Whether we are negotiating, giving feedback, managing up, or leading change, we are all familiar with overcoming resistance. We lay out a perfectly rational argument and, seemingly inexplicably, the other party resists. Maybe they say no, or more confusingly, they seem to agree but do not follow through. Pushing harder tends to increase resistance, but giving in not only leads to suboptimal results, it also teaches your counterpart that resistance is a winning strategy. The key is to decipher the cause(s) of the resistance and mitigate them.
This video, “Overcoming Resistance in Negotiation: The Influence Equation,” is presented by Stevenson Carlebach, Affiliate Faculty at The Program on Negotiation at Harvard Law School and Independent Trainer and Consultant at Eque LLC.
Stevenson Carlebach brings a wealth of experience to helping individuals and organizations function more efficiently through improved communication and problem-solving. He specializes in teaching Influence, Difficult Conversations™, in our Negotiation and Leadership program. He has a special interest in understanding the hard science behind “soft” skills. In the private sector, Stevenson has worked with Fortune 500 companies all over the world, focusing on strategic relationship management. Clients have included Capital One, Merck, Goldman Sachs, Microsoft, IBM, PWC, MathWorks, Pfizer, and Deutsche Bank, to name just a few. In the public sector, he has worked with The White House and the Pentagon. Internationally he worked with the Ministries of Education in Israel and Argentina. For the past eight years, he has worked with leaders in hospitals in Australia on Influence and leadership skills. With six children (four teens still living with him) Stevenson hopes that he will learn to practice at home what he teaches on the road.
In this video on overcoming resistance in negotiation, Carlebach shares how to diagnose the issues behind difficult negotiations, deepen your understanding of the essential elements of persuasion and help you plan an influence campaign to mitigate resistance.