When considering how to negotiate a higher salary, job candidates often focus on back-and-forth haggling strategies. But it’s at least as important to think about our broader goals, the type of organization we’d be joining, and the best way to frame an offer. The following advice on how to bargain salary should set you up … Read More 
Learn how to negotiate like a diplomat, think on your feet like an improv performer, and master job offer negotiation like a professional athlete when you download a copy of our FREE special report, Negotiation Skills: Negotiation Strategies and Negotiation Techniques to Help You Become a Better Negotiator, from the Program on Negotiation at Harvard Law School.
how to negotiate
How to Negotiate
Understanding how to negotiate respectfully with a counterpart should be paramount in any situation.
When they are considering how to negotiate a deal, negotiators often focus on back-and-forth haggling strategies. Both parties are aware of what their interests are, and are willing to engage in a give-and-take process with the other party to come to agreement.
Negotiation, after all, comes down to reaching a mutually acceptable agreement over issues that matter to all of the parties.
However, research consistently shows that when making decisions, we tend to focus on short-term considerations and discount the future in a way that we regret later. Concerned about maximizing short-term shareholder value, for example, business leaders sometimes hone in on how to negotiate a “quick fix” solution, such as merging with another company.
In the flush of bargaining, it’s easy to focus single-mindedly on closing the deal. It’s at least as important, however, to think about how to negotiate around our broader goals, the best way to frame an offer, and building a relationship.
At the negotiation table, what’s the best way to do this? Even just a few minutes of small talk can go a long way. Build a relationship in negotiation by asking questions, then listening carefully. When you listen closely to someone and make an effort to understand their perspective, not only will you educate yourself, but you will likely encourage them to feel more trusting of you and more positive about negotiating in general.
Effective negotiation strategies in business are critical. If you don’t know how to negotiate a business deal, get the information you need to succeed today by downloading our free special report, written by some of the nation’s foremost experts in negotiation, Business Negotiation Strategies: How to Negotiate a Better Business Deal. It will teach you how to negotiate a business deal and gives you the tools you need to navigate even the stickiest business deals.
The following items are tagged how to negotiate:
Negotiating the Impossible
Join Deepak Malhotra on Wednesday, October 13, 9:00 a.m. – 5:00 p.m. ET. Some negotiations are easy. Others are more difficult. And then there are situations that seem completely hopeless, with escalating conflict, increasingly aggressive behavior, and neither side willing to back down. Yet, no matter how high the stakes or how protracted the dispute, … Read More
NEW FREE REPORT! Salary Negotiations
Discover how to refine your negotiation skills with this free special report, Negotiation Training: How Harvard Negotiation Exercises, Negotiation Cases and Good Negotiation Coaching Can Make You a Better Negotiator, from Harvard Law School.
… Read More
MESO Negotiation: The Benefits of Making Multiple Equivalent Simultaneous Offers in Business Negotiations
In MESO, negotiation in which multiple offers are presented simultaneously at the negotiation table, effective negotiators seek opportunities to create value. By making tradeoffs across issues, parties can obtain greater value on the issues that are most important to them.
… Read More
The 4P Framework for Strategic Negotiation and Leadership
We all experience emotionally challenging conflicts and negotiations. Whether you are negotiating with your board or with your family, over internal resources or with external partners, as the buyer or as the seller, emotions can turn an otherwise productive negotiation into an unprofitable disaster.It does not have to be that way. In this interactive workshop, … Read More
Business Negotiation Strategies: How to Negotiate Better Business Deals
New Free Report – Business Negotiation Strategies: How to Negotiate Better Business Deals
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Away from the Podium and Off to the Balcony: William Ury Discusses the Debt Ceiling Negotiations Facing Obama and US Congressional Republicans
Stewart recently interviewed negotiation expert and Program on Negotiation co-founder William Ury to discuss the aftermath of avoiding the fiscal cliff and the rounds of tough negotiations between Democrats and Republicans still to come.
… Read More
What You Can Learn from the World of Diplomacy
The globalization of business compels negotiators to work harder at creating and sustaining long-term relationships with other companies. To do so, they must understand and manage the forces that diplomats, as international negotiators, have coped with for centuries.
