Guantanamo Bay is a location firmly fixed in the public mind as one of the many physical symbols associated with the age of terrorism. Before becoming President of the United States, Barack Obama promised the closure of this controversial site. Yet that promise was fraught with many political considerations, such as how to close a detention facility without appearing weak … read more »

In a series of studies, Joshua M.Ackerman of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Christopher C. Nocera of Harvard University, and John A. Bargh of Yale University explored how the feel of physical objects could arbitrarily be influencing our choices without our knowledge.

In one study, the researchers asked passersby to evaluate a job candidate by reviewing resumes on either light or … read more »

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. Conventional wisdom has always placed the automobile in the realm of the masculine, but the emergence of the prepared and educated female customer has changed the way … read more »

Reach a more creative agreement. You’ve heard it many times: to get the most out of an agreement and a new business relationship, you have to collabo­rate to find new sources of value in addition to claiming value for yourself. Yet coming up with original, value-creating ideas can be easier said than done. We present three basic techniques that can … read more »

For a new employee, negotiating a salary offer up by $5,000 could make a huge difference over the course of a career. A 25-year-old employee who enters the job market at $55,000 will earn about $634,000 more over the course of a 40-year career (assuming annual 5% raises) than an employee who starts out at $50,000. But not everyone negotiates … read more »

In this video, Professor Robert H. Mnookin, Chair of the Program on Negotiation, reflects on his experience leading a negotiation workshop for high school students in Israel. The key negotiation skills emphasized in the workshop were active listening and the ability to understand the perspective of the other side. As Professor Mnookin states in the video, “I told … read more »

One should always go into every negotiation fully prepared, but a few very easy steps may help clear negotiation obstacles before the formal process even begins.  Recent research by Francesca Gino, Associate Professor at Harvard Business School and Harvard Law School’s Program on Negotiation-affiliated faculty member, argues that simple expressions of gratitude can yield beneficial returns in cooperativeness and pro-social … read more »

When talks go down to the buzzer
Weigh the pros and cons of impulse
Learn bargaining lessons from the bazaar
Negotiate effectively in the art world
… read more »

When it comes to business negotiations, you probably understand the importance of being as principled as possible to protect your reputation and ward off legal trouble. You probably expect your counterparts to follow the straight and narrow as well. Yet negotiators often have only a fuzzy grasp of which claims and strategies are legal and which aren’t. As a consequence, … read more »

In response to recent power struggles and stand-offs in Congress, most notably House Speaker John Boehner’s dare to the Senate to not return to Washington to negotiate with House Republicans, National Journal interviewed Harvard law professor Robert C. Bordone to get his opinion on Congress’s approach to negotiation.
When asked to give his estimation of Congress’s skills, Bordone said that “this … read more »