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 
hardball tactics
The following items are tagged hardball tactics
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Negotiation Genius
Deepak Malhotra & Max Bazerman
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 – Co-winner of the 2008 CPR Award for Excellence in ADR (Outstanding Book Category)
… Read More
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The Importance of Power in Negotiations: Taylor Swift Shakes it Off
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.
… Read More
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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
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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
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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
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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.
… Read More
Daily
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.”
… Read More
Daily
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.
… Read More
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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.
… Read More
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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
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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.
… Read More
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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
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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.
… Read More
Daily
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?
… Read More
Daily
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.”
… Read More
Daily
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
Daily
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
Daily
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
Daily
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
Daily
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
Daily
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
Daily
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.
… Read More
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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
Daily
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
Daily
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
Daily
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
- Signing Bonus Negotiation 101
- Top Negotiation Case Studies in Business: Apple and Dispute Resolution in the Courts
- Negotiating with Millennials – How to Overcome Cultural Differences in Communication
- The Star Wars Negotiations and Trust at the Negotiation Table
- Business Negotiation Solutions: To Eat or Not to Eat?
- Conflict Resolution
- Crisis Negotiations
- Famous Negotiations Cases – NBA and the Power of Deadlines at the Bargaining Table
- Crisis Negotiation Skills: The Hostage Negotiator’s Drill
- What is Crisis Management in Negotiation?
- Police Negotiation Techniques from the NYPD Crisis Negotiations Team
- In This Greece Crisis Negotiation, Tough Conditions May Have Affected the Deal
- Dealing with Difficult People
- Negotiation Strategies: Bernie Sanders’ Pragmatic Approach to Negotiating in the Senate
- Dealing with Difficult People: Coping with an Insulting Offer in Contract Negotiations
- Handling Difficult People: The Antisocial Negotiator
- Dealing with Difficult People and Negotiation: When Should You Give Up the Fight?
- Trust and Honesty in Negotiations: Dealing with Dishonest Negotiators
- Dealmaking
- Dispute Resolution
- 3 Negotiation Strategies for Conflict Resolution
- Contract Dispute Resolution: Surviving Costly Conflict
- What are the Three Basic Types of Dispute Resolution? What to Know About Mediation, Arbitration, and Litigation
- How to Negotiate with Friends and Family
- The Importance of Power in Negotiations: Taylor Swift Shakes it Off
- International Negotiation
- Cross Cultural Negotiations in International Business: Four Negotiation Tips for Bargaining in China
- Top International Negotiation Examples: The East China Sea Dispute
- How to Overcome Cultural Barriers in Communication – Cultural Approximations of Time and the Impact on Negotiations
- A Crisis Negotiations Case Study: Chen Guangcheng, the United States, China, and Diplomatic Negotiations
- The Negotiation Process in China
- Leadership Skills
- Pope Francis and the Benefits of Servant Leadership in Negotiations
- The Opposite of Autocratic Leadership Styles
- Advantages and Disadvantages of Leadership Styles: Uncovering Bias and Generating Mutual Gains
- Leadership Styles in Negotiation: The Case of Ebay and Paypal
- How to Negotiate in Cross-Cultural Situations
- Mediation
- What Makes a Good Mediator?
- Mediation vs Arbitration – The Alternative Dispute Resolution Process
- The Mediation Process and Dispute Resolution
- Undecided on Your Dispute Resolution Process? Combine Mediation and Arbitration, Known as Med-Arb
- Definition of Mediation and the Mediation Process: The Impact of Lawyers on Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR)
- Negotiation Skills
- Negotiation Training
- Salary Negotiations
- Teaching Negotiation
- Cross-Cultural Video: Negotiation Examples, Lessons And Advice From PON Faculty
- What an Operatic Role-Play Simulation Can Teach You About Negotiation
- Learn from the Best with the Great Negotiator
- Best-In-Class Negotiation Case Studies You Can Use to Train
- Power Asymmetry and the Principal Agent Problem
- Win-Win Negotiations