… Read More
Win-Win or Hardball: Learn Top Strategies from Sports Contract Negotiations
In this Special Report, we offer advice from the world of sports, taken from the Negotiation newsletter, to help you navigate your most important negotiations. You will learn to get your head in the game, manage team dynamics, and get a competitive edge.
… Read More
Deal-Making Don’ts: Lessons from Yahoo’s Tumblr Acquisition
On May 19, 2013, internet company Yahoo announced it was purchasing the blogging service Tumblr for about $1.1 billion in cash. The acquisition was intended to put a fresh face on the aging Internet company and provide it with a profitable revenue source. But those plans didn’t play out: In August 2019, Tumblr was bought … Read More
Sidetracked: Understanding the Psychological Barriers that Derail Negotiations
We all experience emotionally challenging conflicts and negotiations. Whether you are negotiating with your board or with your family, over internal resources or with external partners, as the buyer or as the seller, emotions can turn an otherwise productive negotiation into an unprofitable disaster.It does not have to be that way. In this interactive workshop, … Read More
Make the Most of Your Salary Negotiations
What salary negotiation skills can you use if a potential employer asks you about your past salary? If you earned a competitive wage, your concern may be whether the new employer can afford you.
… Read More
How Principal Agent Theory Works in Business Negotiations: Dealmaking Strategies for Bargaining with Agents
The Program on Negotiation has identified three basic sets of circumstances in business negotiations where you’ll be better off tapping an agent (see also principal-agent theory) to take your place at the bargaining table (at least for part of the negotiating process):
… Read More
Check Out the New Brief Course Outlines from the TNRC
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 … Read More
An Example of the Anchoring Effect – What to Share in Negotiation
The prospect of sharing information with a negotiating counterpart can be scary – it can fix your counterpart into a position at the negotiation table you didn’t intend (an example of the anchoring effect).
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Dear Negotiation Coach: Eliminating Unconscious Biases at Work By Naming Them
Black men and women continue to be vastly underrepresented in leadership roles in corporate America due to unconscious biases in the workplace, amongst other reasons that may be more conscious. Those who advance in majority-white organizations encounter both covert and overt bias, and often struggle to feel authentic and connected, write contributors to the book … Read More
Cross Cultural Negotiations in International Business: Four Negotiation Tips for Bargaining in China
What special insights do outsiders need to prepare for international negotiations in China? Much of what you know already about negotiation holds true, but four characteristics complicate business negotiation in China.
… Read More
Negotiation in Business Without a BATNA – Is It Possible?
In a negotiation scenario, you always have a best alternative to a negotiated agreement. Negotiation research and negotiation strategy helps negotiators find their BATNA, leverage it at the bargaining table, and illustrates the impact that knowing your BATNA has on a negotiation.
… Read More
Developing Negotiation Skills for Integrative Negotiations – Does Personality Matter?
Imagine that after some negative experiences at the bargaining table or if you are frustrated in your efforts to improve your negotiation skills, you’ve started to worry that you simply don’t have the right personality to be a great negotiator let alone a value-creating, integrative negotiations expert. The other party always seems to get the … Read More
Dear Negotiation Coach: How to Negotiate Price and Start Off on the Right Foot
Do you know how to negotiate price? Is there a better way to approach this type of negotiation that differs from other negotiation strategies? In this week’s Dear Negotiation Coach column, we answer the question.
QUESTION
I’m trying to decide whether to make the first offer in a price negotiation. I’ve heard arguments in favor of both … Read More
Self-Fulfilling Prophecies and Power in Negotiation
When you expect people to be competitive, it’s not only your own behavior that changes. You also set up a self-fulfilling prophecy, such that your expectations about the other side’s behavior lead him to behave in ways that confirm your expectations.
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Writing the Negotiated Agreement
Some negotiations end with a negotiated agreement that is a plan of action rather than a signed contract – for example, a plumber agrees to fix the tile damage caused by his work. Other negotiations wouldn’t be appropriate to commemorate in writing, such as how you and your spouse decide to discipline your young … Read More
3 Types of Power in Negotiation
Social psychologists have described different types of power that exist in society, and negotiators can leverage these types of power in negotiation as well.
