In negotiation, our success often hinges on our bargaining power—which in turn can depend on forces beyond our control. That truism was highlighted in two recent disputes arising from business negotiations over the pricing of copyrighted material in the digital era, one from the music world, the other from publishing.
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hardball tactics
The following items are tagged hardball tactics:
How Hardball Negotiation Tactics Can Backfire
In negotiations and disputes, punishment and threats often seem like the only way to win concessions. But business negotiators would do well to remember how Time Warner’s gambit unfolded.
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Current Negotiations in the News: Lessons for Business Negotiators
What can business negotiators learn from current negotiations in the news? Quite a bit, according to the dozens of negotiation experts who contributed to the January 2019 special issue of the Negotiation Journal, entitled “Negotiation and Conflict Resolution in the Age of Trump.”
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What is the Right of First Refusal?
When transferring property, sellers sometimes insist on real estate rights of first refusal – the chance to be first in line to repurchase the property if their buyer later decides to sell.
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Top Ten Posts About Conflict Resolution
Conflict resolution is the process of resolving a dispute or a conflict by meeting at least some of each side’s needs and addressing their interests. Conflict resolution sometimes requires both a power-based and an interest-based approach, such as the simultaneous pursuit of litigation (the use of legal power) and negotiation (attempts to reconcile each party’s … Read More
Negotiation Skills: Building Trust in Negotiations
Trust in negotiations may develop naturally over time, but negotiators rarely have the luxury of letting nature take its course. Thus it sometimes seems easiest to play it safe with cautious deals involving few tradeoffs, few concessions, and little information sharing between parties. But avoiding risk can mean missing out on significant opportunities. For this reason, … Read More
10 Hard-Bargaining Tactics to Watch Out for in a Negotiation
Don’t be caught unprepared by hard bargainers, warn Robert Mnookin, Scott Peppet, and Andrew Tulumello in their book Beyond Winning.
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Conflict Resolution Success Stories: A Surprising Tale from Congress
Conflict resolution success stories in the news can be few and far between. Too often, when a dispute arises, parties escalate the conflict through hardball tactics in negotiation (threats, lies, and the like) rather than taking steps to address and minimize it. When conflict resolution success stories do appear, we typically fail to absorb their … Read More
Hardball Tactics in Negotiation Increase with Rivalry
Coke vs. Pepsi. Clinton vs. Trump. Apple vs. Samsung. The New York Yankees vs. the Boston Red Sox.
Whether we work in business, politics, sports, or another arena, our competitors sometimes turn into fierce rivals. In addition, many sales, legal, and financial firms structure jobs, incentives, and promotion systems in ways that pit employees against one … Read More
10 Negotiation Failures
Here’s a list of some of the most notable negotiation flops – from deals that were over before they started, to those that were botched at the table, to those that proved disastrous well after the ink had dried.
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Teach Coalition Management in Multiparty Negotiations
Multiparty negotiations can be difficult to manage if you are unprepared for the formation of coalitions. Two-party and multiparty negotiations share some important similarities: the goal of discovering the zone of possible agreement, for example. However, there are some key differences that set them apart. As soon as the number of parties increases past two, … Read More
How a Bad BATNA Keeps Medicare Drug Prices High
It’s Negotiation 101: to get what you want, you need to be able to make a credible threat to walk away from a subpar deal. And for your threat to be credible, you can’t walk in with a bad BATNA, you have to have a strong BATNA, or best alternative to a negotiated agreement. In … Read More
When Dealmaking Breaks Down, Take the High Road
When a negotiation reaches an impasse, it can be tempting to use threats and punishment to try to coerce the other side into conceding. That happened in a dispute between Amazon and Hachette, one of the largest New York publishers, as reported in the New York Times.
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Interest-Based Negotiation: In Mediation, Focus on Your Goals
How can you get through to people who seem uninterested in finding common ground? How can you deal with seemingly irrational negotiators who use insults, threats, and other hardball tactics to try to get their way?
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What’s Keeping You from Closing the Deal?
When talks stall, it’s tempting to jump to conclusions: “It’s purely a price gap.” “They’re being unreasonable.” “We’re not communicating well.” “We’re in a weak position.”
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Dear Negotiation Coach: Responding (Or Not) to an Ultimatum
QUESTION
A counterpart recently made a “take it or leave it” offer during our negotiation. I wasn’t ready to accept the offer, but I didn’t want to walk away, either. Any advice on how to respond?
