Is Humor in Business Negotiation Ever Appropriate?
Can humor improve negotiation outcomes? Research shows well-timed humor builds trust, creativity, and rapport—when used strategically. … Learn More About This Program 
Negotiation Skills
Negotiation is a deliberative process between two or more actors that seek a solution to a common issue or who are bartering over an item of value. Negotiation skills include the range of negotiation techniques negotiators employ to create value and claim value in their dealmaking business negotiations and beyond. Negotiation skills can help you make deals, solve problems, manage conflicts, and build relationships as well as preserve relationships. Negotiation skills can be learned with conscious effort and should be practiced once learned.
Negotiation training includes the range of activities and exercises negotiators undertake to improve their skills and techniques. Role-play simulations developed from real-world research and negotiation case studies, negotiation training provides benefits for teams and individuals seeking to create and claim more value in their negotiations.
The right skills allow you to maximize the value of your negotiated outcomes by effectively navigating the negotiation process from setup to commitment to implementation.
The Program on Negotiation’s Executive Education negotiation training programs include Negotiation and Leadership: Dealing with Difficult People and Problems, the Harvard Negotiation Master Class, and the Harvard Mediation Intensive.
This training allows negotiators to:
- Acquire a systematic framework for analyzing and understanding negotiation
- Assess and heighten awareness of your strengths and weaknesses as a negotiator
- Learn how to create and maximize value in negotiations
- Gain problem-solving techniques for distributing value fairly while strengthening relationships
- Develop skills to deal with difficult negotiators and hard-bargaining tactics
- Learn how to match the process to the context
- Discover how effectively to manage and coordinate across and behind-the-table negotiations