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How to Negotiate Under Pressure
At the time, it seemed to be an example of coolheaded dealmaking in the midst of disaster. In 2009, hit hard by the 2008 financial crisis and changes in consumer preferences, U.S. automaker Chrysler was on the brink of collapse, and the Treasury Department stepped in to do a deal. In exchange for about $12 … Read More
How to Overcome Cultural Barriers in Negotiation
Imagine that you’re the American representative of a U.S. food company, and you’re hoping to procure a new ingredient for several of your products from a German company. A representative from the company is flying in to meet with you. Do you expect your German counterpart to behave differently than the Americans you typically deal … Read More
Contract Negotiation Skills: Setting Yourself Up for Success
Business negotiators tend to focus on getting to the finish line, which is typically defined as a signed contract. The contract negotiation skills we need to get there—such as building trust, brainstorming issues, and negotiating a great price—are pivotal, yet we often overlook the importance of setting up our agreement for success during the implementation … Read More
10 Negotiation Training Skills Every Organization Needs
How can managers and their organizations increase the odds that negotiation training will lead to beneficial long-term results? Here are several pieces of advice, drawn from experts at the Program on Negotiation at Harvard Law School.
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The Importance of Relationship Building in China
Although most Americans treat those they know differently than they treat strangers, Chinese relationship building towards insiders and outsiders tends to be more extreme than in the United States – and therefore more important in negotiations in China than many Americans understand.
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How to Negotiate in Cross-Cultural Situations
Figuring out how to negotiate in cross-cultural situations can seem like a daunting endeavor, and for good reason. Negotiating across the cultural divide adds an entire dimension to any negotiation, introducing language barriers, differences in body language and dress, and alternative ways of expressing pleasure or displeasure with the elements of a deal. As a … Read More
BATNA and Other Sources of Power at the Negotiation Table
BATNA negotiations involve a negotiators knowledge of her best alternatives to a negotiated agreement and are one of three sources of negotiating power at the bargaining table, according to negotiation researcher Adam D. Galinsky and New York University’s Joe C. Magee.
… Read More
Negotiating the Healthcare Industry
Teach Your Students to Negotiate One of the Most Critical Global Industries
With an ongoing 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. … Read More
How to Negotiate via Text Message
Do you negotiate via text message? If you’re a young person early in your career, there’s a good chance you could easily pull up message strings full of discussions about issues and offers. If you’re a little older, you might have answered no. Even so, if you took a closer look at the saved text … Read More
Job Offer Negotiation Tips During the Pandemic
Amid the Covid-19 pandemic, many jobseekers have concluded that if they are lucky enough to be offered a good job in a tight market, they lack the power needed to negotiate better employment terms. In fact, a silver lining of the crisis is that it has created new opportunities to negotiate. With the coronavirus throwing … Read More
Ask A Negotiation Expert: Spreading Negotiation Knowledge for a Better World
For 19 years, the Program on Negotiation (PON) at Harvard Law School has grown and thrived under the leadership of Managing Director Susan Hackley. As PON’s chief administrative and financial officer, Hackley has overseen all activities, including academic events, executive education, interdisciplinary programs, and publications, including Negotiation Briefings. Hackley, who has taught negotiation seminars around … Read More
Persuasive Parenting through Negotiation
In his book How to Negotiate with Kids…Even When You Think You Shouldn’t (Viking, 2003), Scott Brown, a co-founder of the Harvard Negotiation Project at Harvard Law School, outlines a framework for dealing with your children using the principles of negotiation.
He identifies six principles of “persuasive parenting” that will allow you and your child to … Read More
Conflict Management: The Challenges of Negotiating Online
Negotiation research suggests that e-mail often poses more problems than solutions when it comes to relationships, information exchange, and outcomes. Here is a case study of conflict management and negotiation about the challenges of building rapport with your counterpart when negotiating online.
… Read More
Teach Your Children How to Resolve Conflicts With This Book
We’ve all been there. One kid wants it his way; the other wants it her way and an inevitable conflict ensues. Shouting, crying, and harsh words are often part of the mix—creating stress for everyone, including the parents who just want to know how to resolve conflicts.
