PON – Program on Negotiation at Harvard Law School - https://www.pon.harvard.edu
Conflict resolution is the process of resolving a dispute or a conflict by meeting at least some of each side’s needs and addressing their interests. Conflict resolution sometimes requires both a power-based and an interest-based approach, such as the simultaneous pursuit of litigation (the use of legal power) and negotiation (attempts to reconcile each party’s interests). There are a number of powerful strategies for conflict resolution.
Knowing how to manage and resolve conflict is essential for having a productive work life, and it is important for community and family life as well. Dispute resolution, to use another common term, is a relatively new field, emerging after World War II. Scholars from the Program on Negotiation were leaders in establishing the field.
Strategies include maintaining open lines of communication, asking other parties to mediate, and keeping sight of your underlying interests. In addition, negotiators can try to resolve conflict by creating value out of conflict, in which you try to capitalize on shared interests; explore differences in preferences, priorities, and resources; capitalize on differences in forecasts and risk preferences; and address potential implementation problems up front.
These skills are useful in crisis negotiation situations and in handling cultural differences in negotiations, and can be invaluable when dealing with difficult people, helping you to “build a golden bridge” and listen to learn, in which you acknowledge the other person’s points before asking him or her to acknowledge yours.
Articles offer numerous examples of dispute resolution and explore various aspects of it, including international dispute resolution, how it can be useful in your personal life, skills needed to achieve it, and training that hones those skills.
Adapted from the Negotiation newsletter.
Imagine an upcoming negotiation. How will you respond if your opponent seems bent on provoking an argument? If you’re like most people, you’ll have difficulty predicting your precise response. Professor Dan Gilbert of Harvard University found that when asked how a positive or negative event will affect their happiness, people accurately … Read Do You Really Know Yourself? 
Author: Sue Shellenbarger
It’s never easy to ask for a raise or extra perks, especially during a recession. To make matters worse, many workers have trouble negotiating a new compensation package on their own behalf. In this column, Iris Bohnet, a public policy professor and vice chair of the Program on Negotiation at Harvard Law School, … Read The Economy’s Looking Up: So, Can I Have a Raise?
Professor Robert Bordone, director of the Harvard Negotiation and Mediation Clinical Program and Tobias Berkman, Associate of HNMCP, published an article in the Harvard Negotiation Law Review titled Negotiation Advice for the 112th Congress. To read the full article, click here.
“There will be many post-mortems in the wake of the historic changes brought about … Read Negotiation Advice for the 112th Congress
Adapted from “Battles of the Experts,” first published in the Negotiation newsletter.
Sometimes conflict is triggered by honest disagreements over the facts. When one partner buys out another, for example, the two might disagree about the value of the business. Similarly, if a piece of high-tech equipment fails, the manufacturer might point to improper maintenance while … Read Dueling Experts?
Co-authored by Pierre Pettigrew, Mark Freeman,
Robert C. Bordone, Reza Nasri, Balaji Chandramohan
In the 21st century, the power to persuade will be a more practical and useful tool for settling disputes than flexing either military or economic muscle. In this posting, Robert C. Bordone, Thaddeus R. Beal Clinical Professor of Law and Director of the Harvard … Read Winning in the New Century Means…
Jeswald W. Salacuse (Henry J. Baker Professor of Law; former Dean, Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, Tufts University; author of The Global Negotiator and Seven Secrets for Negotiating with Government)
If you think that hammering out a deal which is agreed to by all parties is the last step, think again. Now you’ve got to … Learn More About This Program
“In the polarized atmosphere of Washington, D.C. today, consensus is becoming an increasingly rare commodity, as this year’s debates over health care reform and financial regulation have made clear. To help curb that trend, twenty senior federal officials – both Republicans and Democrats – met in Washington in July to hone … Learn More About This Program
Lawrence Susskind, Ford professor of Urban and Environmental Planning, The Massachusetts Institute of Technology; author of Built to Win; co-author of Breaking Robert’s Rules and Breaking the Impasse
Building consensus among regulators and the oil and gas industry about how to avoid future oil spills may be easier than previously thought. In this posting, Lawrence Susskind … Learn More About This Program
Author: Eileen Babbitt, Professor of International Conflict Management Practice at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, Tufts University
The pursuit of human rights can be helped along by paying more attention to the principles of conflict transformation. This piece shows how countries that have known violent internal conflict can use the negotiating of a constitution … Learn More About This Program
CNBC’s television series Collaboration Now featured Professor Deepak Malhotra discussing how successful collaboration can help companies overcome barriers that are holding them back and meet the needs of demanding customers. In this video, you can find examples of collaboration, including how the American trucking company YRC is making inroads across the globe, and how, with … Read Profiting from Collaboration
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