negotiations.

When we think of our worst negotiation mistakes, they tend to be recent blunders. But what about negotiation mistakes whose repercussions accumulate over years, even decades? A failed negotiation case study from 1976 shows how carelessly negotiated deals can lead to long-term headaches and losses. A Short Season In 1974, brothers Ozzie and Daniel Silna, Latvian immigrant … Read When Negotiation Mistakes Compound over Time

Emotional Leadership Can Have a Silver Lining in Negotiation

Posted by & filed under Negotiation Skills.

The negotiations that surrounded the 1962 Cuban missile crisis were some of the most tense and frightening in world history, and provide a high-profile example of emotional leadership. Having learned that the Soviet Union had deployed ballistic missiles to Cuba, the United States orchestrated a military naval blockade to prevent the Soviets from delivering more … Read More

Consensus Building on the Court?

Posted by & filed under Dealmaking.

When making decisions, groups often hold a simple vote and allow the majority to get its way. But groups that instead work to reach decisions through consensus building tend to reach agreements that are more stable, more efficient, and wiser than groups that make decisions through majority rule, write Lawrence E. Susskind and Jeffrey L. … Read Consensus Building on the Court?

New Simulation: Having Difficult Conversations Over Email

Posted by & filed under Teaching Negotiation.

Negotiating over email has its own unique challenges and opportunities. For example, people often assume that the emails they have sent are read immediately and so experience anxiety when there isn’t a prompt response, failing to account for reasonable delays. On the other hand, email negotiations also provide a permanent record of what is discussed … Read More

Ask A Negotiation Expert: Using Law Teaching Materials to Build Bridges

Posted by & filed under Teaching Negotiation.

Amid our polarized political climate, dysfunction and conflict seem to rule the day in the U.S. Congress and state legislatures. To help legislators and their staff learn to build bridges and negotiate through impasse, the Harvard Kennedy School (HKS) Legislative Negotiation Project, with support from the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation Madison Initiative, has developed … Read More

Digitally Enhanced Simulation Packages – With Live Data Analytics

Posted by & filed under Teaching Negotiation.

In-depth Teaching Materials with Real Time Data Analytics Designed to Enhance Teaching Negotiation  From the Teaching Negotiation Resource Center (TNRC) at PON, and iDecisionGames: digitally enhanced simulation packages designed to take your teaching to the next level. The Enhanced Simulation Package from the TNRC and iDecisionGames brings a new, interactive learning experience to teaching negotiation. This easy … Read More

What Are Our Students Actually Learning? Gauging Effectiveness in Teaching Negotiation

Posted by & filed under Pedagogy at PON, Teaching Negotiation.

Ways of Gauging Effectiveness in Teaching Negotiation Most instructors aspire to do more than simply teach students about negotiation. They want to teach students how to negotiate more effectively. That’s an ambitious goal, given the complexity of the process. Negotiation success requires keen analysis and deft social skills, along with a mix of confidence and humility. … Read More

Elements of Negotiation Style: Angela Merkel

Posted by & filed under International Negotiation.

What is your negotiation style? Some negotiators make a strong impression through bold opening statements and mesmerizing presentations. Others closely observe and gather information before making any decisive moves. Angela Merkel, who chose not to run for reelection in 2021 after nearly 16 years as Germany’s chancellor, has demonstrated the latter type of negotiation style: … Read Elements of Negotiation Style: Angela Merkel

New International Negotiation Simulations: Teaching International Negotiation with Current Global Dynamics

Posted by & filed under Teaching Negotiation.

With the spread of a global pandemic, climate crisis, and the war on terror, resolving international conflicts has become increasingly complex. Training to address these difficult global conflicts must also reflect the modern issues and dynamics that face the international community. The Teaching Negotiation Resource Center (TNRC) has several new international negotiation simulations that reflect … Read More

Dear Negotiation Coach: What is the Secret to Negotiating with Kids Successfully?

Posted by & filed under Win-Win Negotiations.

Some of our toughest negotiations happen away from the bargaining table. In fact, they may happen closer to our dinner table. We recently received a question from a reader about negotiation with kids, and asked Program on Negotiation’s Katie Shonk for some insight. Q: I avoid using hardball tactics in my professional negotiations since they often … Read More

Business Skills: Make Concessions Strategically in Negotiation

Posted by & filed under Business Negotiations.

Business negotiators generally understand that to get what they want from another party or parties, they will have to give something away. But what concessions should you offer in the deal-making process, and what form should they take? New research on concession making in negotiation offers tips to add to your repertoire of business skills. Finding … Read More

Negotiating Organizational Development

Posted by & filed under Teaching Negotiation.

Teach Your Students to Promote Organizational Development and Build Leadership Skills Efforts to impact change in any kind of organization usually involve multiple kinds of negotiations or consensus-building efforts. Organizational development is most effective when the participants in the organization, whether public, private or civil society, are directly engaged in deciding what might need to change, … Read Negotiating Organizational Development

Coping with Conflicts of Interest in an Offer Negotiation

Posted by & filed under Business Negotiations.

This famous offer negotiation illustrates how negotiators and other decision makers sometimes have the difficult task of remaining impartial when facing a conflict of interest. The actions of the special committee of Dell’s board as the company’s CEO and founder, Michael Dell, moved forward with a leveraged buyout suggest precautions you can take when navigating … Read More

New Simulation on Negotiating the Future of Dams

Posted by & filed under Teaching Negotiation.

Pearl River is a seven party, facilitated, multi-issue negotiation over the management of dams in a coastal basin.  Pearl River is a facilitated, multi-issue negotiation simulation for eight or nine participants about the management of five dams in the hypothetical Pearl River basin. This science-based negotiation simulation provides an opportunity for learning about and discussing larger-scale … Read New Simulation on Negotiating the Future of Dams

Dear Negotiation Coach: How Can I Use Deal Structuring and Negotiating to Resolve an Impasse?

Posted by & filed under Dealmaking.

When two sides seem far apart on a contract dispute, careful and creative deal structuring and negotiating can often result in a winning agreement for both sides. Here’s an example of how that might look in a business deal, based on a question we recently received. “My company, a large multinational, contracts with an outside vendor … Read More

Salary Expectations: Calibrating Pay During a Labor Shortage

Posted by & filed under Salary Negotiations.

Employers may strive to set and negotiate salaries in a fair manner, but numerous factors can affect employees’ salary expectations and lead employees to believe they are being treated unfairly. Consider Karen Womack, a warehouse manager at Seattle’s T-Mobile Park, the home of Major League Baseball’s Seattle Mariners. Womack was earning $16.70 per hour before the … Read More

Using Effective Group Leadership to Bring a Multiparty Agreement Back from the Brink

Posted by & filed under Business Negotiations.

In December 2015 in Paris, delegates from 195 nations celebrated the results of effective group leadership when they reached agreement on a landmark global climate accord. But a year and a half later, the future of the accord sank into doubt when American president Donald Trump revealed he was withdrawing the United States from the … Read More

Dear Negotiation Coach: Are There Benefits To the Absence of Truth in Negotiations?

Posted by & filed under Negotiation Skills.

We hear a lot about the benefits of telling the truth in negotiations. But some negotiators find themselves struggling with the question of how trusting to be. Is there a benefit to mistrust in negotiation? Should you always assume your counterpart is telling the truth? In negotiation, our outcomes depend in large part on our ability … Read More

Using Business Negotiation Skills To Move a Deal in your Favor

Posted by & filed under Salary Negotiations.

Performers have increasingly learned business negotiation skills and played an outsized role in shaping plays and musicals vying for a Broadway stage. In 2016, the original off-Broadway cast of Hamilton negotiated with the show’s producers to acknowledge their contributions to the hit musical by guaranteeing them a small share of the show’s profits. With other actors … Read More

Dear Negotiation Coach: How Can You Create a Fair Dispute Process?

Posted by & filed under Dispute Resolution.

Dispute resolution can sometimes take years and lead to costly litigation if opposing sides can’t reach a settlement. The dispute process can become frustrating when you try to be fair and reach efficient settlements, but your counterpart fails to reciprocate. What can you do in a situation where the other party is unreasonable? Rest assured, you aren’t … Read More

Dear Negotiation Coach: International Cultural Differences Around Trust

Posted by & filed under Negotiation Skills.

When choosing new business partners, we size them up to decide whether they are trustworthy. Interestingly, international cultural differences can influence the way in which we make such determinations, Jeanne Brett, Professor Emeritus of Management & Organizations at Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management, and Louisiana State University professor Tyree Mitchell found in a new … Read More

Building a Winning Team: Learn from the Disharmony of Trump’s Trade Negotiations with China

Posted by & filed under International Negotiation.

During the 2016 presidential campaign, Donald Trump repeatedly asserted that if he were elected, eliminating the U.S. trade deficit with China would be a top priority. But once in office, Trump was alternately swayed by opposing factions in his administration: pro-business moderates and America-first trade hawks. The resulting roller-coaster ride, as summarized in the Wall Street Journal, serves … Read More

Dear Negotiation Coach: Am I Using Deceptive Tactics in Negotiation?

Posted by & filed under Dealmaking.

Ethical negotiators try not to use deceptive tactics in negotiation situations. However, there’s one negotiation technique that may not feel deceptive, but it can slip under the radar and cause problems later. We spoke with Francesca Gino, Tandon Family Professor of Business Administration, Negotiation, Organizations and Markets Unit at Harvard Business School. We asked her … Read More

Pedagogy in a Pandemic: Teaching Negotiation to a Masked Room

Posted by & filed under Teaching Negotiation.

How can instructors teach students to interpret facial expressions and body language while masked in negotiation? As teachers and students prepare to return to the classroom in the fall, it is likely going to look a lot different. With social distancing and masks, students face new challenges when trying to read facial expressions in negotiation simulations. … Read More

Effective Leadership: Learning from David Cameron’s Failed Brexit Negotiations

Posted by & filed under International Negotiation.

Leaders sometimes need to devote significant time to convincing a counterpart of the logic and appeal of their proposals. What happens when they need to persuade negotiators on opposite sides of an issue to see your point of view? Such situations highlight why negotiation is important in leadership, as effective leadership can require special skills … Read More

Negotiating with Governments: How to Deal with Government Officials

Posted by & filed under Teaching Negotiation.

Whether at the local, federal, or international level, negotiations with governments often involve unique pressures and constraints. Does the official at the table actually have decision-making authority? What kinds of regulatory or policy constraints are they operating under? Governments often pursue very different interests in negotiations from those of a private company. In Seven Secrets for … Read More

Negotiating Controversial Issues in Difficult Negotiations

Posted by & filed under Crisis Negotiations.

When you’re trying to negotiate a hot-button issue in difficult negotiations, what’s the best approach to take? That was the question facing U.S. president Donald Trump as he and his administration attempted to convince the government of Mexico to fund a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border, in addition to negotiating other matters of concern to … Read More

New Simulation: Ethical Dilemmas Surrounding Water Shutoffs in Older American Cities

Posted by & filed under Teaching Negotiation.

Ethical Dilemmas Surrounding Water Shutoffs in Older American Cities, newly available from the Teaching Negotiation Resource Center (TNRC), is a six party, multi-issue negotiation involving environmental, political, economic and social interest groups, in a shrinking American city, where the water infrastructure is in desperate need of repair. This role-play simulation illustrates the ethical, financial and … Read More

Women in Leadership: Toward More Equitable Negotiations

Posted by & filed under Leadership Skills.

Women remain vastly underrepresented in organizational leadership positions in the United States and beyond. Leadership homogeneity can lead to gender-biased decisions that harm not only women employees but also organizations as a whole—including in the context of employment negotiations. In 2018, top track and field athletes revealed how their corporate sponsors penalized them for becoming … Read More

Dear Negotiation Coach: Do Leading Negotiation Experts Practice What they Preach?

Posted by & filed under Leadership Skills.

Do negotiation experts practice what they preach? To find out, we spoke with Harvard Law School and Harvard Business School professor Guhan Subramanian. The former academic editor of Negotiation Briefings, Subramanian was named the chair of the Program on Negotiation (PON) at Harvard Law School in 2018. He leads PON’s executive committee in setting the … Read More

Plan Your Curriculum for Next Semester

Posted by & filed under Teaching Negotiation.

How do we utilize lessons learned from teaching online when returning to the classroom and planning a curriculum? After more than a year of remote learning, students and teachers alike are eager to return to classrooms in the fall. During the pandemic, however, many instructors made significant investments in online teaching resources, lesson plans, and … Read Plan Your Curriculum for Next Semester

Skills of Negotiation: Launching a Quick Campaign

Posted by & filed under Negotiation Skills.