… Read More
Navigating Business Relationships Using Negotiation
A three-year dispute between Starbucks and Kraft Foods over distribution of Starbucks packaged coffee in grocery stores was resolved in 2013 when an arbitrator determined that Starbucks had breached its agreement with Kraft and ordered the coffeemaker to pay the food giant $2.75 billion.
… Read More
Closing the Deal in Negotiations When Win-Win Seems Likely
Excerpted from the article “Will Your Negotiation Make It to the Finish Line?” in the December 2020 issue of Negotiation Briefings, the Program on Negotiation’s monthly newsletter of advice for professional negotiators.
When it comes to closing the deal in negotiations, agreements sometimes fall apart for good reason. If one or more parties realize they could … Read More
Negotiation with Your Children: How to Resolve Family Conflicts
Few negotiation examples in real life demonstrate the benefit of effective conflict resolution skills than those disputes that arise in the home, such as those between parents and children. Getting a good night’s sleep and eating a healthy dinner might seem like obvious goals for parents to have for their young children, but kids won’t … Read More
How to Negotiate a Business Deal
In late 2016 and early 2017, news stories abounded of companies that were having second thoughts about planned mega-mergers. Abbott Laboratories began looking for ways to exit its acquisition of Alere, citing investigations of the medical test maker, for example. And Verizon started rethinking its acquisition of Yahoo! following a data breach at the tech … Read More
How to Negotiate Online
International negotiators are often faced with the problem of how to overcome cultural barriers to communication. When you communicate in person, social norms – including body language, manners, and physical appearance – guide your behavior and ease the process. Here are some tips on how to negotiate online and building a rapport with your counterpart … Read More
How to Negotiate Salary: 3 Winning Strategies
The question of how to negotiate salary seems to preoccupy negotiators more than any other—and with good reason, considering how dramatically even a small salary increase can impact our lifetime earnings. The following three salary bargaining tips from leading negotiation experts will help you gain more from your new-job negotiations.
… Read More
Negotiation Techniques from the M&A World
Negotiators often have to deal with more than one party to reach their goals and often tailor their negotiation techniques towards this end. These negotiation scenarios pose unique challenges, yet most negotiation advice focuses on talks between two parties.
… Read More
When a Job Offer is “Nonnegotiable”
Question: I am in my final year of business school and starting to prepare for job interviews. I have heard many of the organizations that recruit on campus are not open to negotiating specific terms of employment. Rather, they offer everyone roughly the same deal terms. To what extent should I respect such conventions versus … Read More
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
Culture in Negotiation: Preparing for International Negotiation
In his book How to Negotiate Anything with Anyone Anywhere Around the World, Frank L. Acuff advises readers to expect Germans to be reserved, hard bargainers who may be offended by personal questions and tardiness. Those negotiating with Chinese counterparts are cautioned to avoid direct questions and to prepare to make numerous concessions. And negotiators … Read More
Cross-Cultural Video: Negotiation Examples, Lessons And Advice From PON Faculty
Do you teach negotiation to students from different cultural backgrounds? Are you teaching students how to negotiate in a cross-cultural context? Do you teach a “one world” model of negotiation; or, are there cultural variables that require changes in the basic model of negotiation that you teach?
The Program On Negotiation at Harvard Law School invited … Read More
Get the best job possible in a tough market
The numbers are staggering: As a result of the coronavirus pandemic, unemployment in the United States rose from 3.5% in February to 14.7% by the end of April, the highest rate since the Great Depression. The number of unemployed Americans leapt to 23.1 million by the end of April, according to the Labor Department. With many … Read More
Four Conflict Negotiation Strategies for Resolving Value-Based Disputes
In many negotiations, both parties are aware of what their interests are, and are willing to engage in a give-and-take process with the other party to come to agreement.
