Teaching Negotiation

Teaching negotiation includes instructional areas such as deal setup and design, dispute resolution systems, arbitration, mediation, and meeting facilitation as well as the use of interactive role-play exercises, books, videos, training materials and role-play simulations designed around a specific negotiation skill or concept. The Program on Negotiation’s educational resource center, known as the Teaching Negotiation Resource Center (TNRC), develops a wide-range of role-play simulations—including the popular Sally Soprano negotiation case study—interactive teaching exercises, books, videos, and scholarly papers devoted to the application of teaching negotiation and training effective negotiators.

Materials in the TNRC cover negotiation-related issues in areas ranging from climate change to ethics. Many of the themes are substantive (e.g., environmental negotiations or business negotiations), some target specific sectors (e.g., health care industry), or address particular contexts (e.g., cross-cultural negotiation skills) while others are more process oriented (e.g., facilitation).

The most popular simulation topics include:

  • Environmental
  • Real Estate
  • Workplace
  • Public Policy
  • Teaching in Law
  • Water Management Simulations

In addition, once a year, the Program on Negotiation at Harvard Law School selects an outstanding individual who embodies what it means to be a truly great negotiator. To earn the Great Negotiator Award, the honoree must be a distinguished leader whose lifelong accomplishments in the field of dispute resolution and negotiation have had compelling and lasting results.

To help students and professionals learn valuable lessons from these highly skilled negotiators, PON’s Great Negotiator Case Study Series features in-depth studies such as Stuart Eizenstat: Negotiating the Final Accounts of World War II and Lakhdar Brahimi: Negotiating a New Government for Afghanistan.

See full description

Case Study: Teaching with a Powerful Negotiated Agreement

Lara SanPietro   •  05/16/2016   •  Filed in Teaching Negotiation

What do a Nobel Peace Prize recipient, the CEO of an international financial advisory firm, and the former United States ambassador to the United Nations have in common? They’ve all received the Great Negotiator Award.
Every year, the Program on Negotiation at Harvard Law School bestows this prestigious honor on distinguished leaders whose lifelong accomplishments in … Learn More About This Program

On Its Head: Teaching Negotiation in a Flipped Classroom

PON Staff   •  04/18/2016   •  Filed in Teaching Negotiation

After my experience flipping this class, I came away with the following lessons:
1. Negotiation is a very suitable topic for this type of methodology.
2. This approach helps students who are audio and visual learners.
3. The in-class one-on-one time allows instructors to really work with students on specific problems and challenges.
4. Class size may present a … Learn More About This Program

The Negotiation Simulation Method: Teach Legal Lessons by Immersive Means

Lara SanPietro   •  04/08/2016   •  Filed in Teaching Negotiation

In complex legal negotiations, money, reputations, and sometimes even lives are often at stake. Legal professionals must know how to read and debate the law as well as fully embrace the art and science of negotiation.
To help attorneys and other legal professionals become well versed in law and court-based negotiation, the Program on Negotiation’s … Learn More About This Program

Negotiation Exercises Designed To Help Settle Workplace Conflict

Lara SanPietro   •  03/25/2016   •  Filed in Teaching Negotiation

From brokering a deal to negotiating a sale, there are many disputes that happen at work. Among the most challenging are those involving employers and employees. That’s the case with Binder Kadeer: Consultation in the Company, a negotiation exercise brought to you by the Program on Negotiation’s Teaching Resource Center (TNRC). … Learn More About This Program

Teaching Negotiation: A Symposium On Excellence & Innovation For Teachers & Trainers

Lara SanPietro   •  02/23/2015   •  Filed in Teaching Negotiation

This program is designed for anyone who teaches negotiation, dispute resolution, or conflict analysis across any field (e.g., law, business, international relations, social work, peace studies, public policy, urban planning, environmental studies, and engineering).

Negotiation trainers who provide on-site or online training to business or community clients should also attend so they can evaluate potential new … Learn More About This Program

Share Your Stories With The Negotiation Community

Lara SanPietro   •  01/12/2015   •  Filed in Teaching Negotiation

At the Program on Negotiation (PON) at Harvard Law School, we know that learning from your peers can be extremely valuable. That’s why we’d like to ask you to share your experiences using the role-play simulations, videos, and other materials available through the Teaching Negotiation Resource Center (TNRC) at PON.
Our goal is for you … Read Share Your Stories With The Negotiation Community

Hong Kong Lawyer Benny Tai Inspired by Harvard Negotiation Project Authors

PON Staff   •  07/17/2014   •  Filed in Teaching Negotiation

The Harvard Negotiation Project was recently mentioned in the Wall Street Journal by David Feith in his interview with Benny Tai, “China’s New Freedom Fighters.”

Benny Tai, a 49 year old lawyer who has been branded an “enemy of the state,” founded Occupy Central with Love and Peace, a group that promotes civil disobedience in order … Learn More About This Program

Negotiation research you can use: The high cost of (unconscious) racial bias

PON Staff   •  03/15/2014   •  Filed in Teaching Negotiation

People who believe that they are free of racial bias are often dismayed by their results on the Implicit Association Test (IAT), an online task developed by Anthony G. Greenwald (University of Washington), Brian Nosek (University of Virginia), and Mahzarin R. Banaji (Harvard University). When required to quickly match African American and white faces with … Learn More About This Program

Bet you didn’t know … New negotiation research

PON Staff   •  07/15/2013   •  Filed in Teaching Negotiation

Negotiating in high alert
Negotiation is often characterized as a physiologically arousing event marked by pounding hearts, queasy stomachs, and flushed faces. We might assume that heightened physiological arousal would mar our negotiation performance, but this is only true for some, researchers Ashley D. Brown and Jared R. Curhan of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology found … Learn More About This Program

Would you like us to inform you when new posts become available?

We hate spam as much as you do. You have our promise not to sell or share your email address — ever! Please read our privacy policy.