Negotiation Skills

Thanks to leadership from the Middle East Negotiation Initiative (MENI) of the Program on Negotiation at Harvard Law School, a series of negotiation skills trainings was recently provided to eleventh grade students from Jewish and Arab schools in Israel.  These two-day workshops, co-sponsored by the Program on Negotiation and the Amal Network and funded by … Learn More About This Program

By following these tips in your next negotiation, you’ll improve your chances of meeting everyone’s interests.

Before you sit down at the bargaining table, imagine a wide-range of options and packages, including some that may seem far-fetched.
When talks begin, remember that getting down to business too quickly can stand in the way of building trust.
Emphasize to … Read Negotiation Tips: A Value-Creation Checklist

Consider the first-ever televised debates between the U.S. presidential candidates in 1960.

Studies of the audience after the first of four debates revealed that in the eyes of television viewers, charismatic and confident John F. Kennedy was clearly victorious over the sullen Richard Nixon, who had a five o’clock shadow and was also underweight and pallid … Read Seeing May Be Misleading

Successful professionals understand the value of self-promotion – helping others see what you’ve accomplished and what you can achieve for them. … Read Advance Your Prospects by Asking for Advice

Negotiating by email poses a set of challenges that one doesn’t often encounter in face-to-face negotiations.

Without the benefit of seeing your counterpart’s body language, what one person might intend to be a straightforward request the other might perceive to be rude.

A legitimate delay responding to an email offer by one party might be construed … Read Training for Non-Face-to-Face Negotiations

In any negotiation, you’re likely to have information about the other party or about the deal (industry facts, economic health, new products, and so on) that the other party might not know you have. … Read Negotiation Skills: Plant a Trust Land Mine

How can we avert a full-throttle drive over the fiscal cliff? Despite some promising signs of movement on both sides of the aisle, the current negotiation approach – positional bargaining – is bound to bring us dangerously close to the edge. … Read Negotiating the Fiscal Crisis

In both improv and negotiation, confidence often comes from having fallback routines. Improv performers buy time by resorting to “physical business” – pouring an imaginary glass of beer, for example. Seasoned negotiators use similar gambits to slow down the clock and get their bearings: … Read Practicing to Be Spontaneous

In late October, the Detroit Tigers were preparing to face off against the San Francisco Giants in Major League Baseball’s World Series. In 2002 and 2003, the Tigers had two of the worst seasons in baseball history, losing a combined 225 games. But through years of calculated decision making and negotiations, team president Dave Dombrowski … Read Team Building, One Player at a Time