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.

Negotiation training courses include Negotiation and Leadership: Dealing with Difficult People and Problems, the Advanced Negotiation Master Class, Harvard Negotiation Institute programs, and the PON graduate seminars.

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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Compare and contrast

PON Staff   •  04/06/2010   •  Filed in Daily, Negotiation Skills

Adapted from “What Makes Negotiators Happy?” First published in the Negotiation newsletter.

We all know that people have a strong need to compare their outcomes with those of others. So a negotiator’s mostly likely target of social comparison is her opponent, right?

Maybe not. Nathan Novemsky of the Yale School of Management and Maurice E. Schweitzer of … Read Compare and contrast

The threat of bad publicity

PON Staff   •  03/30/2010   •  Filed in Daily, Negotiation Skills

Adapted from “Driving the Deal Home,” first published in the Negotiation newsletter.

Having trouble convincing someone to follow through on a promise? Borrow a page from the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum’s playbook.

In September 2007, fashion designer Mark Ecko purchased Barry Bonds’ record-setting 756th home run ball in an online auction for $752,467. After … Read The threat of bad publicity

Prof. Robert Mnookin featured in Harvard Gazette

PON Staff   •  03/24/2010   •  Filed in Daily, Negotiation Skills

Professor Robert Mnookin was featured in the print version of the Harvard Gazette in February 2010.  Prof. Mnookin’s new book, “Bargaining with the Devil: When to Negotiate, When to Fight” was featured in the Gazette’s book section Harvard Bound in the February 18-25 issue.

Please click here for the full article. … Read Prof. Robert Mnookin featured in Harvard Gazette

Make more out of less

PON Staff   •  03/23/2010   •  Filed in Daily, Negotiation Skills

Adapted from “When More Is Less,” first published in the Negotiation newsletter.

It’s an article of faith in negotiation that expanding the pie of value enhances parties’ welfare. When there’s only one issue on the bargaining table, the size of the pie is fixed. If one party gets more, the other party must get less. But … Read Make more out of less

Improve their satisfaction

PON Staff   •  03/16/2010   •  Filed in Daily, Negotiation Skills

Adapted from “Make Them More Satisfied with Less,” first published in the Negotiation newsletter.

In negotiation, sometimes you just don’t have much to give. If your department’s budget has been slashed, your subordinates will have to settle for smaller raises than usual – or none at all. When consumer demand for your red-hot product levels … Read Improve their satisfaction

A more cooperative divorce

PON Staff   •  03/09/2010   •  Filed in Negotiation Skills

Adapted from “Negotiating a More Civil Divorce,” first published in the Negotiation newsletter.

In the United States, lawyers who recognize the benefits of collaborative negotiation are sometimes stymied by vengeful clients and ruthless opposing counsel.  Many attorneys put up with a contentious settlement process in which litigation is a threat.

Yet some U.S. lawyers have begun … Read A more cooperative divorce

Should you be nasty or nice?

PON Staff   •  03/09/2010   •  Filed in Daily, Negotiation Skills

Adapted from “Honey or Vinegar?”, first published in the Negotiation newsletter.

Who brings out the best in us: someone nice or someone nasty? According to a recent study by Gerben A. van Kleef and colleagues of the University of Amsterdam, we may be more generous toward angry people than toward happy people.

In the first two … Read Should you be nasty or nice?

First, know thyself

PON Staff   •  03/02/2010   •  Filed in Daily, Negotiation Skills

Adapted from “Self-Analysis and Negotiation,” first published in the Negotiation newsletter.

“Separate the people from the problem,” advises the bestselling negotiation text “Getting to Yes”. That’s certainly good counsel when tempers flare and bargaining descends into ego battles, but it’s a mistake to ignore the psychological crosscurrents in negotiation. Unless they are addressed, a deal may … Read First, know thyself

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