Negotiation Skills

Adapted from “Will Your Emotions Get the Upper Hand?” first published in the Negotiation newsletter.

Angry individuals approach situations with confidence, a sense of control, and negative thoughts about others. In negotiation, these tendencies can trigger overconfidence, unrealistic optimism, and aggression, yet they buffer decision makers from indecision, risk aversion, and overanalysis, write professors Jennifer … Read The Upside of Anger

Adapted from “Justifying Selfishness,” first published in the Negotiation newsletter.

In a study of selfishness in negotiation, Fei Song of York University and C. Bram Cadsby and Tristan Morris of the University of Guelph had participants play the “dictator game,” adapted from the experimental economics literature. In this game, Party A is given a sum of … Read An Excuse for Selfishness

Adapted from “Build the Right Connection,” by Jeswald Salacuse (professor, Tufts University), first published in the Negotiation newsletter.

To hold the attention of your counterparts, you need to connect with them as early as possible in the negotiation. A human connection with the other side not only distinguishes you from your competitors and other parties they … Read Always Connect

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)

The way you characterize or frame a situation can influence people’s thinking in a negotiation. Setting the terms can help, or hinder, your side. In … Learn More About This Program

Adapted from “Second Thoughts,” first published in the Negotiation newsletter.

“Of all sad words of tongue or pen,” wrote the poet John Greenleaf Whittier, “the saddest are these: ‘It might have been.'” Many negotiators would second that sentiment. Regret can be a powerful emotion when a deal slips through our fingers or when we kick ourselves … Read The Regretful Negotiator

Harvard Business School Professor Michael Wheeler teaches a negotiation class, using one of his favorite cases, Discount Marketplace.

To watch more PON Videos, click here. … Read Video of Professor Wheeler teaching Negotiation

Robert Mnookin (Samuel Williston Professor of Law; Harvard Law School; Chair, Program on Negotiation at Harvard Law School; author of “Bargaining with the Devil”; co-author of “Beyond Winning”)

What factors determine whether you should negotiate? What things influence the bargaining process? Should you negotiate with your “enemy”? If so, how? In this piece, Robert Mnookin draws … Read How and When to Negotiate with an Adversary

The Program on Negotiation’s 2010 Great Negotiator Award was given to former Finnish President, Martti Ahtisaari, for his many significant achievements in the fields of negotiation and diplomacy. He was central to the Namibian independence negotiations in the late 1980s. He also served as chief United Nations negotiator to Kosovo from 2005-2006, and was instrumental … Learn More About This Program

Sixteen teams from nine different law schools from throughout the Northeast took part in the ABA Regional Negotiation Competition at HLS on November 13–14, 2010. Approximately 35 judges, all practicing lawyers in the Boston area, evaluated the teams and chose the winners. A team comprised of two first-year law students from Boston College Law School … Learn More About This Program

First published in the Negotiation newsletter.

In recent years, a number of new Web-based systems have changed the very structure of negotiation as we know it. One of most famous of these is Priceline.com, which allows consumers to make bids for rental cars, hotel rooms, and air travel-bids that the car-rental firms, hotels, and airlines can … Read Letting Them Down Easy