… Read More
Leadership Skills: Negotiating for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion
Black men and women continue to be vastly underrepresented in leadership roles in corporate America. Those who advance in majority-white organizations encounter both covert and overt bias, and often struggle to feel authentic and connected. The Program on Negotiation’s Negotiation Briefings newsletter spoke with University of Virginia Darden School of Business professor Laura Morgan Roberts, … Read More
Business Contract Mistakes—and How to Avoid Them
When negotiating a business contract, parties are often so focused on reaching agreement that they don’t think enough about how the deal will unfold after the ink has dried. This type of short-term thinking leads to real problems down the road. The following three business negotiation tips can help you adopt a long-term perspective the … Read More
How to Bargain Salary: Laughing Matters?
As they contemplate how to bargain salary, job candidates are often at a disadvantage relative to the hiring organization. Due to the well-documented anchoring effect, the first figure introduced into a negotiation tends to strongly influence the final outcome. Unfortunately for candidates, the wage or wage range that employers give in a job listing or … Read More
How to Negotiate in Good Faith
Have you ever negotiated with someone who seemed intent on sabotaging the negotiation or taking unfair advantage? If so, you would benefit from learning more about what it mean to negotiate in good faith.
… Read More
Collaborative Leadership: Managing Negotiators
Organizational leaders, from middle managers to heads of state, often face the difficult task of overseeing mission-critical negotiations and managing individual negotiators and negotiating teams. Collaborative leadership—a focus on giving employees autonomy and a voice in key decisions—is often key to managing negotiators effectively.
We often overlook the important role of leadership in negotiation. But as … Read More
Online Negotiation Strategies: Email and Videoconferencing
Online negotiation has become ubiquitous, as it allows us to negotiate across the miles cheaply and quickly. Yet online negotiation creates special challenges. With email, instant messaging, and text messages, negotiators typically lack visual, verbal, and other sensory cues to interpret how their counterpart is feeling. And while videoconferencing—via Skype, Google Hangouts, and so on—adds … Read More
How Negotiation Role-Play Simulations Can Help You Resolve Environmental Disputes
From complicated land use debates to the regulation of pollutants, environmental negotiations are fraught with dynamic legal, scientific, and societal considerations. Because many of the natural resources in question are limited and fragile, disputes over them can be particularly difficult.
To help educate professionals about how to work through challenging environmental and sustainability negotiations, the Program … Read More
Using Negotiation Games to Develop Skills for Commercial Dispute Resolution
Teach your students the art of negotiating for success with these great negotiation games.
… Read More
Teaching Real Estate Negotiation: How to Identify and Create Value
How do you teach your students to identify and create value in real estate negotiations?
Real estate negotiation can be difficult for both the buyer and the seller. Teaching real estate negotiation can involve value creation, distributive bargaining, as well as issue linkages. It is important for both buyers, sellers, and agents to identify ways to … Read More
Negotiation Exercises to Help Your Students Avoid Cross-Cultural Pitfalls
Avoid cross-cultural misunderstandings with these negotiation exercises
It’s no secret that communication and negotiation etiquette varies widely across cultures. In France, for example, it is rude to talk money over dinner, while in Brazil the American ‘A-OK’ gesture (thumb and forefinger forming a circle) can be a major insult.
The increasingly diverse and global nature of business … Read More
Negotiate a Deal that Lasts
When trying to negotiate a deal with a potential business partner, you need to come up with a plan for ensuring the two sides will mesh rather than clash. Facebook’s leaders and WhatsApp’s founders appeared to skip that vital step when negotiating the social media giant’s purchase of the text-messaging app in 2014—an oversight that … Read More
Managing negotiators? Avoid 3 common mistakes
A second round of face-to-face meetings between U.S. president Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, held in Hanoi, Vietnam, at the end of February, came to an abrupt end after Kim insisted that the United States lift all economic sanctions against his country in return for denuclearization. Trump refused and ended the talks, … Read More
When “Do It Yourself” Sends the Wrong Message
For decades, as women have filled the workforce and entered careers once closed to them, a stubborn statistic has persisted: They earn significantly less than men. In 2017, the average woman took home only about 82 cents for every dollar earned by a man, according to the Pew Research Center. Women are also much less likely … Read More
“Getting to Yes” Author Bill Ury on the Government Shutdown
In an interview with WBUR News, William Ury, Co-founder of the Program on Negotiation and co-author of the book Getting to Yes, offered some advice for our country’s leaders.