Advice on how to negotiate a job offer often focuses on the candidate’s perspective, offering compensation negotiation tips and guidance on adding other issues to the discussion. But how can hiring organizations gain an edge when competing for star candidates? The negotiation example of how Howard University lured Pulitzer Prize–winning journalist Nikole Hannah-Jones away from the … Read Skills of Negotiation: Launching a Quick Campaign

Negotiating Public Disputes

Posted by & filed under Teaching Negotiation.

How Negotiation Can Impact Public Perceptions Companies and governments alike can experience strong public resistance to new initiatives, or fierce public backlash to mistakes. How should they deal with an angry public? Incorporating a public relations perspective into a problem-solving or public dispute resolution processes can make the difference between success or failure. Adopting a mutual … Read Negotiating Public Disputes

Compensation Negotiation Tips: Lessons from Broadway

Posted by & filed under Salary Negotiations.

Compensation negotiation tips often revolve around encouraging job candidates to ask for a higher salary and teaching them how to frame their salary requests. But negotiators who take a broader approach to evaluating a job offer may be able to set themselves up for much greater long-term earnings. A negotiation initiated by the original cast … Read More

Dear Negotiation Coach: Coordinating Teams to Get Everyone in the Same Frames

Posted by & filed under Negotiation Training.

Q: I lead a team of approximately 50 lawyers in the in-house legal department of a Fortune 500 company. As our team gets larger, reflecting the company’s growth, I’d like to install quality-control measures to ensure that all our attorneys are effectively negotiating settlements when appropriate and taking cases to trial when not. What are … Read More

Right of First Refusal: A Tool to Negotiate with Care

Posted by & filed under Negotiation Skills.

Among many useful negotiation skills and strategies, a right of first refusal can often benefit negotiators. In a right of first refusal, the right holder is typically given the power to buy an asset on the same terms that the grantor would receive from any other legitimate, prospective bidder, according to Harvard Business School and … Read More

Dear Negotiation Coach: To Get Unstuck, Hire a Mediator

Posted by & filed under Mediation.

Most business people understand the value of using mediation to resolve conflicts, but did you know that professional mediators can help you reach an agreement during the dealmaking phase? Stephen Goldberg, professor emeritus at Northwestern School of Law, describes how you can hire a mediator to aid both parties in creating value at the negotiating … Read More

When Hard-Bargaining Isn’t Enough

Posted by & filed under Dispute Resolution.

Leonardo da Vinci’s painting Salvator Mundi has long been shrouded in mystery. The 16th-century portrait of Jesus Christ periodically disappeared over hundreds of years before being mistakenly sold at auction as another artist’s work for just £45 in 1958. In 2005, art dealers purchased the damaged painting for approximately $10,000 in an estate auction. After … Read When Hard-Bargaining Isn’t Enough

M&A Negotiation Tactics: In Discovery-WarnerMedia Deal, AT&T Tries, Tries Again

Posted by & filed under Business Negotiations.

It was a dramatic about-face. In mid-2018, AT&T finalized its $85 billion purchase of Time Warner after successfully fighting off U.S. government antitrust lawsuits. Just less than three years later, in May 2021, AT&T announced it was spinning off Time Warner, now known as WarnerMedia, after merger-and-acquisition (M&A) negotiations with media company Discovery. If approved … Read More

Bipartisan Agreement Proved Elusive in 2017 Immigration Negotiations

Posted by & filed under Dealmaking.

On September 5, 2017, President Donald Trump announced that in six months he would phase out Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA), the Obama-era policy that has shielded from deportation about 800,000 people brought to the United States illegally as children. Members of Congress seeking permanent protections for the so-called Dreamers covered under DACA then … Read More

Negotiation Team Dynamics: The Divide-and-Conquer Strategy

Posted by & filed under International Negotiation.

In an interesting example of negotiation team dynamics, during a 2018 New Year’s Day address, North Korean leader Kim Jong-un proposed opening talks with South Korea to discuss the North’s possible participation in the Winter Olympics, to be held in Pyeongchang, South Korea, the following month. Hoping to avoid disruption by the North, South Korean … Read More

Dear Negotiation Coach: What Hostage Negotiations Can Teach Any Negotiator

Posted by & filed under Business Negotiations.

Business negotiations often fail; meanwhile, hostage negotiations have an incredibly high success rate—up to 94%. We spoke with former police psychologist and hostage negotiator George A. Kohlrieser, the Distinguished Professor of Leadership and Organizational Behavior at IMD Business School in Switzerland and the author of Hostage at the Table: How Leaders Can Overcome Conflict, Influence Others, … Read More

Visionary Leadership through Coalition Building

Posted by & filed under Leadership Skills.

Increasingly, executives are displaying visionary leadership on issues related to social justice. The National Basketball Association printed the words “Black Lives Matter” on the court in its Orlando, Florida, “bubble” in 2020, for example, and businesses such as Netflix have committed to making significant financial investments in Black communities. On March 25, 2021, Georgia’s Republican-led legislature … Read Visionary Leadership through Coalition Building

Contract Negotiation Skills: Setting Yourself Up for Success

Posted by & filed under Dealmaking.

Business negotiators tend to focus on getting to the finish line, which is typically defined as a signed contract. The contract negotiation skills we need to get there—such as building trust, brainstorming issues, and negotiating a great price—are pivotal, yet we often overlook the importance of setting up our agreement for success during the implementation … Read More

Methods of Dispute Resolution: Building Trust in Online Mediation

Posted by & filed under Dispute Resolution.

Before the Covid-19 pandemic, mediators and other negotiation practitioners often insisted on meeting in person, convinced that online methods of dispute resolution lack “the human touch”—the warmth, energy, body language, and other subtle factors that build essential ingredients in conflict resolution, including trust, empathy, and rapport. But when lockdowns and social-distancing restrictions took hold in the … Read More

Negotiating Identity and Values-Based Disputes

Posted by & filed under Teaching Negotiation.

How Do Parties in Conflict Negotiate Core Beliefs? Identity and values-based disputes are particularly challenging to resolve, as identities are naturally inflexible and values are typically much less elastic than interest-based issues. In conventional interest-based negotiation, parties often do give up one thing in exchange for getting something they want more. This is often not possible … Read Negotiating Identity and Values-Based Disputes

How to Get a Great Deal When Trust is Low

Posted by & filed under Dealmaking.

Negotiators from Western cultures, such as the United States, tend to be trusting. They’re often open to sharing information with counterparts, and expect ideas to flow freely. But in many other cultures, negotiators tend to be less trusting and more cautious about sharing information about their interests. Of course, there are many ways to build trust … Read How to Get a Great Deal When Trust is Low

When Negotiations is a Love Song

Posted by & filed under Dealmaking.

On Valentine’s Day, 1945, Matilda Genevieve Scaduto, the 20-year- old granddaughter of Sicilian immigrants, was working the elevator at a Milwaukee hotel when she met a traveling violinist named Boudleaux Bryant. He started calling her Felice, saying it suited her better than Matilda because she was happy all the time, according to American Songwriter magazine. … Read When Negotiations is a Love Song

Lessons Learned from Teaching Online: Pedagogy in a Pandemic

Posted by & filed under Teaching Negotiation.

The exercises and videos developed for teaching online can also help improve in-person courses. As teachers and trainers around the world are working to transition their courses online and wondering about how their approach to teaching will be altered moving forward, the Teaching Negotiation Resource Center (TNRC) asked some of our experienced online teachers to share … Read More

Teach Your Students Value Distribution with a Simulation on Solar Power

Posted by & filed under Teaching Negotiation.

Do your students really understand the difference between value distribution and integrative negotiation, and have you given them a chance to practice their distributive bargaining skills? Do they understand that every negotiation includes elements of both value creation and value distribution? To help teach these key negotiation skills the Teaching Negotiation Resource Center (TNRC) has developed a … Read More

The Abraham Path: A Thousand Miles on Foot

Posted by & filed under Abraham Path Initiative, Teaching Negotiation.

The Abraham Path is a cultural route tracing Abraham’s footsteps across the present-day Middle East. The path offers hikers the opportunity to engage with the peoples and landscapes of the region firsthand, and to see the region from a new perspective. The path offers an intriguing case of very challenging, long-term negotiations to establish a contiguous … Read The Abraham Path: A Thousand Miles on Foot

Why It Pays for Powerful Parties to Negotiate

Posted by & filed under Dealmaking.

In recent years, the U.S. film industry has avoided dealing with a mounting inefficiency. Historically, theater companies have negotiated with film studios for the right to screen movies for three months before they can be released in other formats, including streaming, on demand, and DVD. Staggering the release of films in different formats has benefited studios … Read Why It Pays for Powerful Parties to Negotiate

Why diversity hiring efforts often fail—and how your organization can do better

Posted by & filed under Leadership Skills.

Immediately before the abbreviated Major League Baseball (MLB) draft, televised live on June 10, 2020, league commissioner Rob Manfred made a statement acknowledging the harm of systemic racism and inequality, and said that he and team owners would be “active participants in social change.” As he spoke, each MLB team’s general manager (GM) or head … Read More

Real Life Negotiation Lessons Learned from Fiction

Posted by & filed under Negotiation Skills.

When the COVID-19 lockdown began in March 2020—coinciding with his upcoming sabbatical—Harvard Business School professor Deepak Malhotra, a member of the Program on Negotiation Executive Committee, saw the perfect opportunity to try something new. The author of three previous books, he turned his hand to fiction, penning “The Peacemaker’s Code,” a thrilling novel grounded in … Read More

Entrepreneurship and Negotiation: Call for Papers and Proposals

Posted by & filed under Pedagogy at PON, Teaching Negotiation.

The Negotiation Journal is Hosting a Virtual Conference for its Special Issue on Entrepreneurship and Negotiation While negotiation and entrepreneurship scholars have traditionally worked in different circles, their work increasingly intersects as the two fields co-evolve. Both entrepreneurship and negotiation involve dynamic, strategic, interpersonal activities that seek to create and claim some form of value.  Both … Read More

Ask A Negotiation Expert: Negotiation Means Sometimes Having To Say You’re Sorry

Posted by & filed under Conflict Resolution.

An apology can be an essential means of repairing trust and rebuilding damaged relationships. Yet we don’t always apologize effectively, according to Jeswald Salacuse, a distinguished professor at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, Tufts University, and a faculty member of the Program on Negotiation at Harvard Law School. We spoke to Salacuse about … Read More

Negotiation in the News: Last Negotiating Moves From A Never-Boring President

Posted by & filed under Crisis Negotiations.

Whether they love him or hate him, one thing negotiation analysts and practitioners should be able to agree on is that outgoing U.S. president Donald Trump has provided fascinating negotiations to examine and learn from over the past four years. His dealmaking both at home and abroad has been marked by impulsive, sometimes head- scratching decisions; … Read More

Making the best of pandemic-era deal disruptions

Posted by & filed under Dealmaking.

This past fall, three grown children set about helping their mother, Mina, find a memory care facility for John, their 85-year-old father. John’s previously mild dementia had progressed rapidly during the Covid-19 pandemic, to the point that he could no longer live safely at home. John’s children gathered a short list of affordable long-term care facilities … Read Making the best of pandemic-era deal disruptions

Government Negotiations: Pfizer’s Rocky Road to U.S. Covid-19 Vaccine Deals

Posted by & filed under Business Negotiations.

In late December, 2020, the Trump administration reached a $1.95 billion deal with pharmaceutical company Pfizer to purchase 100 million doses of the Covid-19 vaccine it had developed in partnership with German drugmaker BioNTech, enough to immunize 50 million people. It was the second such deal the parties had reached since the pandemic began to … Read More

Nicole Bryant is named the next Managing Director of the Program on Negotiation at Harvard Law School

Posted by & filed under Daily.

Nicole Bryant will be joining the Program on Negotiation on January 25, 2021 as our next Managing Director. She brings to the position a proven track record of successful management and growth of large-scale continuing education programming in an international context. Bryant joins the Program on Negotiation from Tufts University, where she served as the Director … Read More

Job Offer Negotiation Tips During the Pandemic

Posted by & filed under Salary Negotiations.

Amid the Covid-19 pandemic, many jobseekers have concluded that if they are lucky enough to be offered a good job in a tight market, they lack the power needed to negotiate better employment terms. In fact, a silver lining of the crisis is that it has created new opportunities to negotiate. With the coronavirus throwing … Read Job Offer Negotiation Tips During the Pandemic

Teaching Community Dispute Resolution: Exercises to Facilitate Positive Change

Posted by & filed under Teaching Negotiation.

