options

A possible agreement or pieces of a potential agreement upon which negotiators might possibly agree. Options can include substantive terms and conditions, procedures, contingencies, even deliberate omissions or ambiguities Ð anything parties might agree on that might help to satisfy their respective interests. (Michael L. Moffitt and Robert C. Bordone, eds., Handbook of Dispute Resolution [Program on Negotiation/Jossey-Bass, 2005], 283)

The following items are tagged options.

When More is Less

Posted by & filed under Negotiation Skills.

It’s an article of faith in negotiation that expanding the pie of value enhances the parties’ welfare. When there’s only one issue on the bargaining table, the size of the pie is fixed. If one party gets more, the other party gets less. But when multiple issues exist, negotiators can expand the size of the pie by engaging in give-and-take trading that leaves everyone better off. The more issues that are to trade, it would seem, the happier negotiators should be.

Work by Charles Naquin, who teaches at the University of Notre Dame’s Mendoza College of Business, challenges this conventional wisdow. Naquin found that subjects who negotiated a four-issue simulation were significantly more satisfied with their outcomes than those who worked with eight issues. Although the latter group created demonstrably more value, they were less pleased with their results.

Gabriella Blum Named Rita E. Hauser Professor of Human Rights and Humanitarian Law at Harvard Law School

Posted by & filed under Negotiation Skills.

Program on Negotiation faculty member and Harvard Law School faculty member Gabriella Blum was appointed Rita E. Hauser Professor of Human Rights and Humanitarian Law on April 10, 2012. To commemorate the occasion, Blum delivered a lecture entitled “The Fog of Victory” in which she discussed the meaning of victory in modern warfare.

In her opening remarks, Dean Minow stated that it was the highest honor Harvard Law School could bestow upon its faculty is to be named to hold a Chair and called Gabriella Blum “…a pathbreaking scholar.” The Rita E. Hauser Professor of Human Rights and Humanitarian Law chair is named for a visionary HLS alumna named Rita E. Hauser, who served as an adviser to presidents of the United States and Harvard University.

What is a “Brokered Ultimatum”?

Posted by & filed under Mediation.

Researchers Aleksander Ellis, Stephen Humphrey, and Donald Conlon of Michigan State University and Catherine Tinsley of Georgetown University have studied this new transactional form, which they call brokered ultimatum games, or BUGs. They define a BUG as any transaction involving an intermediary in which one side offers an ultimatum price that the other side either accepts or rejects.

These researchers are particularly interested in bidders’ fairness perceptions of the negotiation. As the success of Priceline indicates, when it comes to BUGs, the faster the response, the more satisfied the customer. In addition, study participants are more satisfied with a BUG and more likely to use it again and to refer other to the BUG when their offers are accepted – no surprise there.

Are We in Competition?

Posted by & filed under Dispute Resolution.

Ford vs. GM. Coke vs. Pepsi. Oxford vs. Cambridge. These famous rivalries remind us that the top two achievers in a given realm often compete fiercely with each other.

Now Stephen M. Garcia and Richard Gonzalez of the University of Michigan and Avishalom Tor of the University of Haifa have produced a useful series of studies on when competition between entities will exist – with findings that are relevant to all negotiators.

When Others are Counting on You

Posted by & filed under Conflict Resolution.

Unless your official title is “lawyer” or “agent” you probably don’t think of yourself as an agent. But if you’ve ever represented a family member, your boss, your department, or your organization in a negotiation, you’ve served as that party’s agent.

Representing others at the bargaining table creates both opportunities and hazards. In their book, Negotiating on Behalf of Others (Sage, 1999), professors Robert Mnookin of Harvard Law School and Lawrence Susskind of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology offer guidance to negotiators who find themselves serving as agents.

Should Your Boss Be at the Negotiation Table?

Posted by & filed under Meeting Facilitation.

Imagine that you are about to begin a negotiation whose subject matter is squarely within your area of responsibility at my company. However, the dollar amounts at stake are so large that you are tempted to kick it upstairs to your boss, or at least involve your boss directly in the negotiation. What are the pros and cons of doing so?

Opening Multiple Doors for Dispute Resolution

Posted by & filed under Dispute Resolution.

The Harvard Law School website featured a story about the Ministry of Justice in Chile hosting Harvard Law School Mediation and Clinical Program students Leah Kang (HLS ’12), Teresa Napoli (HLS ’13), and Apoorva Patel (HLS ’13), as well as HNMCP Clinical Instructor and Lecturer on Law Jeremy McClane (HLS ’02) so that the students

Sellers: Set the right price

Posted by & filed under Sales Negotiations.

Adapted from “Why Your Selling Price May Be Too High,” first published in the Negotiation newsletter, October 2007.

Imagine that you are moving from one city to another and putting your home on the market. How would you determine the true value of the residence? Now imagine that you are in the market for the same

Robert Kraft’s negotiation skills helped to end NFL lockout

Posted by & filed under Daily, Negotiation Skills.

Robert Kraft, owner of the New England Patriots, was by all accounts a major factor in getting the NFL collective bargaining agreement signed earlier this week. To do so, Kraft employed four key negotiation tactics to help the players and owners come to a “win-win” solution.

1) Establish relationships of trust. According to The Boston