Most negotiations are “mixed motive” in structure, requiring 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 to master. … Read Conflict Management: Anger – The Good and the Bad

Francesca Gino, Program on Negotiation faculty member and author of the bestselling book, Sidetracked: Why Our Decisions Get Derailed and How We Can Stick to the Plan, tackles this question from a Negotiation Briefings reader concerning how to deal with a mediator that is abrasive, dismissive, or even rude. … Read How to Deal with a Difficult Mediator

Diplomats deal with difficult people when engaging in international negotiations in ways integrative negotiators may find useful for developing their negotiation skills. … Read More

When times are tight, contracts are often broken. These days, parties on both sides of sales agreements are struggling to fulfill their promises, and contract workers are having trouble getting paid by their employers. … Read More

The news that actors Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt are headed for divorce puts the issue of divorce negotiations in the spotlight. … Read More

Whatever the root causes of faulty drafting, negotiators need to better understand and manage certain aspects of the deal drafting process. Here are three ways to ensure that breakdowns don’t occur on the way from handshake to contract. … Read Dealmaking: Avoiding Pitfalls in Deal Drafting

Given the pitfalls of having a position of relative power, what is a powerful negotiator to do? By following these steps, you can keep your edge while encouraging cooperative, rather than competitive, behavior. … Read Maintaining Your Power in Negotiations

When talks stall, it’s tempting to jump to conclusions: “It’s purely a price gap.” “They’re being unreasonable.” “We’re not communicating well.” “We’re in a weak position.” … Read What’s Keeping You from Closing the Deal?

When we make decisions about what to buy, we often do so with another person. Domestic partners make joint purchasing decisions about homes, appliances, cars, and vacations. Pairs of college students often decide together what apartment to rent. Two investment bankers might select stocks together. And when two friends plan a night out, they might … Read More

Some of the trickier aspects of designing the right contract with your agent include properly aligning her incentives and monitoring her work. Supervising your agent can be especially hard when she knows more than you do about the area of work. For example, hiring an agent who is a lawyer and paying her on an … Read How to Avoid Faulty Negotiated Agreements

“Give them an inch, and they’ll take a mile.” Unfortunately, that’s the attitude with which many people approach negotiation. Convinced that their counterparts will take advantage of any concessions and compromise they make, they refuse to make any at all. … Read More