Recent Posts

Conflict Within the Ranks: Diagnosing Sources of Conflict

By on / Conflict Resolution

Conflict within an organization can not only damage morale but also cut into productivity and ultimately profits. Once you recognize that there is ongoing conflict in your organization, how do you go about diagnosing the source?

In his June 2004 article, “Divided, You’ll Fall: Managing Conflict Within the Ranks,” Lawrence Susskind describes the work done by … Read More

When Facilitation Goes Wrong

By on / Negotiation Skills

Facilitation works best when a facilitator is matched properly to the group and to the situation. Look out for these signs of trouble that may suggest that you need a different facilitator, or that facilitation may not be working for your group:

Poor chemistry. Your facilitator’s personal style may be too forceful, or not forceful enough, … Read When Facilitation Goes Wrong

Does Negotiation Have a Place in Crisis Management?

By on / Conflict Resolution

Does negotiation have a place in crisis management? Many public relations experts would argue no. When a company is confronted with negative publicity, they are advised to reveal as little as possible and denounce their attackers claim. This advice ignores the fact that what an angry public wants is to be heard.

After stranding thousands of … Read More

Negotiating with Your Children

By on / Negotiation Skills

Negotiating with your children may seem counterintuitive but parents can build stronger relationships with them by implementing a problem-solving approach when trying to resolve family conflicts.

In his book How to Negotiate with Kids…Even When You Think You Shouldn’t (Viking, 2003), Scott Brown, a founder of the Harvard Negotiation Project at Harvard Law School, outlines a … Read Negotiating with Your Children

Handling Employee Relations

By on / Conflict Resolution

Suppose you have been recently hired as the first full time staff member charged with handling employee relations. You are entering a large accounting firm with an unusually high staff turnover rate and several recent defections by company accounts.

Dispute System Design (DSD) is the process of identifying, designing, employing, and evaluating an effective means of … Read Handling Employee Relations

The Value of Making Several Offers in Business Negotiations

By on / Business Negotiations, Daily

What’s the right number of options to put forward in financial negotiations? In their April 2005 article in the Negotiation newsletter, “Putting More on the Table: How Making Multiple Offers Can Increase the Final Value of the Deal,” Northwestern professors Victoria Husted Medvec and Adam D. Galinsky write that issuing three equivalent offers simultaneously can … Read More

Negotiating rice and politics

By on / Daily, International Negotiation

The PON Clearinghouse offers hundreds of role simulations, from two-party, single-issue negotiations to complex multi-party exercises. Pacrim Dispute is a three-party, multi-issue international trade negotiation among three culturally different countries over which of two countries will export rice to the third.  This exercise includes coalition and ongoing relationship issues.

This negotiation, which takes place … Read Negotiating rice and politics