ANSWER
In my recent book, Negotiating the Impossible, I look at the many ways in which negotiators can break deadlocks and resolve … Read More
With Patient Approach, FBI Steered Oregon Occupiers Toward Their BATNA
The 41-day armed takeover of the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge in Oregon ended on February 11 when the last occupiers surrendered. Federal authorities in six states also arrested seven others accused of being involved in the occupation, according to the Associated Press. The standoff had begun when Ammon Bundy and his followers took over the … Read More
In Business Negotiations for Super Bowl I Tape, NFL Stops the Clock
The Green Bay Packers beat the Kansas City Chiefs 35 to 10 in Super Bowl I. But that’s not the end of the story. In business negotiations, and particularly sales negotiation, enthusiasm is required when trying to convince our counterparts that we have what they need. But that enthusiasm isn’t always infectious. The tale of … Read More
In Negotiations with Ben Affleck, No Appealing BATNA
In negotiation, your best source of power is typically your best alternative to a negotiated agreement, or BATNA. Having a strong outside alternative enables you to walk away from a deal that doesn’t meet your needs or that would compromise your vision or ethics.
But when you are dealing with a negotiating partner who seems irreplaceable, … Read More
“No One is Really in Charge” Hostage Taking and the Risks of No-Negotiation Policies
In the business world, we sometimes are tempted to avoid negotiating with unsavory counterparts—people or groups we view to be immoral, untrustworthy, or simply unlikable—even if they appear to offer the straightest path to our goals. Imagine a counterpart who works in a business that you believe to be immoral, someone who has a reputation for gossiping, or … Read More
Dealing with difficult people— even when you don’t want to
In your negotiations, have you ever faced a truly difficult negotiator—someone whose behavior seems designed to provoke, thwart, and annoy you beyond all measure?
For some Western leaders these days, the negotiator who best fits that description might be Russian president Vladimir Putin. Since the beginning of the crisis in Ukraine, the Russian leader has seemed … Read More
Dear Negotiation Coach: “How can we deal more successfully with our kids?”
Q: I avoid using hardball tactics in my professional negotiations, since they often backfire and escalate conflict. But at home, my wife and I often find ourselves resorting to threats, bribes, and lies to get our three young children (ages seven, five, and three) to cooperate, and I lose my cool more often than I’d … Read More
Are introverts at a disadvantage in negotiation?
In Washington, D.C., lawmakers in Congress are angry at President Barack Obama. They view him as aloof, distant, unwilling to forge agreement, and unsupportive of their causes.
And we’re not even talking about Republicans: Democrats have grown increasingly frustrated with Obama’s standoffish leadership style, report Carl Hulse, Jeremy W. Peters, and Michael D. Shear in a … Read More
Dealing with negotiation power plays
In negotiation, visions of collaborating to create new sources of value can quickly evaporate when the other party engages in a power play—such as penalizing us financially, attacking our reputation, walking away, or threatening to do all of the above. Suddenly we find ourselves on the defensive, scrambling to do more than just break even.
That’s … Read More
Conflict Management Techniques: Should You Take Your Dispute Public?
To turn up the heat on opponents, negotiators sometimes advertise their grievances.
Here’s negotiation skills advice on when it’s a good idea to be vocal—and when to keep talks private.
The decision seemed nonsensical.
Early on the morning of March 7, 2010, with the Academy Awards telecast just hours away, the Walt Disney Company pulled the signal on … Read More
How to Deal When the Going Gets Tough
Most business negotiators understand that by working collaboratively with their counterparts while also advocating strongly on their own behalf, they can build agreements and longterm
relationships that benefit both sides.
During times of economic hardship, however, many negotiators abandon their commitment to cooperation and mutual gains.
Instead, they fall back on competitive tactics, threatening the other … Read More
Top Business Negotiations of 2013: Time Warner versus CBS
On October 31, 2013, Time Warner Cable reported a huge quarterly loss of television subscribers, the largest in its history: 306,000 of its 11.7 million subscribers had dropped the company, the New York Times reports. The bad news has been attributed largely to an impasse with television network CBS over fees, which led to Time … Read More
Top Business Negotiations of 2013: Simon & Schuster versus Barnes & Noble
When months of negotiations with publishing house Simon & Schuster reached a standoff in January 2013, Barnes & Noble attempted to gain leverage by significantly reducing its orders of Simon & Schuster titles and engaging in other hardball tactics, such as refusing to book the publisher’s authors for in-store readings.
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When You’re on Stage
Adapted from “How to Deal When the Going Gets Tough,” first published in the Negotiation newsletter.
