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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Are you afraid of commitment?

PON Staff   •  01/12/2010   •  Filed in Daily, Negotiation Skills

Adapted from “Overcoming Stage Fright: How to Prepare for a Negotiation,” by Michael Wheeler (Professor, Harvard Business School), first published in the Negotiation newsletter.

Many negotiators grow anxious as they approach the bargaining table, a reaction that puts them in good company with other distinguished professionals. Laurence Olivier’s stage fright almost ended his acting … Read Are you afraid of commitment?

Insights from a Communication and Negotiation Conference: The Benefits of Not Knowing

PON Staff   •  01/05/2010   •  Filed in Daily, Negotiation Skills, Pedagogy at PON

An Experiment: Exploring Interdisciplinary Linkages between Negotiation and Communication Studies

What would negotiation pedagogy look like if we focused more on the core meanings and practices of communication? How can understanding the underpinnings of communication – the components of conversation and the exchange of meaning – help us understand and improve our negotiations? The weekend of … Learn More About This Program

To trust or not to trust

PON Staff   •  12/21/2009   •  Filed in Daily, Negotiation Skills

Adapted from “The Payoff of Trust,” by Iris Bohnet (Professor, Harvard Kennedy School), first published in the “Negotiation newsletter.”

It’s natural to fear trust betrayal, or the violation of pivotal expectations of trustworthiness. Recent corporate and religious scandals have tragically demonstrated the substantial costs of such betrayals. Victims suffer emotional harm, and their ability to trust … Read To trust or not to trust

Take their advice

PON Staff   •  12/10/2009   •  Filed in Daily, Negotiation Skills

Adapted from “Turn Your Adversary into Your Advocate,” by Katie A. Liljenquist and Adam D. Galinsky, first published in the Negotiation newsletter.

Most of us seek advice on a daily basis, for at least three reasons: to improve the quality of our decisions, to validate our choices, and to diffuse risk. Advice seeking also generates significant … Read Take their advice

Funny business

PON Staff   •  12/10/2009   •  Filed in Daily, Negotiation Skills

First published in the Negotiation newsletter.

You don’t have to be serious to be a serious negotiator. Humor, deftly used, can be a positive factor in promoting agreement.

That’s what Finnish researcher Taina Vuorela confirmed in a comparative study of two real-world transactions. One was an internal meeting of a sales team trying to hammer out … Read Funny business

PON hosts “world premiere” of Abraham Path Initiative Films

PON Staff   •  12/09/2009   •  Filed in Conflict Resolution, Daily, Events, Harvard Negotiation Project, Negotiation Skills, PON Film Series

The PON Film Series has shown nearly 50 films over the past several years at events that are open to students and the public. On December 8, the PON Film Series had a “world premiere” of several short films about the Abraham Path Initiative, a hiking trail being developed in the Middle … Learn More About This Program

Making the first move

PON Staff   •  11/24/2009   •  Filed in Daily, Negotiation Skills

Adapted from “Should You Make the First Offer?” by Adam D. Galinsky (Professor, Northwestern University). First published in Negotiation Newsletter.
Whether negotiators are bidding on a firm, seeking agreement on a compensation package, or bargaining over a used car, someone has to make the first offer. Should it be you, or should you wait to … Read Making the first move

PON saddened by the death of artist and Great Negotiator, Jeanne-Claude

PON Staff   •  11/19/2009   •  Filed in Daily, Events, Great Negotiator Award, Negotiation Skills, News

“The Program on Negotiation is deeply saddened to learn of the death of Jeanne-Claude, half of the dynamic and brilliant artistic partnership of Christo and Jeanne-Claude,” commented Robert H. Mnookin, Chair of the Program on Negotiation at Harvard Law School. “In September 2008, we honored Christo and Jeanne-Claude as the Program on Negotiation’s “Great Negotiators”. … Learn More About This Program

Negotiate how you’ll negotiate

PON Staff   •  11/03/2009   •  Filed in Daily, Negotiation Skills

Adapted from “Have You Negotiated How You’ll Negotiate?” by Robert C. Bordone, Professor, and Gillien S. Todd, Lecturer, Harvard Law School.

Breakdowns in negotiation are common. In the face of impasse at the bargaining table, managers are quick to blame either the challenges of the issues being negotiated or the hard-line tactics of the opposing parties. … Read Negotiate how you’ll negotiate

Go the extra mile

PON Staff   •  10/27/2009   •  Filed in Daily, Negotiation Skills

Adapted from “Build Rapport—and a Better Deal,” by Janice Nadler, professor, School of Law, Northwestern University.

In negotiation, rapport is a powerful force that can promote mutually beneficial agreements. Negotiators who already have a good working relationship are fortunate to have rapport built into their interactions. Strangers, however—especially those whose communications are limited to telephone or … Read Go the extra mile

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