“You write President Trump’s victory speech in which he says to his base, ‘I won,’ and you write Nancy Pelosi’s victory speech in which he says to her … Read More
Ask A Negotiation Expert: To Trust or Not To Trust?
When choosing new business partners, we size them up to decide whether they are trustworthy. Interestingly, the way in which we make such determinations depends a great deal on our nationalculture, Jeanne Brett, the DeWitt W. Buchanan, Jr. Distinguished Professor of Dispute Resolution andOrganizations at Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management, and Louisiana State University … Read More
Teaching Negotiation Videos – All Downloadable!
Have you been energized by the unique “aha” moment students experience when negotiation videos are used in their class? Us too!
… Read More
Most Startups Fail. But Yours Doesn’t Have To.
We recently interviewed Samuel Dinnar—instructor at the Program on Negotiation at Harvard Law School, global entrepreneur, and strategic negotiation advisor—about his new book, Entrepreneurial Negotiation: Understanding and Managing the Relationships that Determine Your Entrepreneurial Success. In this insightful book, Dinnar and Susskind delve into the reasons why entrepreneurs fumble key negotiations—and what they can do … Read More
How Chaos at the Bargaining Table Can Help Negotiators Reach Agreement
Here are some examples of negotiation situations in which chaos at the bargaining table works to the negotiator’s advantage. Whether conducting business negotiations involving commercial transactions or personal disputes with a friend, the following negotiating skills and techniques can be used.
… Read More
What Are Our Students Actually Learning? Gauging Effectiveness in Teaching Negotiation
Ways of Gauging Effectiveness in Teaching Negotiation
Most instructors aspire to do more than simply teach students about negotiation. They want to teach students how to negotiate more effectively. That’s an ambitious goal, given the complexity of the process. Negotiation success requires keen analysis and deft social skills, along with a mix of confidence and humility. … Read More
Negotiating Indigenous Land Rights
Teach Your Students to Address Fundamental Value Differences While Negotiating Indigenous Land Rights
Indigenous land rights have been a key aspect of negotiations by private companies and governments around the world. Indigenous land rights are the rights of indigenous peoples to land and natural resources, which they have occupied for hundreds, if not thousands, of years. … Read More
Bruce Allen’s Essay on Dealing with Russians and Unintended Nuclear War
An article was published today about how to negotiate with the Russians, a product of the Harvard Negotiation Project on “Negotiating with Putin,” featured in the July/August 2017 print version of The National Interest under the headline “Russian to Judgment.”
It was also released today as the lead essay in the online edition at nationalinterest.org (The accompanying … Read More
The Negotiation Simulation Method: Teach Legal Lessons by Immersive Means
In complex legal negotiations, money, reputations, and sometimes even lives are often at stake. Legal professionals must know how to read and debate the law as well as fully embrace the art and science of negotiation.
To help attorneys and other legal professionals become well versed in law and court-based negotiation, the Program on Negotiation’s Teaching … Read More
What You Can Learn from Putin’s Negotiation Style
In January 2015 the Negotiation Briefings newsletter featured an article, “Dealing with difficult people – even when you don’t want to,” discussing the impasse NATO leaders had reached with Russian President Vladimir Putin with regards to his unilateral actions in the Crimea. Aside from exhibiting obstinacy in the face of a unified European front, Putin … Read More
Top Worst Negotiation Case Studies: Real Life Examples of Bargaining Gone Wrong
Sometimes negotiators care so much about the issues at stake that they mistake compromise for surrender. Sometimes they’re so confident things will go their way they don’t try hard enough. Our list of the 10 Worst Negotiations of 2014 includes talks that failed for one or both of these reasons, as well as for numerous … Read More
“Negotiating at Work: Turn Small Wins into Big Gains”: A Book Talk with Deborah Kolb
The Program on Negotiation at Harvard Law School is pleased to present: Negotiating at Work: Turn Small Wins into Big Gains
with
Deborah Kolb
Professor Emerita, Simmons College School of Management
Tuesday, November 17
4:00-5:15 PM
Pound Hall 102
Harvard Law School Campus
Free and open to the public; refreshments will be served.