Community dispute resolution provides communities with a forum to address conflict, uncover and resolve the underlying issues, and thereby achieve positive change. Community dispute resolution provides an alternative to the judicial system and facilitates collaborative community relationships. Community dispute resolution processes can include training and educational activities, and may involve a mediator from within the … Read More

10 Notable Negotiations of 2020

Posted by & filed under Daily.

If there’s one thing that negotiators have practiced this year, it’s thinking on their feet. As our 10 notable negotiations of 2020 illustrate, the coronavirus pandemic left individuals, businesses, nonprofits, and governments trying to replace outmoded plans with more workable alternatives.  10 Notable Negotiations of 2020 10. Struggling to play ball. This year, sports leagues scrambled to … Read 10 Notable Negotiations of 2020

Tips for Teaching Simulations Online: Q&A with David Seibel

Posted by & filed under Pedagogy at PON, Teaching Negotiation.

Check out the video from our recent session on teaching simulations online to pick up tips for running negotiation exercises remotely! Apprehensive about using role-play simulations in your remote or online blended course? Pick up tips on how to make simulations run smoothly over video, including how to best manage breakouts, run multiparty simulations, report results, … Read More

Diplomacy Examples in the Covid-19 Era

Posted by & filed under International Negotiation.

In 2020, grounded by the Covid-19 pandemic, international diplomats accustomed to traveling from capital to capital found themselves stuck in a never-ending stream of videoconferences. To take a number of diplomacy examples, the G7, the G20, the International Monetary Fund, and the World Bank all met online, reduced to tiny faces on a screen. The … Read Diplomacy Examples in the Covid-19 Era

Ask A Negotiation Expert: Spreading Negotiation Knowledge for a Better World

Posted by & filed under Leadership Skills.

For 19 years, the Program on Negotiation (PON) at Harvard Law School has grown and thrived under the leadership of Managing Director Susan Hackley. As PON’s chief administrative and financial officer, Hackley has overseen all activities, including academic events, executive education, interdisciplinary programs, and publications, including Negotiation Briefings. Hackley, who has taught negotiation seminars around … Read More

Lessons learned from a great negotiation leader

Posted by & filed under Negotiation Skills.

Leadership in negotiation In academia, there are often subtle conflicts between the executive staff who run programs and centers, and the academics connected to them. Only a talented leader can consistently weave together such groups and integrate very different views. Susan has been such a leader for many years. She provides a vision of doing all we … Read Lessons learned from a great negotiation leader

Negotiation research you can use: In sales, front-end honesty can boost back-end profits

Posted by & filed under Negotiation Skills.

In our information age, buyers have squeezed sellers’ profit margins by collecting readily available data about the value of goods and services. Car buyers can easily identify the dealership cost of their preferred vehicle online and use it to negotiate a great price, for example. And more than 94% of business buyers surveyed by Accenture said … Read More

Negotiating fruitful partnerships at warp speed

Posted by & filed under Business Negotiations.

In the global pharmaceutical industry, companies often work in utter secrecy to be the first to bring moneymaking, lifesaving drugs to market. But when the novel coronavirus emerged in China in early 2020, many leading drugmakers quickly recognized that they would not be able to swiftly develop and mass- produce effective Covid-19 vaccines and treatments on … Read Negotiating fruitful partnerships at warp speed

Negotiation in the News: The NBA tries to make the best of another (projected) bad season

Posted by & filed under Dealmaking.

In negotiations across the world, financial troubles brought on by the Covid-19 pandemic have left parties squabbling over smaller and smaller pies. The silver lining? Negotiators may have little choice but to get a deal done, and awareness of this reality can motivate creative thinking and cooperation. Negotiating the terms of their upcoming season, the National … Read More

Overcoming Cultural Barriers in Negotiation: China and the Gold Rush Mentality

Posted by & filed under International Negotiation.

If Chinese culture favors insiders, it stands to reason that outsiders face an uphill battle. In One Billion Customers: Lessons from the Front Lines of Doing Business in China (Free Press, 2005), business executive and Wall Street Journal bureau chief James McGregor writes of the 1996 attempt by Xinhua, the official Chinese news agency, to … Read More

Casino Two: Updated Version of Casino Now Available from the TNRC

Posted by & filed under Teaching Negotiation.

Gender can play a complex role in workplace dynamics, and so teaching students about how to approach these issues is critical. The Casino simulation, available from the Teaching Negotiation Resource Center (TNRC), has been widely used to teach participants about the role gender can play in the workplace. Now there is a new, updated version which … Read More

Managing Conflicts of Interest

Posted by & filed under Conflict Resolution.

An agent—whether a real-estate agent, lawyer, literary agent, or financial adviser—can provide the knowledge, experience, connections, and negotiation skills and strategies needed to get you a great deal. But we tend to forget that agents’ and clients’ financial interests are almost never perfectly aligned. A busy real-estate agent may advise you to offer more for … Read Managing Conflicts of Interest

Conflict Resolution in the Family

Posted by & filed under Conflict Resolution.

In Lessons in Domestic Diplomacy, the New York Times’ Bruce Feiler, drawing on family conflict resolution negotiation examples in his past, offers a case study of conflict management by focusing on disputes in the home, asking, “how do we break out of negative patterns of conduct and proactively approach problems encountered in our everyday lives?” … Read Conflict Resolution in the Family

Conflict Management and Negotiation: Personality and Individual Differences That Matter

Posted by & filed under Conflict Resolution.

Although Elfenbein and her colleagues did find that negotiators performed at a similar level from one negotiation to the next, to their surprise, these scores were only minimally related to specific personality traits. And traits that are basically unchangeable, such as gender, ethnic background, and physical attractiveness, were not closely connected to people’s scores. A small … Read More

Persuasive Parenting through Negotiation

Posted by & filed under Negotiation Skills.

In his book How to Negotiate with Kids…Even When You Think You Shouldn’t (Viking, 2003), Scott Brown, a co-founder of the Harvard Negotiation Project at Harvard Law School, outlines a framework for dealing with your children using the principles of negotiation. He identifies six principles of “persuasive parenting” that will allow you and your child to … Read Persuasive Parenting through Negotiation

Teaching Online: Negotiation Pedagogy in a Pandemic

Posted by & filed under Pedagogy at PON, Teaching Negotiation.

How do we adapt learning objectives to online instruction? As the Coronavirus spreads around the world, many universities have moved to a remote learning structure with online classes. This raises a very crucial question for instructors: how do you transition a course designed to be in-person into an online format while ensuring students remain engaged and … Read More

BATNA and Risky Negotiation Tactics

Posted by & filed under BATNA.

Your BATNA is your “best alternative to a negotiated agreement.” Expect that your negotiating counterpart has one going into a negotiation, and so should you. Below is a good BATNA negotiation example involving how to leverage your away-from-the-bargaining-table options and the risks inherent with such a negotiation strategy. … Read BATNA and Risky Negotiation Tactics

Major Negotiations in History: In Paris Climate Talks, Planning Was Key

Posted by & filed under Negotiation Skills.

On November 4, 2020, the day after the U.S. presidential election, President Donald Trump officially pulled the United States out of the global climate agreement known as the Paris Accord. The United States is the only country to have exited the pact, which President-elect Joe Biden vowed to reenter upon taking office in January. The 195 … Read More

Asking for More in Salary Negotiation: When Jennifer Lawrence and Jennifer Aniston Spoke Out

Posted by & filed under Salary Negotiations.

“We’re very much a sexist society,” actress Jennifer Aniston said in back in 2015 in an interview with the New York Times, addressing not just the constant questions she faces about marriage and children, but about recent revelations of pay discrimination and salary negotiation in Hollywood. “Women are still not paid as much as men,” Aniston … Read More

In Conflict Resolution, President Carter Turned Flaws Into Virtues

Posted by & filed under Conflict Resolution.

When it comes to conflict resolution, surprisingly useful nuggets of advice come from the realm of international conflict. Take the Camp David Accords of 1978, as described minute-by-minute by Lawrence Wright in his new book, Thirteen Days in September. U.S. President Jimmy Carter made history by negotiating a peaceful end to the conflict between Israel … Read More

Overcoming Cross-Cultural Barriers to a Negotiated Agreement: Negotiation Ethics and International Negotiations

Posted by & filed under International Negotiation.

Cross cultural negotiation examples provide insights into how negotiation techniques change depending on the context in which negotiators find themselves. As Professor Cheryl Rivers of Queensland University of Technology in Brisbane, Australia, points out in a recent negotiation research literature review, seasoned negotiators often hear stories about the unethical behaviors of people of other nationalities. … Read More

Ask A Negotiation Expert: The Surprising Benefits of Negotiating with Your Kids

Posted by & filed under Negotiation Skills.

These days, families are experiencing a lot of togetherness—and perhaps more disagreement and conflict than usual. In their new book, Negotiating at Home: Essential Steps for Reaching Agreement with Your Kids (Praeger, 2020), Rutgers Business School professor Terri R. Kurtzberg and Baruch College professor Mary C. Kern explain how parents can apply negotiation skills to … Read More

Negotiation research you can use: When Criticism Helps— and Hurts—Brainstorming

Posted by & filed under Negotiation Skills.

There’s usually only one hard-and-fast rule for brainstorming sessions: Don’t be critical. So entrenched is the belief that negative feedback stifles creativity that at product- design firm IDEO, team facilitators have been known to ring a bell when a team member throws cold water on another person’s idea. In negotiation and dispute resolution, the idea-generation stage … Read More

Will your business negotiation make it to the finish line?

Posted by & filed under Business Negotiations.

This past summer, the White House and the pharmaceutical industry buckled down to negotiate a long-awaited deal aimed at lowering the price of prescription drugs for Americans. Both parties had strong motivations to reach an agreement: With the 2020 presidential election looming, President Donald Trump was eager to fulfill a campaign promise he’d made during … Read More

Learning from Crisis Negotiations

Posted by & filed under Business Negotiations.

When businesses and industries are hit by an unforeseen disaster, they often need to quickly launch crisis negotiations and wrap them up as soon as possible. But time pressure can stifle essential elements of sound dealmaking, including rational thinking, perspective taking, and collaboration, while also promoting dysfunctional competition. Recent negotiations within industries facing crisis offer … Read Learning from Crisis Negotiations

The Winner’s Curse in Negotiations: How to Avoid It

Posted by & filed under Business Negotiations.

These business negotiations – an auction and a negotiated acquisition – highlight both the promise and risks of high-priced purchases and the dangers of the winner’s curse in negotiation. Negotiators fall victim to the winner’s curse in negotiations when they over-compete (and overbid) for items in the pursuit of a “victory” at the bargaining table. … Read More

How to Negotiate with Difficult People: International Negotiation, and a Refusal to Communicate

Posted by & filed under International Negotiation.

Business negotiators sometimes face the difficult question of whether to negotiate with someone they believe to be immoral, untrustworthy, or otherwise undesirable as a negotiating partner. In his book Bargaining with the Devil: When to Negotiate, When to Fight (Simon & Schuster, 2011), Program on Negotiation chair Robert Mnookin offers negotiation advice on the complex … Read More

Negotiation Research on Organizational Approaches to Negotiating Systems

Posted by & filed under Negotiation Skills.

While most negotiation research aims to sharpen individual managers’ skills, there is growing scholarly and professional interest in an organizational approach to negotiation.A systemic perspective evaluates the training, authority, procedures, and resources that manager need to improve their companies’ “return on negotiation,” as consultant Danny Ertel puts it. Looking at negotiations broadly reveals important design … Read More

Negotiating with Millennials – How to Overcome Cultural Differences in Communication

Posted by & filed under Business Negotiations.

Negotiation training often focuses on bridging gaps between negotiators with different styles, backgrounds, or objectives, but what about overcoming generational barriers in negotiation? Generational differences need not stymie efforts at the bargaining table. In this segment from “Dear Negotiation Coach,” we explore how to overcome cultural differences in communication with members of the Millennial generation. … Read More

MESO Negotiation Strategies and Negotiation Techniques

Posted by & filed under Dealmaking.

MESO negotiation techniques for negotiators include creating value at the bargaining table by identifying multiple proposals of equal value and presenting them to your counterpart simultaneously. By making tradeoffs across issues, parties can obtain greater value on the issues that are most important to them. But how can you be sure you’re making the right … Read More

Win-Win Negotiations: Should You Consider a Deal Sweetener?

Posted by & filed under Win-Win Negotiations.

The following question was asked of Andrew Wasynczuk, MBA Class of 1953 and Senior Lecturer of Business Administration Harvard Business School in the Negotiation Briefings monthly “Ask the Negotiation Coach” column: I run a midsized retail sports-apparel chain located in the southwestern United States. I’ve been searching for a seasoned executive to lead new store expansion … Read More

Effective Leadership Techniques: Negotiating as an Agent

Posted by & filed under Leadership Skills.

