Business negotiators know that persistence and tenacity can make all the difference between impasse and a game-changing breakthrough. Take the saga behind Microsoft’s 2013 announcement of its pending $7.2 billion acquisition of Finnish mobile phone company Nokia’s handset and services business. The two parties engaged in many months of fruitless talks before either side believed … Read More
Dispute Resolution Example: The Chicago Symphony’s Contract Dispute
A 2019 contract dispute between the Chicago Symphony Orchestra (CSO) and its musicians led to a disruptive seven-week strike, the longest in the venerable orchestra’s 128-year history. The unlikely intervention of Chicago’s mayor just before he left office managed to draw this thorny dispute resolution example to a mutually satisfactory finale while also highlighting the … Read More
Teaching Contract Negotiation: Using the Mutual Gains Approach
How do you use the mutual gains approach in contract negotiations?
In contract negotiations, parties can often resort to positional bargaining instead of using the mutual gains approach. Teaching students to generate creative options in contract negotiations can help them avoid positional bargaining and achieve more beneficial and sustainable agreements. The Teaching Negotiation Resource Center (TNRC) … Read More
Negotiation Ethics in Business: Avoid Common Traps
We may think our negotiation ethics in business are above reproach, but all of us are susceptible to engaging in unethical negotiation tactics—sometimes without realizing it. Here’s how to do better. … Read More
In Email Negotiations, When They’re Happy, Do You Know it?
One study by Hillary Anger Elfenbein (Washington University, St. Louis) found that negotiators detected emotions accurately only 58% of the time. That accuracy rate may be even lower in email negotiations, where negotiators lack helpful visual, verbal, and other sensory cues. … Read More
Body Language in Negotiation Can Build Rapport—Without Saying a Word
Whether or not you consider George W. Bush a skilled negotiator, no one can argue the savviness of his body language in negotiation situations, as film and television producer Brian Grazer discovered. When Grazer was invited to the White House in 2005 for a screening of one of his movies, he started chatting with President … Read More
Entrepreneurs: Prepare for Challenging Conversations in Key Negotiation
Start-ups and individual entrepreneurs often encounter challenging conversations when negotiating with potential partners and investors. When you are trying to sell others on your big idea or venture, you face the daunting challenge of convincing them that it’s worth their time, money, and effort. And even as you’re drawing on all your powers of persuasion … Read More
Arbitration vs Mediation: The Definition of Mediation as a Problem Solving Process
Mediation is often thought of as a last step to adjudicate disputes. In this article, professor Lawrence Susskind spells out the hidden advantages of using mediation early in the process to solve problems and reach voluntary compliance agreements. … Read More
Renegotiation: When a Sweetheart Deal Isn’t So Sweet
It was perhaps “the sweetest of sweetheart deals” negotiated by a Major League Baseball (MLB) team, according to the New York Times. So why did the Kansas City Royals throw out their old agreement with star catcher Salvador Perez, midcontract, in favor of a renegotiation that was far more favorable to the Golden Glove winner? … Read More
Power in Negotiation: Research You Can Use
What sources of power in negotiation do you think are especially important when it comes to getting what you want and building a fruitful long-term business partnership?
Having abundant material resources is one common source of power in negotiation. So is having high status in an organization. One of the most important measures of power is … Read Power in Negotiation: Research You Can Use
Negotiation Training: What’s Special About Technology Negotiations?
Executives are increasingly faced with the task of negotiating in a realm that many know little about: technology. … Read More
Should Women “Lean In” to Create More Value in Negotiations?
Back in early 2008, Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg began thinking about hiring Sheryl Sandberg, a vice president at Google and a former chief of staff for the U.S. Department of the Treasury, as the social-media company’s new chief operating officer. The two met several nights a week for almost two months to discuss … Read More