The Program on Negotiation Film Series recently screened The Interrupters, a documentary film that follows three “violence interrupters” as they work to prevent violence in Chicago’s neighborhoods. The interrupters are outreach workers who were once notorious for their past gang-related experience, but who now work for an organization called CeaseFire, an initiative of the Chicago … Read More

Social comparisons are a critical factor in guiding negotiator satisfaction, Maurice E. Schweitzer of the University of Pennsylvania and Yale psychologist Nathan Novemsky have found in their research. Not only do negotiators compare their profit from a deal with the profit they imagine their counterpart earned, but they also compare their profit with the profits … Read How comparisons affect satisfaction

In negotiation, the time, energy, and resources that you devote to reaching agreement can suggest that you’re desperate for a deal—any deal. The greater your investment in the negotiation, the less credible the threat of walking away becomes.

In such instances, one way to make this threat more credible is to find someone else to take … Read Making threats strategically

Max H. Bazerman (Program on Negotiation Executive Committee member and professor at the Harvard Business School) recently was quoted in an op-ed in The New York Times entitled, “Let’s All Feel Superior.”

In this piece, columnist David Brooks explains how some people have difficulty processing horrific events.  Our natural tendencies to self-deceive come into play and … Read More

Many years ago, researchers Michael Ross and Fiore Sicoly of the University of Waterloo asked husbands and wives to estimate the percentage of the household work they did. On average, the total amount of work claimed by each couple far exceeded 100%. The husbands and wives felt they were contributing more than was actually the … Read Are you taking too much credit?

The prospect of negotiating often sparks anxiety, especially if substantive or emotional stakes are high. The mere thought of failing can be self-fulfilling. In sports, it’s called choking. While negotiators don’t have to worry about fans’ reaction to dropping the ball in a packed stadium, critical voices can come from within. The negotiation process is … Read Address your negotiation jitters

The PON Film Series presents
 
 
“The Interrupters”
followed by a post-screening discussion with
William Ury, co-author of Getting to YES &
Gary Slutkin, Executive Director of Chicago’s Ceasefire
Date: Tuesday, November 15, 2011
Time: 6:30 PM
Location: Ames Courtroom, Austin Hall, Harvard Law School Campus
The Interrupters tells the moving and surprising stories of three Violence Interrupters who try to protect their Chicago … Read PON Film Series presents “The Interrupters”

The evidence from social science is clear: people’s behavior is powerfully influenced by the actions of those who are like them. A classic study by Harvey Hornstein, Elisha Fisch, and Michael Holmes found that New York City residents were highly likely to return a lost wallet after learning that a “similar other”—another New Yorker—had first … Read Choose the right messenger

Success in negotiation, according to Professor Robert H. Mnookin, Chair of the Program on Negotiation, depends largely on being capable of managing each of the three tensions that he defines as being inevitable within almost any negotiation process. These include the tension between how to expand value and how to divide … Read More

Jeswald W. Salacuse, (professor, Tufts University), explores the five principles behind offering beneficial advice. Salacuse’s five essential rules (listed below) are drawn from his book, The Wise Advisor.

Know your advisee. Clients are not interchangable. Don’t generalize with your advice; instead, try to understand the particular needs and perspectives of your clients.
Help, or at … Read “Advice for the Advisor” by Jeswald W. Salacuse

At the time of the final presidential debate between President Jimmy Carter and challenger Ronald Reagan during the 1980 election campaign, the U.S. economy was tanking and the Iranian hostage crisis smoldering. Ronald Reagan used his concluding statement of the debate to address a string of questions to the nation that highlighted Carter’s vulnerabilities: “Are … Read Are you asking enough questions?