Following Joe Biden’s election as the next U.S. president, we revisit a 2014 Negotiation Briefings article, “When You’re Negotiating for Someone Else, Stay in the Deal,” about the significant role Biden negotiated for himself as vice president. As vice president to President Barack Obama from 2009 to 2017, Joe Biden worked hard to be, in his … Read More

Does Small Talk in Negotiation Offer Big Gains?

Posted by & filed under Business Negotiations.

According to conventional wisdom, small talk builds rapport and gets both sides a better deal in the end. But in fact, the question of whether to engage in small talk can be highly context-specific. New York City investment bankers, for example, tend to be far less likely than Texas oil executives to engage in small … Read Does Small Talk in Negotiation Offer Big Gains?

Running Simulations Online: Zoom Tips and Tricks

Posted by & filed under Teaching Negotiation.

Negotiation simulations, while incredibly useful teaching tools, can be difficult to orchestrate logistically, especially with large groups of participants. Moving classes online has made running simulations even more complex. Zoom, as well as many other video chat platforms, has lots of features to assist with running simulations online. To help educators prepare for this unpredictable … Read Running Simulations Online: Zoom Tips and Tricks

Effective Negotiation Strategies for Dealing with Competitors

Posted by & filed under Negotiation Skills.

In the business world, organizations take competition for granted, to the extent that they often overlook opportunities to meet their goals by working with one another. But the benefits of negotiation in business can extend to our dealings with competitors. Recent high-profile negotiations highlight three effective negotiation strategies competitors can use to cooperate and compete. … Read More

Closing the Deal in Negotiations When Win-Win Seems Likely

Posted by & filed under Dealmaking.

Excerpted from the article “Will Your Negotiation Make It to the Finish Line?” in the December 2020 issue of Negotiation Briefings, the Program on Negotiation’s monthly newsletter of advice for professional negotiators.  When it comes to closing the deal in negotiations, agreements sometimes fall apart for good reason. If one or more parties realize they could … Read More

Integrative Negotiations: Dispute Resolution Through Joint Fact-Finding

Posted by & filed under Conflict Resolution.

Sometimes parties to a dispute disagree on key facts and forecasts but lack the technical or scientific expertise needed to come to a consensus. Suppose, for instance, that a developer is seeking to build a high-rise condominium building in a village that is experiencing a development boom. Longtime residents fight the proposal, arguing that another … Read More

For Price Negotiators, Preparation is the Key to Success

Posted by & filed under Dealmaking.

Some cultures have a long tradition of haggling—bargaining back and forth about the price of an item—in markets and bazaars. By contrast, in the United States and many other countries, haggling between buyers and sellers is an under-practiced skill. You might routinely pass up opportunities to haggle in situations where financial negotiations are not the … Read More

Conflict Negotiation Skills for Broken Contracts

Posted by & filed under Conflict Resolution.

Amid the Covid-19 pandemic, many agreements—renting a concert venue, hiring workers for a new café chain, acquiring a company—became untenable or illogical overnight. But it’s not easy to exit a signed contract without risking a costly legal dispute. By sharpening our conflict negotiation skills, we can negotiate satisfactory solutions without ending up in court. One … Read Conflict Negotiation Skills for Broken Contracts

Understanding Your Counterpart’s BATNA

Posted by & filed under BATNA.

One of the most popular questions concerning negotiation strategy and an area of negotiation research that draws heavily on negotiation examples in real life is how do negotiators identify their BATNA, or best alternative to a negotiated agreement, and even better, how do they identify their counterpart’s BATNA? Consider the saga of a company that … Read Understanding Your Counterpart’s BATNA

Google’s Negotiations with Groupon: How Business Negotiators Can Maximize Value Claiming When Engaging in Integrative Negotiations

Posted by & filed under Win-Win Negotiations.

It seemed to be a match made in Internet heaven. In late 2010, Google made a $6 billion bid for Groupon, the Chicago­based company that e­mails daily coupon deals for local goods and services to consumers around the world. (If enough people sign up, the daily deal “tips,” meaning the coupons are issued; otherwise, the … Read More

How to Negotiate Online

Posted by & filed under Negotiation Skills.

International negotiators are often faced with the problem of how to overcome cultural barriers to communication. When you communicate in person, social norms – including body language, manners, and physical appearance – guide your behavior and ease the process. Here are some tips on how to negotiate online and building a rapport with your counterpart … Read How to Negotiate Online

New Conflict Management Skills: Understand How to Resolve “Hot Conflicts”

Posted by & filed under Business Negotiations.

Negotiating effectively with colleagues can be more challenging than dealing with outsiders. Conventional wisdom advises addressing team conflict by staying focused on tasks and avoiding relationship issues. Yet a case study of conflict management by Harvard Business School professor Amy Edmondson and Diana McLain Smith of The Monitory Group concludes that this approach to dispute … Read More

Panda Diplomacy and Business Negotiations: Applying Soft Power

Posted by & filed under Business Negotiations.

In 2011, Emiko Okuyama, the mayor of Sendai, Japan, launched a business negotiation that, at the time, seemed relatively straightforward. Sendai had been devastated by the earthquake and tsunami that hit Japan earlier that year. In hopes of lifting the spirits of children traumatized by the natural disasters, Okuyama and other local officials came up … Read More

Ethical Leadership: Create More Value in Negotiation

Posted by & filed under Leadership Skills.

In our negotiations and beyond, all of us engage in behaviors that create value—as well as actions that destroy it. Ethical leadership requires us to become more aware of the harm we cause in the world, work to reduce it, and to encourage those we lead to do the same.  Consider the Sackler family, which owns … Read More

Ask A Negotiation Expert: Creating More Value—For All

Posted by & filed under Leadership Skills.

In these difficult times, many of us are thinking about how to help make the world better, including in our negotiations. The good news is that we can do so without huge sacrifices, writes Max H. Bazerman, the Jesse Isidor Straus Professor of Business Administration at Harvard Business School, in his new book, Better, Not … Read More

In Online Negotiations, Can You Get A Word In Edgewise?

Posted by & filed under Negotiation Skills.

This past May, as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic, the U.S. Supreme Court began hearing oral arguments on conference calls rather than in person. To keep chaos in check, Chief Justice John Roberts imposed order on the typically freewheeling process of justices questioning attorneys representing both sides of a case: He began calling on … Read More

Negotiation and Bargaining with Your BATNA in Mind

Posted by & filed under BATNA.

Experienced negotiators understand they should reject any deal that is inferior to their best alternative to a negotiated agreement, or BATNA. What is a BATNA in negotiation? Your BATNA is the best possible outcome you could get if you walked away from your current negotiation and bargaining situation. When negotiating at an auto dealership, for … Read More

Teaching Kids How to Negotiate World Peace

Posted by & filed under Negotiation Skills.

A few years ago, the Program on Negotiation Film Series screened “World Peace and Other 4th-Grade Achievements,” a documentary film that follows John Hunter, a public school teacher in Virginia, and his class of fourth graders as they play a highly interactive game called the “World Peace Game.“ Hunter invented this game to teach … Read Teaching Kids How to Negotiate World Peace

Deal with Last-Minute Demands

Posted by & filed under Business Negotiations.

Adapted from “When They Slice the Deal Too Thin,” by Michael Wheeler (professor, Harvard Business School), first published in the Negotiation newsletter. Suppose that, after months of negotiation, you reach a detailed agreement with a customer and shake hands. A week later, the customer’s procurement officer calls to tell you that there have to be some … Read Deal with Last-Minute Demands

3 Team-Building Techniques for Successful Negotiations

Posted by & filed under Business Negotiations.

Newly formed teams are often encouraged or even required to engage in team-building techniques and exercises, which might range from volunteering at a nonprofit together to sharing little-known secrets about each other to building a tower out of marshmallows and spaghetti. Although such activities can be effective at building bonds and trust, they don’t do … Read More

In Business Negotiations, Dress the Part

Posted by & filed under Business Negotiations.

Negotiators involved in high-stakes mergers and acquisitions typically come to the table armored in meticulously tailored apparel and designer shoes. But as Dana Mattioli reports in a recent Wall Street Journal negotiation topics in business article, those who are trying to woo business from an apparel company often end up dressing down at the bargaining … Read In Business Negotiations, Dress the Part

Implement Negotiation Training in Your Organization

Posted by & filed under Negotiation Training.

Organizations across the globe spend many millions of dollars each year on negotiation training for their employees. This training can be in-house, led by consultants and other experts, or employees can travel to training programs at universities and elsewhere. After engaging in a couple of days of training, employees return to the office and attempt … Read More

Coming Up with Win-Win Solutions at the Bargaining Table

Posted by & filed under Business Negotiations.

Even those who effectively engage in an integrative negotiations or mutual-gains approach to negotiation, a bargaining scenario in which parties work together to meet interests and maximize value creation during the negotiation process, can be stymied by the task of dividing up a seemingly fixed pie of resources, such as budgets, revenue, and time. … Read More

International Negotiation Role Playing: Understanding the Theory and Practice of Systemic Peacebuilding

Posted by & filed under Conflict Resolution.

Policymakers, practitioners, and academics have seized on the need for peacebuilding negotiation strategies in international negotiation to be as complex and adaptive as the societies within which they work. As a result, there are loud calls for “whole of government” or “whole of community” approaches that cross traditional sectoral boundaries.  The problem is that these approaches are … Read More

Why Win-Win Negotiation Has Been Elusive in Covid-19 Vaccine Talks

Posted by & filed under Win-Win Negotiations.

National governments across the globe face the challenge of securing enough doses of a safe, effective coronavirus vaccine when one or more become available. Many wealthier nations are taking a competitive approach to this negotiation challenge, jostling with each other to tie up deals with pharmaceutical companies for the most promising vaccine candidates. A coordinated … Read More

Mediation: Negotiating a More Satisfactory Divorce

Posted by & filed under Mediation.

We’ve all heard nightmarish stories of divorce battles that take years—and cost a small fortune—to resolve. The task of negotiating child and spousal support, dividing property and other possessions, and establishing child-custody arrangements can be daunting, especially when the principals are barely speaking to each other. In the worst-case scenario, bitter spouses hire cutthroat lawyers … Read More

Teaching with Video-Based Negotiation Scenarios

Posted by & filed under Teaching Negotiation.

Access to multimedia content has rapidly increased throughout the world, with videos and short clips permeating our daily life. We are consuming, producing, and interacting with videos more now than ever before. In light of increasing video fluency and interest in using videos in education, the Program on Negotiation’s Teaching Negotiation Resource Center is creating … Read Teaching with Video-Based Negotiation Scenarios

The Right Way to Regulate Emotion in Negotiation

Posted by & filed under Dispute Resolution.

Emotional flooding – when strong, specific, and often negative feelings overwhelm us – poses obvious hazards to negotiators, who need to be able to think clearly when faced with the complex, strategically demanding task of creating and claiming value. For this reason, emotional regulation can be an essential component of negotiation. But different types of regulation create … Read The Right Way to Regulate Emotion in Negotiation

What is BATNA?

Posted by & filed under BATNA.

What is BATNA? Negotiations in which each counterpart has a best alternative to a negotiated agreement are scenarios in which the incentive to work together must exceed the value of alternatives away from the negotiation table. … Read What is BATNA?

When Michael Bloomberg and NYC Teachers Both Lost

Posted by & filed under Mediation.

It’s hard to imagine a negotiation example in which negotiating counterparts would choose to sacrifice hundreds of millions of dollars rather than reach agreement. But back in 2013, this is the choice that New York City and its teachers union, the United Federation of Teachers (UFT), made when they declared impasse on a new teacher evaluation … Read When Michael Bloomberg and NYC Teachers Both Lost

Nagorno-Karabakh: Decades Old Conflict Resurfaces Between Armenia and Azerbaijan

Posted by & filed under Teaching Negotiation.

The brutal conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan over the disputed territory of Nagorno-Karabakh has resurfaced in recent weeks, bringing devastation to many communities in the region. Nagorno-Karabakh, located in the Caucasus Mountains, is internationally recognized to be part of Azerbaijan, but is politically controlled by an Armenian ethnic majority. Armenia and Azerbaijan fought a war over … Read More

Metaphorical Negotiation and Defining Negotiation Skills

Posted by & filed under Negotiation Skills.

