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
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How Stereotypes Impair Performance

PON Staff   •  11/22/2010   •  Filed in Daily, Negotiation Skills

Adapted from “Why It Pays for Negotiators to Feel Powerful,” first published in the Negotiation newsletter.

Simply knowing that others may be judging us according to negative stereotypes can impair our performance, according to Stanford University professor Claude Steele. All of us—from white males to African American women to those low on the workplace totem pole—experience … Read How Stereotypes Impair Performance

When You’re on Stage

PON Staff   •  11/16/2010   •  Filed in Daily, Negotiation Skills

Adapted from “How to Deal When the Going Gets Tough,” first published in the Negotiation newsletter.

Negotiators tend to feel pressured when they’re performing in front of an audience, according to Harvard Business School professor Deepak Malhotra. If your boss is watching your every move, if you are bargaining as part of a team, or if … Read When You’re on Stage

Everyday Ingenuity

PON Staff   •  11/15/2010   •  Filed in Daily, Negotiation Skills

Adapted from the Negotiation newsletter.

Negotiation expert Roger Fisher sagely counsels, “Solutions are not the answer.” Instead of tossing demands back and forth on their way to an outcome, negotiators should focus on the process of exploring their underlying needs and interests. Get the process right, and practical solutions often follow.

But process still depends on the … Read Everyday Ingenuity

Checking Your Ego

PON Staff   •  11/15/2010   •  Filed in Daily, Negotiation Skills

Adapted from “When Self-Interest is Sabotage,” by Max H. Bazerman (professor, Harvard Business School), first published in the Negotiation newsletter.

Researchers Frederick G. Banting and John Macleod were jointly awarded the Nobel Prize in 1923 for their partnership in the discovery of insulin. After receiving the prize, Banting publicly contended that Macleod, the head of their … Read Checking Your Ego

Devilish Contractual Details

PON Staff   •  11/02/2010   •  Filed in Daily, Negotiation Skills

Adapted from “Is the Devil in the Details?,” first published in the Negotiation newsletter.

You’re close to a deal, but concerns linger. Some of the contract terms seem less than precise. What in the world does “reasonable best efforts” mean, for example, or “good faith”? Negotiators in this commonplace situation face a choice: push for more … Read Devilish Contractual Details

Too Tough Talk?

PON Staff   •  11/01/2010   •  Filed in Daily, Negotiation Skills

Adapted from “Break Through the Tough Talk,” by Kristina A. Diekmann (University of Utah) and Ann E. Tenbrunsel (Notre Dame University), first published in the Negotiation newsletter.

You might think that cultivating a reputation as a tough bargainer might be the best way to cope with a competitive opponent. But this isn’t necessarily the best strategy. … Read Too Tough Talk?

Change the Trust Default

PON Staff   •  11/01/2010   •  Filed in Daily, Negotiation Skills

Adapted from “How to Build Trust at the Bargaining Table,” first published in the Negotiation newsletter.

Carol’s longtime doctor diagnoses her with a serious illness and recommends immediate, aggressive treatment. Carol would like to seek a second opinion, but she doesn’t want to offend her doctor—who, after all, has always provided her with excellent care. Carol … Read Change the Trust Default

Negotiating the Gulf Disaster with Larry Susskind

PON Staff   •  10/26/2010   •  Filed in Negotiation Skills

Soap Box: Negotiating the Gulf Disaster
Tuesday, September 26, 2010

Speaker: Larry Susskind

Time: 6:00p–7:30p

Location: N52, MIT Museum

Soap Box: The Gulf Oil Spill & Its Consequences

The MIT Museum sponsors a series of salon-style, early-evening  conversations with cutting-edge scientists and engineers who are making the news that really matters.

Larry Susskind, MIT’s Ford Professor of Urban Studies and Planning, and … Read Negotiating the Gulf Disaster with Larry Susskind

When Compromise Fails

PON Staff   •  10/25/2010   •  Filed in Daily, Negotiation Skills

Adapted from “The Dangers of Compromise,” by Max H. Bazerman (professor, Harvard Business School), first published in the Negotiation newsletter.

In July 2000, Arthur Levitt, then chairman of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), held hearings on the question of auditor independence. Believing that auditors’ close ties to their clients posed a conflict of interest … Read When Compromise Fails

To Get Ahead, Grab Their Coattails

PON Staff   •  10/18/2010   •  Filed in Daily, Negotiation Skills

Adapted from “Want to Pull Ahead of the Competition?” by Michael Wheeler (professor, Harvard Business School), first published in the Negotiation newsletter.

Lots of people have great ideas for new products and services, but most lack the imagination and doggedness to actually get them launched. Darren Rovell is a notable exception. As a college student, he … Read To Get Ahead, Grab Their Coattails

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