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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Negotiating with Colleagues: Training for Collaborative Human Resources Negotiations

Lara SanPietro   •  01/19/2024   •  Filed in Teaching Negotiation

human resources negotiations

Human resources representatives are often involved in a wide array of internal company negotiations, including one-on-one disputes between colleagues as well as inter-department budgeting and overall staffing plans. To deftly handle this wide array of negotiations, human resources representatives must balance the various stakeholder concerns, financial assessments, and competing interests with fairness, consideration for relationships, … Learn More About This Program

High Stakes Negotiations in the Healthcare Industry

Lara SanPietro   •  11/01/2023   •  Filed in Teaching Negotiation

healthcare

Teach Your Students to Negotiate One of the Most Critical Global Industries
With the COVID-19 pandemic devastating communities around the world, the acute importance of the healthcare industry to community welfare has become even more apparent. Healthcare is one of the biggest economies in the world, with billions of dollars spent on treatments and associated research. … Learn More About This Program

Register Now for the PON 40th Anniversary Symposium and Gala! Space is Limited

Lara SanPietro   •  09/18/2023   •  Filed in Teaching Negotiation

PON 40th

Celebrate our past, present, and future on Saturday, December 9th at two very special events for the Program on Negotiation 40th Anniversary
What began in 1983 as a small research project is now recognized as the world’s premier hub for negotiation training, pedagogy and scholarship. And that’s something to celebrate. Please join us in Cambridge to commemorate … Learn More About This Program

Negotiation Research: To Curb Deceptive Tactics in Negotiation, Confront “Paranoid Pessimism”

PON Staff   •  08/17/2023   •  Filed in Teaching Negotiation

deceptive tactics in negotiation

Business negotiators often worry about deceptive tactics in negotiation, and understandably so. The potential for being lied to or swindled can be high in negotiation, given that our counterparts typically have access to information about preferences, alternatives, product quality, and so on, that we lack. Yet research shows that negotiators often behave honestly even when … Learn More About This Program

Save the Date: 40th Anniversary Celebration

Lara SanPietro   •  07/24/2023   •  Filed in Teaching Negotiation

PON 40th

Celebrate our past, present, and future on Saturday, December 9th at the PON 40th Anniversary Symposium & Gala (registration info to follow)
What began in 1983 as a small research project is now recognized as the world’s premier hub for negotiation training, pedagogy and scholarship. And that’s something to celebrate. Please join us in Cambridge to … Read Save the Date: 40th Anniversary Celebration

Planning Your Syllabus for Next Semester? Check Out the Brief Course Outlines from the TNRC

Lara SanPietro   •  06/15/2023   •  Filed in Teaching Negotiation

Brief Course Outline

Planning a new course for next semester or looking to reinvent a current one? Check out our brief course outlines to get started planning your syllabus.
The Teaching Negotiation Resource Center (TNRC) now offers brief outlines for eleven different course types which include recommended simulations and books and highlight key teaching points. While all teaching materials … Learn More About This Program

The Negotiation Journal Wants to Hear From You!

Lara SanPietro   •  02/27/2023   •  Filed in Teaching Negotiation

The Negotiation Journal would like your feedback on their Fall 2022 issue.
The Negotiation Journal is a quarterly peer-reviewed journal published by the Program on Negotiation at Harvard Law School. The journal publishes articles that expand theoretical and practical knowledge in the realms of negotiation, mediation, other forms of alternative dispute resolution, and conflict resolution in … Read The Negotiation Journal Wants to Hear From You!

Teach Your Students to Negotiate the Technology Industry

Lara SanPietro   •  02/23/2023   •  Filed in Teaching Negotiation

negotiation techniques

Technology is a pervasive feature of modern life, providing countless benefits ranging from new cancer treatments to smart phones. Especially since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, technology has been embedded in many parts of our everyday lives. Technology can also be a source of disruption and is at the root of many disputes. Parties … Learn More About This Program

Ask A Negotiation Expert: How Can Women in the Workplace Gain Ground?

PON Staff   •  01/03/2023   •  Filed in Teaching Negotiation

women in the workplace,negotiating with your boss

Deborah Kolb, the Deloitte Ellen Gabriel Professor for Women in Leadership (Emerita) at Simmons College, shares strategies that women in the workplace can use to overcome pay and promotion gaps at work. Kolb is the coauthor (with Jessica L. Porter) of Negotiating at Work: Turn Small Wins into Big Gains (Jossey-Bass, 2015).

Past research has suggested that … Learn More About This Program

Dear Negotiation Coach: What Are Business Negotiation Skills for Entrepreneurs?

PON Staff   •  09/27/2022   •  Filed in Teaching Negotiation

counteroffer in business negotiation skills

To get an idea or innovation off the ground takes strong business negotiation skills as an entrepreneur.

Yet, in their book Entrepreneurial Negotiation: Understanding and Managing the Relationships that Determine Your Entrepreneurial Success (Palgrave/Macmillan, 2018), Program on Negotiation instructor Samuel Dinnar and MIT professor Lawrence Susskind write that many entrepreneurs are falling short. Here, Susskind explains … Learn More About This Program

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