Negotiators talk about building agreement, bluffing the opposition, and volleying offers back and forth. According to mediator Thomas Smith, careful attention to such metaphors can reveal deeper meaning beneath the explicit words that people use, notably regarding how they view the negotiation process and their relationship to one another. … Read More

Deal-Making Negotiation Strategies: Short on Cash? Try Bartering

Posted by & filed under Dealmaking.

In an economic downturn, negotiation opportunities sometimes dry up because parties think they have nothing left to give. During times like these, bartering flourishes. This article will help you decide how and when to include bartering as a component of your negotiations. Here are four guidelines to help you bargain successfully at the negotiation table. … Read More

In Group Negotiation, Avoid a Turf Battle

Posted by & filed under Business Negotiations.

In group negotiation, turf battles—heated conflicts over territory, control, rights, or power—are common. Department heads clash over scarce resources. Companies, community groups, and governments get tied up in lawsuits over undeveloped land. Across the globe, fishing groups have depleted fish stocks in their rush to catch the biggest share for themselves. … Read In Group Negotiation, Avoid a Turf Battle

How Mood Affects Negotiators

Posted by & filed under Conflict Resolution.

What are social psychologists learning about the connections among emotions, negotiation, and decision making? Negotiation contributor Jennifer S. Lerner of Harvard Kennedy School and her colleagues have identified two critical themes. First, they have studied the carryover of emotion from one episode, such as a car accident, to an unrelated situation, such as a workplace … Read How Mood Affects Negotiators

Check Out Our Advanced Search Tool! Find New Teaching Materials in Seconds

Posted by & filed under Teaching Negotiation.

The Advanced Materials Search feature allows you to search for teaching materials based on nine different categories, including time required, number of parties, and the negotiation concepts you want to teach. The Teaching Negotiation Resource Center (TNRC) is pleased to announce the launch of our new Advanced Materials Search, which allows you to quickly find the … Read More

The Angry Negotiator

Posted by & filed under Daily, Negotiation Skills.

Most negotiations require us both to compete to claim value and to cooperate to create value. The ability to move back and forth between these two goals is a critical—and difficult—skill. How do emotions affect value creation and claiming? Researchers Alice Isen and Peter Carnevale found that a positive mood leads to greater value creation. … Read The Angry Negotiator

Internal Negotiation: How to Set Up For Success

Posted by & filed under Teaching Negotiation.

U.S. Federal Agency Personnel Negotiate Inter-Agency Issues to Better Collaborate with Host Government Officials and Combat HIV/AIDS Most negotiations between companies, organizations, or governments are broken down into internal negotiation and external negotiation. Internal negotiation occurs between members of the same company, organization, or government in preparation for negotiations with an external entity. There is a … Read Internal Negotiation: How to Set Up For Success

Deception in Negotiation

Posted by & filed under Daily, Negotiation Skills.

Daniel, a senior manager at a large consumer products firm, has been asked by a company vice president to submit a detailed budget request for his department. Daniel has an incentive to overstate anticipated costs: in the case of overruns, it’s nice to have a little cushion built into the budget, rather than having to … Read Deception in Negotiation

Conflict Negotiation Skills for Ending Partnerships Peacefully

Posted by & filed under Conflict Resolution.

The process of dissolving a partnership can be wrenching, whether the split is undertaken by a couple, business partners, or an organization. But as many real-life examples of conflict resolution show, there are proven ways to calm the turmoil that often accompanies partnership dissolutions and set parties up for a hopeful future. Among conflict resolution … Read More

Boosting Active Engagement while Teaching Online: Pedagogy in a Pandemic

Posted by & filed under Pedagogy at PON, Teaching Negotiation.

How do you combat Zoom fatigue with your students when teaching online? How do you encourage students to participate in group discussions when they are physically removed from their peers? Now that teachers and trainers have had their first taste of remote learning, and might be facing another semester of virtual classes, the Teaching Negotiation … Read More

Win Win Negotiation: Different Cultures, Shared Meals

Posted by & filed under Win-Win Negotiations.

From movie moguls hammering out film deals in Los Angeles to publishers and agents assessing each other’s tastes in New York, the “power lunch” has become a familiar institution. Across the globe, negotiators often do business over shared meals, whether out of convenience or as part of a concerted effort to get to know one … Read More

Ask A Negotiation Expert: Zooming Into the Future of Negotiation

Posted by & filed under Negotiation Skills.

Negotiation Briefings: How do video negotiations differ from in-person negotiations, both in terms of what the experience feels like and what we achieve? Noam Ebner: When it comes to negotiating at a distance, we’re in the middle of a global natural experiment. There are hardly any research findings on negotiating via video yet. So, it should … Read More

Negotiation research you can use: To build rapport, be a (subtle) copycat

Posted by & filed under Negotiation Skills.

When people spend time together, they often begin to unconsciously mimic each other’s nonverbal behaviors, such as their body language and facial expressions, and verbal behaviors, including words, expressions, and phrases. While being deliberately mimicked for laughs is annoying (ask any parent of young kids), people actually tend to like those who subtly mimic them better … Read More

Dealing with challenging negotiators

Posted by & filed under Dealing with Difficult People.

We often enter negotiations with a new counterpart with excitement. Unfortunately, our high expectations are sometimes dashed when our new negotiating partner exhibits behavior that’s puzzling, upsetting, or downright bizarre. A trio of new articles by negotiation scholars offers advice that can help us respond effectively to bargaining partners who threaten to throw us off … Read Dealing with challenging negotiators

Coping with Difficult Coworkers

Posted by & filed under Dealing with Difficult People.

At one time or another, most of us have found ourselves coping with difficult coworkers. We might experience flare-ups over workload, funding, or personality issues, to name just a few sources of workplace conflict. The experience of coping with difficult coworkers can be extremely stressful. The following conflict negotiation skills can help you address this … Read Coping with Difficult Coworkers

A Crisis Negotiations Case Study: Chen Guangcheng, the United States, China, and Diplomatic Negotiations

Posted by & filed under International Negotiation.

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s indirect approach to diplomatic negotiations with the People’s Republic of China over political dissdent Chen Guangcheng demonstrates the power of adaptability at the bargaining table, especially when dealing with a counterpart from a different culture or who may speak a different language. … Read More

Value Creation in Negotiation: Be Better, Not Perfect

Posted by & filed under Negotiation Skills.

To reach better outcomes, negotiators learn to create value. Instead of only haggling over the cost of a service contract, they make tradeoffs with their counterpart on issues such as delivery, timing, duration, ancillary products, and so on. We can apply these negotiation skills to achieve better deals not only for those at the bargaining table, … Read More

Culture in Negotiation: Preparing for International Negotiation

Posted by & filed under International Negotiation.

In his book How to Negotiate Anything with Anyone Anywhere Around the World, Frank L. Acuff advises readers to expect Germans to be reserved, hard bargainers who may be offended by personal questions and tardiness. Those negotiating with Chinese counterparts are cautioned to avoid direct questions and to prepare to make numerous concessions. And negotiators … Read More

Ask A Negotiation Expert: Job Negotiations In the COVID-19 Era

Posted by & filed under Salary Negotiations.

The coronavirus pandemic and resulting economic crisis have shaken up nearly everyone’s working life. We asked Hannah Riley Bowles, the Roy E. Larsen Senior Lecturer in Public Policy and Management at Harvard Kennedy School, for advice on how to adapt to this uncertain time. Negotiation Briefings: What advice would you give to people who are currently … Read More

Negotiation In The News: Gambling On A Better Outcome

Posted by & filed under Leadership Skills.

For decades, spurred by the desire for millions in new tax revenues, Chicago mayors have tried and failed to win bipartisan support in the Illinois General Assembly for a casino in the city. After taking office in May 2019, Mayor Lori Lightfoot grabbed the baton and ran with it. And rather than giving up when she was … Read More

What’s so great about small talk?

Posted by & filed under Dealmaking.

This spring and summer, professional sports leagues scrambled to negotiate deals with players’ unions to start or resume their seasons with health, financial, and logistical accommodations for the Covid-19 pandemic. Most reached mutually agreeable deals, with some bumps in the road. Then there was Major League Baseball (MLB). As they tried to work out when the 2020 … Read What’s so great about small talk?

Negotiating to turn your dreams into reality

Posted by & filed under Negotiation Skills.

They say it pays to dream big, but when our dreams depend on other people’s funding and approval, they can easily dissolve. Drawing on savvy negotiation skills, determination, and good timing, Robin Rue Simmons, an alderman in Evanston, Ill., found a way to overcome such obstacles and make history, as Bryan Smith reported in the June/July … Read Negotiating to turn your dreams into reality

The Book of Real-World Negotiations: Successful Strategies from Government, Business, and Daily Life

Posted by & filed under Negotiation Training.

From a life-and-death hostage situation to the Philippines peace process, Joshua Weiss gives us an insider look at the world’s most high-stakes deals to learn what works—and what doesn’t—in negotiation. Most negotiations fail because the negotiators involved lack the confidence, strategic knowledge, and the basic techniques required to reach the most optimal deals possible. The result? … Read More

New Simulation on Science Diplomacy

Posted by & filed under Teaching Negotiation.

Teach Your Students to Incorporate Scientific Findings into International Policy Decisions Science diplomacy elevates the role of science and technology in addressing global challenges. While science diplomacy has a long history of bringing nations together through sharing technological innovations, it has becoming increasingly important in the face of global pandemic, and as climate change and environmental … Read New Simulation on Science Diplomacy

Negotiation and Conflict Management Styles

Posted by & filed under Conflict Resolution.

In negotiation and conflict management, we bring our unique personalities and styles to the table. A reserved, cautious person is likely to bargain differently than someone who is outgoing and proactive, for example. There is much we can do to improve our negotiation performance—such as preparing thoroughly and using proven persuasion strategies. But should we … Read Negotiation and Conflict Management Styles

Dealing with Difficult Clients: Price Negotiations

Posted by & filed under Dealing with Difficult People.

When dealing with difficult clients, we sometimes can trace our struggles to the early stages of our interactions—including our price negotiations. If initial price negotiations are contentious and frustrating for the client, their unhappiness is likely to leave you handling difficult situations and managing difficult people in your ongoing business relationship. In this post, we … Read More

Prepare for the Semester: Negotiation Pedagogy Articles from the Negotiation Journal

Posted by & filed under Pedagogy at PON, Teaching Negotiation.

Whether you are going to be teaching negotiation next semester for the first time, or are a seasoned negotiation instructor, insightful research in negotiation pedagogy can help you approach your course in more effective and innovative ways. The Negotiation Journal, from the Program on Negotiation (PON), has a collection of articles on negotiation pedagogy that … Read More

Organizational Leadership and Troubled Deals

Posted by & filed under Leadership Skills.

When a negotiation isn’t going well, strong leadership skills are often needed to get it back on track. Two recent news stories demonstrate that tenacious and inventive organizational leadership can help renew hope for agreement—and illustrate why negotiation is important in leadership. Trying to bring Barneys back from the brink For decades, luxury department store Barneys New … Read Organizational Leadership and Troubled Deals

Advanced Negotiation Techniques: Online Dispute Resolution

Posted by & filed under Negotiation Skills.

Amid the Covid-19 pandemic, negotiators are increasingly making deals and resolving disputes online. But a trend toward online dispute resolution (ODR) was already in the making before we all began to quarantine. On July 15, experts discussed how technology can help us effectively and efficiently resolve disputes in a roundtable discussion, “AI Agents Negotiating Deals … Read More

A Mediation Intervention in Chicago

Posted by & filed under Mediation.

A contract dispute in the spring of 2019 between the Chicago Symphony Orchestra (CSO) and its musicians led to a disruptive seven-week strike, the longest in the venerable orchestra’s 128-year history. An unexpected intervention by Chicago’s departing mayor drew the dispute to a harmonious finale—and illustrates the role of the mediation process in conflict resolution. Negotiations … Read A Mediation Intervention in Chicago

Moral Leadership and the Role of Unconscious Bias

Posted by & filed under Leadership Skills.

Many organizations strive for moral leadership; too many fall short of that goal. When moral leadership is lacking in an organization, employees ended up disaffected and alienated, productivity suffers, and unethical behavior becomes more likely. Moral leadership doesn’t require perfect behavior, but it does require a willingness to do better. In her book, The Person You … Read Moral Leadership and the Role of Unconscious Bias

Negotiation Strategies and Techniques for Activists: Lessons from Mandela

Posted by & filed under Negotiation Skills.

In the aftermath of George Floyd’s killing in Minneapolis by a White police officer, activists, politicians, and other concerned citizens are grappling with a big question: Where do we go from here? The quest for reforms to policing and other societal institutions can be pursued through many means, including continued demonstrations, political lobbying, and community-wide … Read More

Cross-Cultural Video: Negotiation Examples, Lessons And Advice From PON Faculty

Posted by & filed under Teaching Negotiation.

