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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Check Out the International Investor-State Arbitration Video Course

Lara SanPietro   •  07/29/2024   •  Filed in Teaching Negotiation

Investor-State Arbitration

Master Class on International Investor-State Arbitration: What is it? How Does it Work?
This two-hour video course is intended to teach students, legal practitioners, business executives, and government officials the essentials of international investor-state arbitration, an area of increasing concern for legal practice, business strategy, and government policy.

In the video Master Class on International Investor-State Arbitration: … Learn More About This Program

Check Out Videos from the PON 40th Anniversary Symposium on Negotiation Pedagogy, Practice, & Research

Lara SanPietro   •  05/02/2024   •  Filed in Teaching Negotiation

The PON 40th Anniversary Symposium featured presentations on the latest innovations in negotiation scholarship, pedagogy, and practice.
On December 9th, 2023, negotiation teachers, trainers, and practitioners from around the world gathered with  PON faculty to reflect on the evolution of the program over the last 40 years, as well as learn about the latest developments and … Learn More About This Program

Advice for Peace: Ending Civil War in Colombia

Lara SanPietro   •  02/20/2024   •  Filed in Great Negotiator Award, Pedagogy at PON, Teaching Negotiation

Colombia Peace Advisory Team

Check out this freely available video of Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos and his Peace Advisory Team as they discuss lessons learned from the Colombian peace process negotiations with the FARC guerrillas.
 

The civil war in Colombia lasted 52 years, taking the lives of at least 220,000 people and displacing up to seven million civilians. In … Read Advice for Peace: Ending Civil War in Colombia

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!

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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