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.

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Teach Your Students to Negotiate Cross-Border Water Conflicts

Lara SanPietro   •  09/08/2025   •  Filed in Teaching Negotiation

Aerial view of the Colorado River winding through a desert canyon — water rights negotiation context

With the south-western United States experiencing a years-long drought which has dramatically depleted the Colorado River, there are many signs that water conflicts will become more frequent. Negotiating cross-border water conflicts requires balancing political interests, power dynamics, scientific research, and legal parameters. Success in water negotiations hinges on prediction and monitoring arrangements as well as … Learn More About This Program

Negotiating Identity and Values-Based Disputes

Lara SanPietro   •  07/14/2025   •  Filed in Teaching Negotiation

conflict resolution

How Do Parties in Conflict Negotiate Core Beliefs?
Identity and values-based disputes are particularly challenging to resolve, as identities are naturally inflexible and values are typically much less elastic than interest-based issues. In conventional interest-based negotiation, parties often do give up one thing in exchange for getting something they want more. This is often not possible … Read Negotiating Identity and Values-Based Disputes

New Simulation: International Business Acquisition Negotiated Online

Lara SanPietro   •  07/08/2025   •  Filed in Teaching Negotiation

Ren the Robot

New from the Teaching Negotiation Resource Center (TNRC), Ren the Robot is a one-and-a-half hour, two-party, multi-issue negotiation between a Tokyo-based robotics company, Grubotics, and a U.S.-based tech company, Delivered, over a potential acquisition deal. It is designed to be conducted using online video conferencing. The use of online video conference technology highlights the conveniences … Learn More About This Program

Download Your Next Mediation Video

Lara SanPietro   •  05/12/2025   •  Filed in Teaching Negotiation

Negotiation Videos

Use Video Examples to Teach Your Students to Become Better Mediators
Parties engaged in disputes are often unable to reconcile their differences alone, or fail to reach outcomes that are adequate for everyone. Mediators can add a great deal of value by helping parties to efficiently and effectively examine the issues at hand, take the interests … Read Download Your Next Mediation Video

The Value of Using Scorable Simulations in Negotiation Training

Lara SanPietro   •  04/28/2025   •  Filed in Teaching Negotiation

At a Teaching Negotiation Resource Center (TNRC) faculty pedagogy seminar, members of the PON faculty and negotiation community gathered to hear Gordon Kaufman (MIT Morris A. Adelman Professor of Management, Emeritus) speak about how he uses quantifiable data to plot student-learning trajectories. The conversation focused on the ongoing debate within the negotiation pedagogy community regarding the way … Learn More About This Program

Now Available: Full Videos from the AI Negotiation Summit

Riley Scheuritzel   •  04/09/2025   •  Filed in Teaching Negotiation

On March 8 and 9, 2025, the Program on Negotiation (PON) convened leading practitioners and scholars on artificial intelligence (AI) and negotiation to present their cutting-edge research and discuss innovations in the field. The summit was also the culmination of a student AI negotiation bot competition, held by MIT. Chaired by Jared Curhan and Jonathan Gratch, the AI … Learn More About This Program

Parker-Gibson All-In-One Curriculum Package is Now Available!

Lara SanPietro   •  03/20/2025   •  Filed in Teaching Negotiation

Negotiation examples

New to Teaching Negotiation? 
If you are new to teaching negotiation or are looking to go in-depth on the fundamental negotiation concepts, the Parker-Gibson All-In-One Curriculum Package will provide you with everything you need to teach negotiation.

Parker-Gibson, one of the Teaching Negotiation Resource Center’s most popular simulations, is a two-party, single-issue, distributive negotiation between two neighbors regarding the potential sale … Learn More About This Program

Bidding in an International Business Negotiation: Euro-Idol

Lara SanPietro   •  02/12/2025   •  Filed in Teaching Negotiation

Euro-Idol

Euro-Idol is a four-party, two-round international business negotiation over the selection of the host country and city for the upcoming Euro-Idol music competition. In this bidding simulation from the Teaching Negotiation Resource Center (TNRC), cities must place bids to host the Euro-Idol competition, and therefore gain the economic benefits that come with hosting such a … Learn More About This Program

Registration for the Summit on AI and Negotiation Will Close on February 24, 2025

Riley Scheuritzel   •  02/11/2025   •  Filed in Teaching Negotiation

negotiation training whats special about technology negotiations

Join us on March 8 & 9 in Cambridge for a summit on AI and negotiation, featuring cutting-edge research and innovations in the field.
Registration for the summit on AI and Negotiation will close on Monday, February 24, 2025, 5 PM EST.

The Program on Negotiation (PON) is very pleased to invite you to a special summit … Learn More About This Program

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