Do you teach negotiation to students from different cultural backgrounds? Are you teaching students how to negotiate in a cross-cultural context? Do you teach a “one world” model of negotiation; or, are there cultural variables that require changes in the basic model of negotiation that you teach? The Program On Negotiation at Harvard Law School invited … Read More

Ask A Negotiation Expert: Steering Your Organization Through Crisis

Posted by & filed under Leadership Skills.

Leaders in government, business, and beyond are struggling to respond to the economic and health ramifications of the Covid-19 pandemic. Drawing on insights from his book Real Leaders Negotiate! Gaining, Using, and Keeping the Power to Lead Through Negotiation (Palgrave Macmillan, 2017), Jeswald Salacuse describes how leaders can use the tools of negotiation to react … Read More

Feeling emotional? Pause before you negotiate

Posted by & filed under Negotiation Skills.

It was a dream come true. In January, Miranda and Carlos, longtime coworkers in the hospitality industry, opened a new restaurant in their small town. Locals flocked to the place, praising the ambience, food, and service. But just two months later, Covid-19 roared into the United States, and state regulations required the restaurant to switch to … Read Feeling emotional? Pause before you negotiate

Collaborative Leadership at the Louvre

Posted by & filed under Leadership Skills.

When faced with conducting a series of negotiations with numerous counterparts, we often benefit from teaming up with colleagues. There’s much to learn about collaborative leadership from the deals that curators at France’s Louvre Museum conducted to secure loans of Leonardo da Vinci works for a major exhibit that opened in October 2019, as Kelly … Read Collaborative Leadership at the Louvre

Communication and Conflict Management: Responding to Tough Questions

Posted by & filed under Conflict Resolution.

Here are a few interview questions that job candidates often dread:

“How much do you earn at your current position?” “Can you see yourself working here in five years?” “Do you have any other offers?”

Most of us feel compelled to respond honestly and completely to direct questions in negotiation, communication and conflict management, even when doing so could … Read More

Leadership Skills: Negotiating for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion

Posted by & filed under Leadership Skills.

Black men and women continue to be vastly underrepresented in leadership roles in corporate America. Those who advance in majority-white organizations encounter both covert and overt bias, and often struggle to feel authentic and connected. The Program on Negotiation’s Negotiation Briefings newsletter spoke with University of Virginia Darden School of Business professor Laura Morgan Roberts, … Read More

Register Now for the Online Fall Negotiation and Dispute Resolution Seminar!

Posted by & filed under Teaching Negotiation.

This virtual and highly interactive semester-length seminar explores how people negotiate to create value and resolve disputes.  Designed to improve understanding of negotiation theory and build negotiation skills, the curriculum integrates negotiation research from several academic fields with experiential learning exercises. All sessions will be delivered live via Zoom. Emphasizing both theoretical and practical insights, this … Read More

A Global Leadership Vacuum During the Covid-19 Crisis

Posted by & filed under Leadership Skills.

As the coronavirus outbreak in China exploded into an international pandemic, nations have largely struggled to confront Covid-19 in isolation rather than teaming up on global solutions. That “go it alone” approach has bred dysfunctional competition for scarce resources, a shortage of creative solutions, and enormous inefficiencies. Greater collaboration and coordination are needed to improve … Read More

Ask a Negotiation Expert: Reaching Across the Divide

Posted by & filed under Conflict Resolution.

In our era of political polarization, collaboration and compromise can seem like impossible goals within our governments and our own communities. In his book Negotiating the Nonnegotiable: How to Resolve Your Most Emotionally Charged Conflicts (Viking, 2016), Harvard International Negotiation Program founder and director Daniel L. Shapiro describes how we can start to move beyond … Read More

Negotiation in the News: The best—and worst—of distance negotiations

Posted by & filed under Negotiation Skills.

Unable to meet in person as a result of the coronavirus pandemic, negotiators are forced to make the best of alternatives to face-to-face talks—with varied results. Here’s a roundup of some of the most notable negotiation successes and failures from the recent news. Droning on and on? As we reported in last month’s issue, dealmakers who are … Read More

When deals fall apart

Posted by & filed under Dispute Resolution.

For investors and employees of office-space company WeWork, the April 1 news was no joke: Japanese conglomerate SoftBank, WeWork’s dominant shareholder, was reneging on an agreement to buy $3 billion of the company’s stock from them. A longtime financial backer of WeWork, SoftBank had agreed to the purchase as part of a bailout of the … Read When deals fall apart

Check Out Videos from the PON Working Conference on AI, Technology, and Negotiation

Posted by & filed under Pedagogy at PON, Teaching Negotiation.

PON Working Conference on AI, Technology, and Negotiation On May 17th and 18th, 2020 the Program on Negotiation (PON) hosted a virtual working conference on AI, technology, and negotiation. The PON Working Conference on AI, Technology, and Negotiation was designed to:  

Convene scholars, teachers, and practitioners to share insights, experiences, tools, and their expectations for further developments. Inform PON … Read More

Negotiation Skills: Reducing Political Polarization

Posted by & filed under Negotiation Skills.

Excerpted from the June issue of the Negotiation Briefings newsletter, a publication of the Program on Negotiation at Harvard Law School. In our era of political polarization, collaboration and compromise can seem like impossible goals within our governments and our own communities. In his book Negotiating the Nonnegotiable: How to Resolve Your Most Emotionally Charged … Read More

Ask A Negotiation Expert: Federal Mediation Comes Out of the Shadows

Posted by & filed under Mediation.

U.S. federal mediators often work on the front lines of high-profile labor-management disputes, yet—aiming for neutrality and confidentiality—tend to keep a low profile themselves. We spoke to Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service (FMCS) principal deputy director Gary Hattal about how the FMCS, which was founded in 1947, strives to meet its mission of promoting effective … Read More

Negotiating From a Social Distance

Posted by & filed under Negotiation Skills.

As the COVID-19 virus began to spread through the United States, Xerox CEO John Visentin announced on March 13 that the company was putting its hostile takeover of HP on hold in order to “prioritize the health and safety of its employees, customers, partners and affiliates over and above all other considerations.” With health experts worldwide advising citizens … Read Negotiating From a Social Distance

Reaching agreement when trust is low

Posted by & filed under International Negotiation.

Ending the longest war in U.S. history—America’s war in Afghanistan—has been a top goal for President Donald Trump since he took office. President George W. Bush launched the war in 2001 to oust the Taliban, the Islamic fundamentalist group that controlled Afghanistan and was shielding Al Qaeda, the terrorist group behind the 9/11 attacks. Dragging … Read Reaching agreement when trust is low

Contract Renegotiation in a Time of Crisis

Posted by & filed under Business Negotiations.

The COVID-19 pandemic has left many of us negotiating circumstances we never envisioned just months ago, from health crises to lost jobs to plummeting sales. Businesses of all sizes, in particular, are faced with the difficult task of contract renegotiation as a result of parties’ inability to meet current deal terms. Unfortunately, contract renegotiation is much … Read Contract Renegotiation in a Time of Crisis

Negotiated Change During and Beyond the COVID-19 Pandemic

Posted by & filed under Teaching Negotiation.

Professors Joel Cutcher-Gershenfeld and Kimberlyn Leary led a virtual discussion on negotiating change during COVID-19 How do industries and societies negotiate and manage momentous change during the COVID-19 pandemic? Professor Joel Cutcher-Gershenfeld, of the Heller School for Social Policy and Management at Brandeis University and Editor of the Negotiation Journal, and Professor Kimberlyn Leary, of Harvard … Read More

Videoconferencing in Business Negotiation

Posted by & filed under Business Negotiations.

With face-to-face negotiations currently hazardous to our health, businesspeople across the world have switched to Zoom meetings, Skype calls, Google Hangouts, and other forms of videoconferencing. In addition to enabling social distancing, videoconferencing seems at first glance to have all the advantages of in-person meetings. It eliminates the costs of meeting face to face, including … Read Videoconferencing in Business Negotiation

Operating Short-Term to Long-Term through the COVID-19 Pandemic: Negotiating a Global Renaissance with Science Diplomacy

Posted by & filed under Teaching Negotiation.

In case you missed it, Paul Berkman, Professor of Practice in Science Diplomacy and Founding Director of the Science Diplomacy Center at Tufts University, recently gave a Zoom talk about science diplomacy in the age of COVID-19, hosted by the Program on Negotiation (PON). We now are in the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic, when … Read More

Ask A Negotiation Expert: Network Building in the Middle East

Posted by & filed under International Negotiation.

A lack of effective communication has worsened ongoing conflicts in the Middle East. In 2014, regional stakeholders created the Negotiation Strategies Institute (NSI) to promote communication across disputing governments and other groups affected by the conflict. With the Harvard Negotiation Project (HNP) as its academic sponsor, NSI holds an intensive 10-month executive program each year … Read More

Should You Really Negotiate?

Posted by & filed under Dealmaking.

Imagine that you’re about to hire someone to provide a service—say, to repair your leaky roof, design a new website for your business, or cater a family event. When you receive a price quote, should you try to negotiate a better deal? Conventional wisdom would answer with a resounding yes. Opening up price negotiations could very … Read Should You Really Negotiate?

Why Nonaggression Pacts Often Fail

Posted by & filed under Dispute Resolution.

On December 12, 2018, Massachusetts senator Elizabeth Warren had Vermont senator Bernie Sanders over to her house for a meeting, New York magazine reports. There, they each admitted what was already apparent: They were running for president. Friends as well as colleagues, Sanders and Warren agreed to try to protect the progressive movement by not attacking each … Read Why Nonaggression Pacts Often Fail

More than just a game: Negotiating with integrity

Posted by & filed under BATNA.

In competitive realms, it can be especially difficult to negotiate with integrity, unity, and a long-term perspective. Two recent stories from professional sports—women hockey players’ fight for a living wage and a sign-stealing scandal in Major League Baseball—highlight best and worst practices for those negotiating in cutthroat environments. Fighting for a league of their own Founded in … Read More than just a game: Negotiating with integrity

Combatting COVID-19 with Common Interests

Posted by & filed under Crisis Negotiations.

As nations rush to slow the COVID-19 pandemic, treat victims of the virus, and develop cures, they face strong motivations to cooperate with one another rather than compete. Scientists and technical experts can help spearhead this collaboration, said Professor Paul Berkman, director of Tufts University’s Science Diplomacy Center, during a March 26 online talk hosted … Read Combatting COVID-19 with Common Interests

Online Negotiation in a Time of Social Distance

Posted by & filed under Negotiation Skills.

Negotiation thrives on physical presence. Handshakes, eye contact, shared meals, and long meetings in stuffy conference rooms are everyday tools of the trade, and with good reason: Negotiators who meet in person reach better deals than those who negotiate online, research shows. Face-to-face meetings offer invaluable nonverbal and verbal cues, such as eye contact, body … Read Online Negotiation in a Time of Social Distance

Moving Online: Pedagogy in a Pandemic

Posted by & filed under Pedagogy at PON, Teaching Negotiation.

While teachers and trainers around the world work to transition their courses into remote formats, we asked some of our experienced online teachers to share their experiences with the Teaching Negotiation Resource Center (TNRC) so as to provide insights to those who might be working to teach online for the first time. Samuel “Mooly” Dinnar is … Read Moving Online: Pedagogy in a Pandemic

The Impact of Anxiety and Emotions on Negotiations

Posted by & filed under Negotiation Skills.

Intense negotiation scenarios, we often choose to consult an expert for advice, preferably someone who has carried out hundreds of similar deals with great success. When we consult with others on our negotiations, we must weigh their advice against our own opinions and research. Past negotiation research finds that we tend to undervalue advice from … Read More

Business Contract Mistakes—and How to Avoid Them

Posted by & filed under Dealmaking.

When negotiating a business contract, parties are often so focused on reaching agreement that they don’t think enough about how the deal will unfold after the ink has dried. This type of short-term thinking leads to real problems down the road. The following three business negotiation tips can help you adopt a long-term perspective the … Read More

How to Bargain Salary: Laughing Matters?

Posted by & filed under Salary Negotiations.

As they contemplate how to bargain salary, job candidates are often at a disadvantage relative to the hiring organization. Due to the well-documented anchoring effect, the first figure introduced into a negotiation tends to strongly influence the final outcome. Unfortunately for candidates, the wage or wage range that employers give in a job listing or … Read How to Bargain Salary: Laughing Matters?

Advanced Negotiation Techniques: Get the Most out of Negotiation Training

Posted by & filed under Negotiation Training.