About the book:
Negotiation is undoubtedly essential to navigating the working world. Dr. … Read More
For Better Business Negotiations, Take the Long View
In August 2012, Michael Dell, the founder and CEO of computer company Dell, embarked on the long, winding odyssey of taking the company private. At the time, Dell was struggling to maintain a foothold in the market for personal computers amid the rise of tablets and other handheld devices. Michael Dell maintained that to ensure … Read More
In business negotiations, share the wealth wisely
After graduating from the University of Chicago’s business school in 1971, David G. Booth took what he had learned and ran with it. The firm he founded, Dimensional Fund Advisors, bases its investment decisions on the type of academic research Booth absorbed from his professors in Chicago. That scholarly approach has paid off: Dimensional Fund … Read More
Dealmaking: Help Your Agreement Go the Distance
Help your agreement go the distance If your deal doesn’t work in the real world, it’s not worth the paper it’s printed on. Here’s expert advice on increasing the odds of successful implementation.
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In United Nations International Negotiations, A Demand for Openness
Sometimes the question of how to negotiate can be more hotly debated than the issues that come up during the negotiation itself. Who should be involved in making key decisions? Should the negotiation process be public or private? How can parties ensure that all involved feel they’ve had a voice?
… Read More
Crisis Negotiations: Program on Negotiation Chair Robert Mnookin Joins Guest Panel on CNN Tonight to Discuss the Release of Bowe Bergdahl
CNN Tonight host Dan Lemon recently featured Program on Negotiation Chair Robert Mnookin along with fellow Harvard Law School professor Alan Dershowitz, storied commentator Anne Coulter, and Peter Bergen, CNN national security analyst, for a panel discussion regarding the recent exchange of Taliban prisoner for US soldier, Bowe Bergdahl.
The night’s discussion centered on whether or … Read More
Have You Negotiated How You’ll Negotiate?
A large pharmaceutical company was engaged in licensing negotiation with a small biotech firm over the terms of a technology transfer.
When the talks reached a standstill over royalty rates, the two sides began an all-weekend marathon session.
Each side came armed with supporting arguments and data, but, by Sunday afternoon, they had failed to converge toward … Read More
Negotiating in the heat of the moment
At the time, it seemed to be an example of coolheaded dealmaking in the midst of disaster. In 2009, hit hard by the 2008 financial crisis and changes in consumer preferences, U.S. automaker Chrysler was on the brink of collapse, and the Treasury Department stepped in to do a deal. In exchange for about $12 … Read More
Negotiating the Distance Between You
Adapted from “How to Negotiate When You’re (Literally) Far Apart,” by Roderick I. Swaab (professor, INSEAD) and Adam D. Galinsky (professor, Northwestern University), first published in the Negotiation newsletter, February 2007.
Growing economic globalization offers a multitude of new opportunities yet often necessitates alternatives to face-to-face meetings, such as phone calls, e-mails, videoconferences, or instant messages. … Read More
Bargaining with the Devil:
Strategies and Techniques for Negotiating with Tough Opponents
Bargaining with the Devil A PON Webinar with Professor Robert Mnookin Samuel Williston Professor of Law, Harvard Law School Chair, Program on Negotiation Executive Committee Date: Tuesday, October 4, 2011 Time: 1:00 PM to 2:15 PM ET .
About the Webinar:
From the NFL to state governments, negotiation is in the news these days. The issues are vastly different, but these two negotiations have one … Read More
Bargaining with the Devil:
Strategies and Techniques for Negotiating with Tough Opponents
Bargaining with the Devil A PON Webinar with Professor Robert Mnookin Samuel Williston Professor of Law, Harvard Law School Chair, Program on Negotiation Executive Committee Date: Tuesday, May 17, 2011 Time: 1:00 PM to 2:15 PM ET To register, click here.
About the Webinar:
From the NFL to state governments, negotiation is in the news these days. The issues are vastly different, but these two … Read More
Negotiating Online? Meet Face to Face First
Adapted from “How to Negotiate Successfully Online,” by Kathleen L. McGinn (professor, Harvard Business School) and Eric J. Wilson (Cogos Consulting), first published in the Negotiation newsletter.