Negotiators tend to feel pressured when they’re performing in front of an audience, according to Harvard Business School professor Deepak Malhotra. If your boss is watching your every move, if you are bargaining as part of a team, or if … Read More
Should you be nasty or nice?
Adapted from “Honey or Vinegar?”, first published in the Negotiation newsletter.
Who brings out the best in us: someone nice or someone nasty? According to a recent study by Gerben A. van Kleef and colleagues of the University of Amsterdam, we may be more generous toward angry people than toward happy people.
In the first two … Read More
Tough Tactics: Do ‘Death Threats’ Really Work?
What would you do if someone threatened you? Strike back? Run away? Beg for mercy? Try to negotiate?
Last April, The New York Times in effect held a gun to the heads of Boston Globe employees – twice. The confrontation, say experts at the Harvard Program on Negotiation, offers valuable lessons in handling high-risk, high-stakes situations.
Background: … Read More
Boost your negotiations skills and confidence
The following book, Negotiation Genius, was co-winner of the 2008 CPR Award for Excellence in ADR (Outstanding Book Category). It provides clear and methodical advice for preparing for and executing any negotiation, drawing on decades of behavioral research and the experience of thousands of business clients.
Whether you’ve “seen it all” or are just … Read More
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Articles & Insights
BATNA
- Business Negotiations
- How to Build a Relationship at the Bargaining Table During Business Negotiations
- In Contract Negotiation, Wise Business Negotiators Sweat the Small Stuff
- Integrative Negotiations, Value Creation, and Creativity at the Bargaining Table
- The Winner’s Curse in Negotiations: How to Avoid It
- Negotiation in Business: Apple and Samsung’s Dispute Resolution Case Study
- Conflict Resolution
- How to Maintain Your Power While Engaging in Conflict Resolution
- Conflict Resolution in the Family
- Conflict Management and Negotiation: Personality and Individual Differences That Matter
- In Conflict Resolution, President Carter Turned Flaws Into Virtues
- Conflict Management: The Challenges of Negotiating Online
- Crisis Negotiations
- Harvard Law Professor Guhan Subramanian Moderates Panel on Difficult Negotiation Scenarios
- Police Negotiation Techniques from the NYPD Crisis Negotiations Team
- Crisis Negotiation Skills: The Hostage Negotiator’s Drill
- Hostage Negotiation Techniques for Business Negotiators
- What is Crisis Management in Negotiation?
- Dealing with Difficult People
- How to Renegotiate a Bad Deal
- Managing Difficult Employees: Listening to Learn
- Negotiation Strategies: Bernie Sanders’ Pragmatic Approach to Negotiating in the Senate
- Trust and Honesty in Negotiations: Dealing with Dishonest Negotiators
- Managing Difficult Employees, and Those Who Just Seem Difficult
- Dealmaking
- Dispute Resolution
- Diagnose Your Negotiation Techniques and Negotiation Style
- What is Alternative Dispute Resolution?
- Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) Techniques: Negotiating Conditions
- The Importance of Power in Negotiations: Taylor Swift Shakes it Off
- Employee Grievances: Are Most Legal Disputes Resolved in Litigation or Arbitration?
- International Negotiation
- Crisis Negotiation: The European Financial Crisis
- Overcoming Cross-Cultural Barriers to a Negotiated Agreement: Negotiation Ethics and International Negotiations
- How to Negotiate with Difficult People: International Negotiation, and a Refusal to Communicate
- Overcoming Cultural Barriers in Negotiations and the Importance of Communication in International Business Deals
- International Negotiations: North and South Korea Talks Collapse
- Leadership Skills
- Ethics in Business Negotiations and in Leadership: How Collusion Limits Value Creating Opportunities
- Leadership Styles in Crisis Negotiations
- Servant Leadership and Warren Buffett’s Giving Pledge
- Body Language in the Negotiation Process and the Impact of Gender at the Bargaining Table
- How to Negotiate in Cross-Cultural Situations
- Mediation
- Negotiation Skills
- Negotiation Training
- Salary Negotiations
- Teaching Negotiation
- Win-Win Negotiations
- Negotiating for a Win Win Coalition at the Bargaining Table
- The Importance of Negotiation for Female Negotiators: Women Should “Negotiate Hard”
- Labor Negotiation Strategies
- Win-Win Negotiations: Should You Consider a Deal Sweetener?
- Google’s Negotiations with Groupon: How Business Negotiators Can Maximize Value Claiming When Engaging in Integrative Negotiations