So, you’re thinking about taking a negotiation course but are not sure if it will be worthwhile. Or maybe you attended one recently (or not so recently) and are wondering whether you are effectively applying what you’ve learned to the negotiations in your business and personal life. Unfortunately, even after the best negotiation training courses, many … Read More

Organizational Leadership in High-Stakes Business Negotiations

Posted by & filed under Leadership Skills.

Amid tightening global competition and demand for new technologies, automakers are feeling the urge to merge. In late 2018, Fiat Chrysler chairman John Elkann, an American-Italian running his family’s business, stepped up the search for a merger partner and reached out to Renault, among other companies. For organizational leadership at Renault and Fiat Chrysler, the benefits … Read More

Check Out Video Highlights from the 2019 Negotiation Pedagogy Conference

Posted by & filed under Teaching Negotiation.

On November 15th, 2019, the Teaching Negotiation Resource Center (TNRC) hosted a conference on excellence and innovation in negotiation pedagogy. Negotiation and dispute resolution teachers and trainers from around the world came to Cambridge to learn about new approaches and share their experiences. Speakers at the conference spotlighted innovative instructional techniques in many diverse fields of … Read More

Political Negotiation and Beyond: How (and How Not) to Make Threats

Posted by & filed under International Negotiation.

What do you do when the other party won’t give you what you want in negotiation? If you’re U.S. president Donald Trump, there’s one tactic you’ll employ almost every time: Make a threat. Trump is the only president in U.S. history to rely so heavily on threats in political negotiation and beyond, according to Gettysburg College … Read More

Negotiation research you can use: When men are—and aren’t—more likely to negotiate than women

Posted by & filed under Leadership Skills.

Women can be less likely than men to initiate negotiations, a meta-analysis of existing studies on the topic concluded last year. Because negotiation is widely perceived as requiring stereotypically “masculine” traits, such as assertiveness and independence, rather than stereotypically “feminine” traits, such as concern for others and passivity, women may feel less comfortable launching negotiations than … Read More

Negotiation in the News: Scrutinizing a Win-Win Deal

Posted by & filed under Win-Win Negotiations.

When trust between negotiators is low and rancor is high, they may have difficulty accepting a mutually beneficial deal even as it stares them in the face. As 2019 drew to a close, House Democrats were trying to come to terms with a renegotiated North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) that checked off many important boxes … Read More

When High Prices Are a Bitter Pill to Swallow

Posted by & filed under Dealmaking.

There’s at least one thing that politicians as ideologically dissimilar as President Donald Trump and Senator Elizabeth Warren have agreed on: Prescription drug prices are too high in the United States. Americans pay about $1,200 per year, on average, for their medication, according to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development— about twice as much … Read When High Prices Are a Bitter Pill to Swallow

Negotiating beyond the finish line

Posted by & filed under Business Negotiations.

It happens to the best of us: A critical negotiation comes to an impasse, and you’re crushed. Maybe your efforts to find a buyer for your business have been fruitless, your job contract is being terminated, or you’ve sat by helplessly as others negotiated decisions that could affect your health or well-being. Whatever the desperate situation may be, … Read Negotiating beyond the finish line

Mediation and Conflict Management Seminar: Attend in Person or Online!

Posted by & filed under Teaching Negotiation.

The Mediation and Conflict Management Seminar starts Monday January 27 – don’t miss your last chance to register!  The Program on Negotiation (PON) offers a semester-length seminar on mediation and conflict management designed to raise your awareness of your own approach to conflict. Led by David Seibel and Stevenson Carlebach, renowned mediators and dynamic instructors, this … Read More

Negotiation Best Practices for Business Competitors

Posted by & filed under Negotiation Skills.

Industry rivals often struggle to engage in negotiation best practices, balancing profit maximization through competition with industry-strengthening cooperative moves. Become overly competitive, and firms risk fostering conflict and constricting innovation. Collaborate in the wrong ways, and they could cut ethical corners or even break the law. When an industry is struggling, this balance can be especially … Read More

Successes & Messes: Sending a strong message on trade

Posted by & filed under International Negotiation.

For years, Donald Trump has complained that the United States is getting a raw deal in international trade negotiations. As president, he has tried to improve U.S. trade partnerships in different ways, with mixed results: Trump withdrew the United States from the Trans-Pacific Partnership entirely, renegotiated changes to NAFTA with Canada and Mexico, imposed punitive tariffs … Read More

Don’t get schooled in your next negotiation

Posted by & filed under Dealmaking.

Chicago mayor Lori Lightfoot, a former federal prosecutor and head of the Chicago Police Board, was elected in 2018 as a reformer calling for big improvements to Chicago’s chronically underfunded public schools, including smaller class sizes, and more nurses and social workers. One of Lightfoot’s first major challenges after being sworn in on May 20, 2019, … Read Don’t get schooled in your next negotiation

Best Alternative to a Negotiated Agreement: Beyond the Basics

Posted by & filed under BATNA.

What is your greatest source of power in negotiation? In their landmark negotiation book Getting to Yes: Negotiating Agreement Without Giving In (Penguin, 1991), Roger Fisher, William Ury, and Bruce Patton write that it is often a strong BATNA, or best alternative to a negotiated agreement. Before and during their negotiations, wise negotiators determine their … Read More

Collaborative Leadership: Managing Negotiators

Posted by & filed under Leadership Skills.

Organizational leaders, from middle managers to heads of state, often face the difficult task of overseeing mission-critical negotiations and managing individual negotiators and negotiating teams. Collaborative leadership—a focus on giving employees autonomy and a voice in key decisions—is often key to managing negotiators effectively. We often overlook the important role of leadership in negotiation. But as … Read Collaborative Leadership: Managing Negotiators

Notable Negotiation Books for 2020

Posted by & filed under Negotiation Skills.

If one of your new year’s resolutions is to strengthen your skills needed for negotiation, the following recent negotiation books—and one journal special issue—will help you do just that with their host of perspectives and strategies. These negotiation books will also entertain and educate you along the way with insights on topics such as political … Read Notable Negotiation Books for 2020

Skills Needed for Negotiation: BATNA Analysis

Posted by & filed under Negotiation Skills.

Ask almost any real estate agent, and you’ll hear that homeowners often turn down decent offers in the hope of getting a better one that never materializes. Such miscalculations reflect the difficulty of assessing an uncertain BATNA, or best alternative to a negotiated agreement. According to negotiation experts, the ability to accurately compare the deal on … Read Skills Needed for Negotiation: BATNA Analysis

Negotiation research you can use: Too guilty to compete?

Posted by & filed under Negotiation Training.

Our emotions—including anger, sadness, happiness, and disgust—influence our negotiation behavior in systematic ways, research shows. In a new study, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev researcher Uriel Haran is the first to examine whether feeling guilty affects our competitive drive. Guilt is often triggered by behavior we’re ashamed of, and it doesn’t feel very good. On the plus … Read More

Negotiation in the News: When “Mini-Deals” Are the Easy Way Out

Posted by & filed under Dealmaking.

Donald Trump campaigned for president in 2016 as the consummate dealmaker, vowing to renegotiate a new nuclear deal with Iran, forge new trade deals with countries ranging from China to Mexico to Japan, and reach creative agreements with the U.S. Congress. Nearly three years into his presidency, few of these promises have come to fruition. … Read More

Integrative Bargaining in Congress? It Happens Sometimes

Posted by & filed under Negotiation Skills.

With Congress polarized by an impeachment hearing and its major legislative initiatives stalled in late 2019, it may be worthwhile to revisit a recent instance of integrative bargaining between Democrats and Republicans. In integrative bargaining, parties create value by discussing multiple issues and logrolling—that is, making tradeoffs across those issues. In 2018, the rival parties … Read More

Online Negotiation Strategies: Email and Videoconferencing

Posted by & filed under Negotiation Skills.

Online negotiation has become ubiquitous, as it allows us to negotiate across the miles cheaply and quickly. Yet online negotiation creates special challenges. With email, instant messaging, and text messages, negotiators typically lack visual, verbal, and other sensory cues to interpret how their counterpart is feeling. And while videoconferencing—via Skype, Google Hangouts, and so on—adds … Read More

2019 Negotiation Pedagogy Conference

Posted by & filed under Pedagogy at PON, Teaching Negotiation.

Join us in Cambridge on Friday, November 15th, 2019 for a conference on excellence and innovation in teaching negotiation. The Teaching Negotiation Resource Center (TNRC) at the inter-university Program on Negotiation at Harvard Law School is pleased to announce that the 2019 Negotiation Pedagogy Conference will take place on Friday, November 15th, 2019 at Harvard Law … Read 2019 Negotiation Pedagogy Conference

Negotiation in the News: Negotiating with the Sacklers: Inside the Purdue Pharma settlement

Posted by & filed under Business Negotiations.

In the 1990s, U.S. drug manufacturers unwittingly set a national crisis in motion when they began marketing new and highly addictive prescription opioid medications for the treatment of pain. Between 1999 and 2017, about 400,000 Americans died from a drug overdose involving an opioid, including both prescription and illegal drugs. By 2015, the opioid crisis … Read More

Successes & Messes: Negotiating in reverse

Posted by & filed under Dealing with Difficult People.

To get what we want, we sometimes ask more powerful parties to intervene on our behalf. But what happens if they go off course? That’s the predicament automakers in the U.S. market find themselves in after asking the Trump administration to loosen fuel-economy standards for their vehicles. Pedal to the metal When Donald Trump became president in 2017, … Read Successes & Messes: Negotiating in reverse

Negotiating for a brighter future

Posted by & filed under Dealmaking.

For decades, the Colorado River has been in trouble. The river supplies water to 40 million people and five million acres of farmland in seven U.S. states and Mexico. But following 19 years of drought and population growth, the water levels of the river’s largest reservoirs, Lake Mead and Lake Powell, have sunk to record lows. … Read Negotiating for a brighter future

The Effects of Power in Negotiation

Posted by & filed under Negotiation Skills.

You might think that you’re entering a negotiation as the more powerful party, but those with considerable power often fail to take advantage of their privileged bargaining position. Meanwhile, negotiators who lack power routinely miss out on opportunities to gain leverage. To make the most of the power you have, it’s important to understand the … Read The Effects of Power in Negotiation

In Preparation for Negotiation, Choose the Right Process

Posted by & filed under Negotiation Skills.

In preparation for negotiation, sellers face a choice between negotiating one on one with buyers, holding an auction, or combining elements of both processes. Consider the different paths that Amazon and Apple followed in 2017 when each began scouting locations for a new campus: 

Dangling the prospect of a $5 billion campus and about 50,000 jobs, … Read More

Diplomacy and Negotiation Skills Fall Short In U.S.-China Trade Talks

Posted by & filed under International Negotiation.

Among the many diplomacy and negotiation skills required in international negotiation, business negotiators need to be able to size each other up accurately, taking into account cultural, organizational, and other differences. To capitalize on the benefits of diplomacy, they also need to be able to present a united front. Those diplomacy and negotiation skills came … Read More

Conflict and Negotiation Case Study: Long-Term Business Partnerships and Negotiated Agreements

Posted by & filed under Conflict Resolution.

To protect the future interests of their organization, negotiators sometimes must accept fewer benefits or absorb greater burdens in the short run to maximize the value to all relevant parties – including future employees and shareholders – over time. Suppose that the operations VPs of two subsidiaries of an energy company are preparing to negotiate the … Read More

Fundamental Aspects of Negotiation: Setting the Table

Posted by & filed under Negotiation Skills.

In March 2018, U.S. president Donald Trump shocked even his own White House staff when he revealed that he had accepted an invitation to meet with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un. After months of name-calling and threats between Trump and Kim, the news that the two leaders would discuss the possibility of North Korea dismantling … Read More

Conflict Management and Negotiating When Pride is at Stake

Posted by & filed under Conflict Resolution.

The fallout from Iceland’s financial crisis offers a case study in dealing with those who have suffered a significant blow to their self-esteem. In late 2008, Iceland teetered on the edge of bankruptcy following the collapse of its three largest banks. Since becoming independent of the government in 2002, the banks had pursued a strategy … Read More

Powerful Conflict Resolution Games to Help You Teach Negotiation

Posted by & filed under Teaching Negotiation.

From complicated negotiation strategies to artful subterfuge, conflict resolution games are one of the very best ways to prepare for the challenges of real-world negotiation. Games that employ a Prisoner’s Dilemma structure (where rational parties may not cooperate despite their best interests) enable participants to analyze negotiations, make strategic decisions, and anticipate their counterpart’s next … Read More

How Negotiation Role-Play Simulations Can Help You Resolve Environmental Disputes

Posted by & filed under Teaching Negotiation.