The intricacies of electronic negotiation can be dizzying. You’re likely to find yourself communicating with numerous people you’ve never met about issues you each value differently, and you all … Read More
Negotiate with Your Kids?
Adapted from “Negotiate Better Relationships with Your Children,” first published in the Negotiation newsletter.
Getting a good night’s sleep and eating a healthy dinner might seem like obvious goals for parents to have for their young children, but kids won’t always agree. When faced with back talk, tantrums, and tears, most parents vacillate between laying down … Read More
Make Compensatory Payments in the Gulf Coast NOW!
Lawrence Susskind, Ford professor of Urban and Environmental Planning, The Massachusetts Institute of Technology; author of Built to Win; co-author of Breaking Robert’s Rules and Breaking the Impasse
The BP oil spill in the Gulf region inadvertently created a nightmare for mediators. In this posting, Lawrence Susskind lays out a reasonable plan that addresses prompt dispersal … Read More
How to Lighten Your Burdens
For decades, General Electric (GE) and the Environmental Protection Agency sparred over who would pay for the removal of PCBs, or polychlorinated biphenyls, that GE had discharged into New York’s Hudson River, a cleanup project expected to cost hundreds of millions of dollars. In October 2005, the two sides came to an agreement.
… Read More
Negotiating the Toughest Challenges in U.S.-Muslim Relations: From Peace in the Middle East to Talks with the Taliban
Join the Program on Negotiation for a discussion on major challenges facing the U.S. as it tries to improve relations with key Muslim countries embroiled in regional conflicts. Key questions include whether and how to negotiate with armed non-state groups, how to engage effectively with fractious and failing governments, and how to manage influential constituencies … Read More
Negotiating with Your Children
Negotiating with your children may seem counterintuitive but parents can build stronger relationships with them by implementing a problem-solving approach when trying to resolve family conflicts.
In his book How to Negotiate with Kids…Even When You Think You Shouldn’t (Viking, 2003), Scott Brown, a founder of the Harvard Negotiation Project at Harvard Law School, outlines a … Read More
Spring 2021 HARVARD NEGOTIATION MASTER CLASS
2021 Programs
Articles & Insights
- What is Crisis Management in Negotiation?
- Famous Negotiations Cases – NBA and the Power of Deadlines at the Bargaining Table
- Learning from crisis negotiations
- Negotiation in the News: Last Negotiating Moves From A Never-Boring President
- Police Negotiation Techniques from the NYPD Crisis Negotiations Team
- When Dealing with Difficult People, Try a Complementary Approach
- Examples of Difficult Situations at Work: Consensus and Negotiated Agreements
- Dealing with Difficult People and Negotiation: When Should You Give Up the Fight?
- Dear Negotiation Coach: Building Trust with Reluctant Counterparts
- Negotiation Tips: Listening Skills for Dealing with Difficult People
- Cross Cultural Communication: Translation and Negotiation
- International Negotiations and Cognitive Biases in Negotiation
- Diplomatic Negotiations: The Surprising Benefits of Conflict and Teamwork at the Negotiation Table
- Dear Negotiation Coach: When Time is Not Money at the Negotiation Table
- Dispute Resolution for India and Bangladesh
- Leadership Styles in Negotiation: The Case of Ebay and Paypal
- Leadership Skills in Negotiation: How to Negotiate Equity Incentives with Senior Management
- Negotiation Skills and Bargaining Techniques from Female Executives
- Great Women Leaders Negotiate
- Advantages and Disadvantages of Leadership Styles: Uncovering Bias and Generating Mutual Gains
- Stonewalling in Negotiations: Risks and Pitfalls
- The Importance of Communication in Negotiations: Preparing Your Negotiating Team
- How to Remain Detached Yet Fully Engaged in Negotiations: Tips for Business Negotiators
- Negotiation Skills: Ways to Use Power Plays in a Negotiation
- How to Overcome Barriers and Save Your Negotiated Agreement at the Bargaining Table