From complicated land use debates to the regulation of pollutants, environmental negotiations are fraught with dynamic legal, scientific, and societal considerations. Because many of the natural resources in question are limited and fragile, disputes over them can be particularly difficult. To help educate professionals about how to work through challenging environmental and sustainability negotiations, the Program … Read More

International Negotiation Strategies

Posted by & filed under International Negotiation.

Negotiation researchers have reached many fascinating discoveries about how people negotiate, such as uncovering flaws in our decision making and identifying useful persuasion techniques. But a great deal of this research has been conducted in Western cultures, and particularly the United States, leaving open the question of whether the results—and the advice they inspire—apply across … Read International Negotiation Strategies

Effective Negotiation Behavior: Are You Consistent?

Posted by & filed under Negotiation Skills.

We might hope that when we adopt effective negotiation strategies—such as spending lots of time preparing and asking questions at the table—we would achieve consistently strong results in our negotiations. Yet as most of us have experienced, our outcomes and personal satisfaction can vary a great deal from one negotiation to the next. Why? Likely … Read More

How Body Language Affects Negotiation

Posted by & filed under Negotiation Skills.

Experts typically advise us to study our counterparts’ body language in negotiation and to be aware of our own body language. What, exactly, can we learn from others’ nonverbal behavior? And how can we modify our own nonverbal behavior to increase our negotiation success? We analyze three scenarios to help you understand how body language … Read How Body Language Affects Negotiation

Negotiation Research You Can Use: Should you tell them a story?

Posted by & filed under Negotiation Skills.

Salespeople and advertisers have come up with a range of persuasion strategies that help close deals, from alluding to a product’s popularity to prompting concessions by offering potential customers “free gifts.” These strategies and others have proven useful for business negotiators who are trying to shine the best light on their offers. Another effective strategy can be … Read More

Negotiation in the news: From partner to pariah: The changing fortunes of Mohammad Javad Zarif

Posted by & filed under International Negotiation.

When preparing for high-stakes negotiations, organizations must decide who should lead their teams. That choice can be a difficult one, especially when trust between parties is low. Should you choose someone who will be a tough loyalist for your positions or someone who seems more capable of building bridges? When the Obama administration and the government … Read More

For Professional Negotiators, Three Is a Magic Number

Posted by & filed under Negotiation Skills.

Everything good comes in threes, they say. For storytellers, this means understanding that readers and listeners find a sequence of three things to be memorable, satisfying, and compelling—whether it’s three bears, three little pigs, or three kings. For professional negotiators, sequences of three can be rewarding as well. The following examples of good negotiation skills … Read More

Intercultural Negotiation: Does the BATNA Concept Translate?

Posted by & filed under International Negotiation.

When should you walk away in negotiation? That’s a common question that negotiation experts pose of professional negotiators. We are typically advised to walk away from the bargaining table when we haven’t been able to get a better deal than we can get elsewhere. But in intercultural negotiation, particularly in international negotiation in certain countries … Read More

Teaching Real Estate Negotiation: How to Identify and Create Value

Posted by & filed under Teaching Negotiation.

How do you teach your students to identify and create value in real estate negotiations?  Real estate negotiation can be difficult for both the buyer and the seller. Teaching real estate negotiation can involve value creation, distributive bargaining, as well as issue linkages. It is important for both buyers, sellers, and agents to identify ways to … Read More

Teach Your Students Cross-Cultural Negotiation

Posted by & filed under Teaching Negotiation.

As our world grows increasingly interconnected, we are more likely to find ourselves negotiating in a cross-cultural context. The diverse makeup of many societies and global nature of business today make cross-cultural negotiation a regular part of life. Also, unfortunately, many major disputes in need of resolution cross ethnic and cultural lines. Furthermore, it is important … Read Teach Your Students Cross-Cultural Negotiation

Creating Value in Negotiations through Word Choice

Posted by & filed under Negotiation Skills.

When the delegates from the Group of 20—the world’s 20 largest economies, or G20—met in Buenos Aires, Argentina, in December 2018 to negotiate reforms to the global trading system, the words they didn’t use turned out to be just as important as the ones they did when it came to creating value in negotiations. … Read More

Best-In-Class Negotiation Case Studies

Posted by & filed under Teaching Negotiation.

What’s one of the best ways to teach the art and science of negotiation? Case studies and articles that spark lively discussion or facilitate self-reflection. Based on real-world examples, these teaching resources are designed to help students envision how to apply what they’ve learned in the classroom and beyond. The Teaching Negotiation Resource Center (TNRC) at … Read Best-In-Class Negotiation Case Studies

Negotiation in the news: Power trip: For New York’s real estate industry, a shocking defeat

Posted by & filed under Leadership Skills.

When negotiators are accustomed to getting their way, they tend to rely on the same tried-and-true bargaining tactics—and fail to notice when they’ll no longer work. That’s the lesson New York City’s real estate industry was forced to absorb in June after the newly Democratic-controlled legislature in Albany announced a landmark deal to strengthen the state’s rent … Read More

What is Divorce Mediation?

Posted by & filed under Mediation.

A divorce can take years—and cost a small fortune—to resolve. The task of negotiating child and spousal support, dividing property and other possessions, and establishing child-custody arrangements can be overwhelming, especially when the principals are barely speaking to each other. In the worst-case scenario, separating spouses hire cutthroat lawyers to make rigid (and sometimes outrageous) … Read What is Divorce Mediation?

Role Play Simulations to Help You Become a Better Mediator

Posted by & filed under Teaching Negotiation.

When opposing parties cannot come to a satisfactory resolution, a strong mediator can make all the difference. By effectively examining the issues at hand and helping parties identify creative solutions, a well-trained mediator builds consensus where there once was none. To help professionals learn the art of mediation, the Program on Negotiation’s Teaching Negotiation Resource Center … Read More

Negotiation Case Studies: Teach By Example

Posted by & filed under Teaching Negotiation.

There are good negotiators and there are great ones. Once a year, the Program on Negotiation at Harvard Law School selects an outstanding individual who embodies what it means to be a truly great negotiator. To earn the Great Negotiator Award, the honoree must be a distinguished leader whose lifelong accomplishments in the field of dispute … Read Negotiation Case Studies: Teach By Example

Hostage Negotiation Techniques for Business Negotiators

Posted by & filed under Crisis Negotiations.

What do FBI hostage negotiation techniques and business dealmaking have in common? Not a lot, we might assume. In workplace talks, lives are rarely at stake, and tensions seldom escalate into violence. Yet dig a bit deeper, and similarities emerge: just as in a crisis negotiation, business talks can be highly charged, unpredictable, and emotional. In … Read More

Mandated Mediation: What to Expect

Posted by & filed under Mediation.

More and more companies are inserting alternative dispute resolution (ADR) clauses in their contracts with customers and vendors—and even, in some cases, in agreements with their own employees. ADR clauses can be beneficial for all concerned if it means avoiding the cost, delay, and uncertainty of going to court. Mandated mediation, in particular, may offer … Read Mandated Mediation: What to Expect

Learning From Negotiation Role-Plays

Posted by & filed under Teaching Negotiation.

It’s a familiar practice in negotiation training: Students are divided up and assigned to engage in role-play exercises known as simulations. Each person reads confidential information about her role, the two (or more) players get together and negotiate, and then the class reconvenes to debrief the experiences. Simulation took root as a common method for teaching … Read Learning From Negotiation Role-Plays

Effective Negotiation Techniques: Strive for a Precision Advantage

Posted by & filed under Negotiation Skills.

As you may have noticed, the first offer made in a negotiation often has a significant influence on the final outcome. In their research, psychologists Daniel Kahneman and Amos Tversky documented that the first number introduced in a negotiation serves as an “anchor” that can be impossible to ignore—no matter how irrelevant, outrageous, or insulting … Read More

Managing Cultural Differences in Negotiation

Posted by & filed under International Negotiation.

It’s important to educate yourself about your counterpart’s culture so that you don’t risk offending her or seeming unprepared. At the same time, it would be a mistake to focus too narrowly when preparing for cross-cultural communication in business. Research on international negotiation can help us think more broadly when it comes to managing cultural … Read Managing Cultural Differences in Negotiation

Negotiation Exercises to Help Your Students Avoid Cross-Cultural Pitfalls

Posted by & filed under Teaching Negotiation.

Avoid cross-cultural misunderstandings with these negotiation exercises It’s no secret that communication and negotiation etiquette varies widely across cultures. In France, for example, it is rude to talk money over dinner, while in Brazil the American ‘A-OK’ gesture (thumb and forefinger forming a circle) can be a major insult. The increasingly diverse and global nature of business … Read More

Global Impact Negotiation Simulation

Posted by & filed under Teaching Negotiation.

International law and diplomacy is a rapidly evolving field that depends on the brokering of agreements between nations and other stakeholders. Whether there are language barriers, cultural differences, or both, some of the most challenging negotiations involve parties from different nations. Because of the relative lack of clear legal precedents and the difficulties of enforcement, … Read Global Impact Negotiation Simulation

Making Business Deals that Thrive Across Cultures

Posted by & filed under Dealmaking.

The 1998 merger of German automaker Daimler-Benz and the American Chrysler Corporation at first seemed like a match made in heaven, but the honeymoon wore off as the two cultures that made up DaimlerChrysler began to clash. The Americans’ informal behavior, such as using first names rather than titles, made the Germans uncomfortable, while the … Read Making Business Deals that Thrive Across Cultures

Deal-Making Techniques for When You Feel Powerless

Posted by & filed under BATNA.

In negotiation, we’re often advised that our most important source of power is our best alternative to a negotiated agreement, or BATNA. If we feel powerless when making business deals, it’s often because we don’t have a strong alternative if the current deal falls apart or fails to meet our needs. Thus, the key to … Read More

Negotiate a Deal that Lasts

Posted by & filed under Negotiation Skills.

When trying to negotiate a deal with a potential business partner, you need to come up with a plan for ensuring the two sides will mesh rather than clash. Facebook’s leaders and WhatsApp’s founders appeared to skip that vital step when negotiating the social media giant’s purchase of the text-messaging app in 2014—an oversight that … Read Negotiate a Deal that Lasts

Negotiation research you can use: Why displays of anger can backfire

Posted by & filed under Negotiation Skills.

When negotiators get angry, their counterparts often snap to attention, research shows. We tend to perceive negotiators who appear angry as hard bargainers, and thus make lower demands of them and offer them higher concessions than when dealing with happy opponents, University of Amsterdam professor Gerben A. Van Kleef has found in his research. Sensing this, negotiators … 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

Contract Dispute Resolution: Surviving Costly Conflict

Posted by & filed under Dispute Resolution.

We tend to enter new business partnerships and ventures with a great deal of optimism and excitement. Yet ventures that held so much promise often end up dissolving into costly legal disputes and contract dispute resolution efforts. Formal contracts offer a method for reducing the risks of new partnerships and clarifying commitment in negotiation, but negotiators … Read More

Business Negotiation Solutions: To Eat or Not to Eat?

Posted by & filed under Business Negotiations.

We’ve all shared a meal with a negotiating counterpart at one point or another, whether a business lunch, a working dinner, or sandwiches in a conference room. What are the advantages and potential pitfalls of combining food and drink with negotiation? Here, we offer business negotiation solutions for those who are trying to decide whether … Read More

Hardball Tactics in Negotiation Increase with Rivalry

Posted by & filed under Negotiation Skills.

Coke vs. Pepsi. Clinton vs. Trump. Apple vs. Samsung. The New York Yankees vs. the Boston Red Sox. Whether we work in business, politics, sports, or another arena, our competitors sometimes turn into fierce rivals. In addition, many sales, legal, and financial firms structure jobs, incentives, and promotion systems in ways that pit employees against one … Read More

Conflict-Solving Strategies: The Value of Taking a Break

Posted by & filed under Conflict Resolution.

Business negotiators coping with deeply entrenched conflict often feel defeated and hopeless when conflict-solving strategies fail. However, research from the world of international conflict suggests that taking repeated breaks from conflict can improve the odds of reaching agreement down the road. The research and resulting negotiation strategies may offer new hope to business negotiators. … Read More

Success & Messes: Nancy Pelosi’s next-to-last stand

Posted by & filed under Negotiation Skills.

On February 14, the White House announced that President Donald Trump would sign a federal budget deal that included only a fraction of the funds he had demanded for a border wall with Mexico and attempt to secure the remaining wall funding by declaring a national emergency. For many congressional Democrats, Trump’s capitulation on the budget— following … Read More