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. In conflicts related to personal identity, and deeply-held beliefs or values, however, negotiation dynamics can become more complex and require alternative dispute resolution tactics for conflict … 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.
negotiation dynamics
What are Negotiation Dynamics?
Negotiation dynamics can play a huge role in the outcome of your personal, business, and international negotiations.
Negotiators typically assume that their interests are diametrically opposed. This is especially true in cases where negotiation dynamics, whether in the form of power dynamics or interpersonal chemistry, feed into the idea of conflict. At the same time, it’s unreasonable to think that we don’t occasionally go into a negotiation with a stronger or weaker party.
It’s important to point out, however, that power is in the eye of the beholder, especially when it comes to negotiation dynamics.
For example, resources are often the most obvious source of power, but maintaining good relationships, being viewed as an expert, and constructing mutually beneficial agreements also add to one’s power base.
Additionally, your best alternative to a negotiated agreement, or BATNA, is often your best source of bargaining power. By cultivating a strong outside alternative, you gain the power you need to walk away from an unappealing deal.
If that’s not an option, negotiators in a weak bargaining position can often gain power by teaming up with others in their situation and negotiating collectively. However, if your needs and wants don’t match those of the majority, you might fall short of your goals, so assess the pros and cons of each approach carefully.
But when you can put aside negotiation dynamics, and consider the possibility that your goals could be compatible with those of your counterpart, you open up opportunities for win-win deals.
Be sure to download our special free report, The New Conflict Management: Effective Conflict Resolution Strategies to Avoid Litigation, where renowned negotiation experts uncover unconventional approaches to conflict management that can turn adversaries into partners. Featuring three case studies, this valuable report provides proven strategies for leveraging opportunity out of conflict, and tips for creating value and improving relationships, even with difficult people.
The following items are tagged negotiation dynamics:
Negotiating Difficult Conversations: Dealing with Tough Topics Productively
Course Dates: This course is closed
When negotiations become difficult, emotions often escalate and talks break down. To overcome barriers and turn negotiations from difficult to collaborative, from breakdown to breakthrough, you must learn to understand the inter- and intra-personal dynamics at play. In this program, you will examine how your own assumptions and behaviors can … Read More
International Negotiations: Cross-Cultural Communication Skills for International Business Executives
In this Special Report, we offer expert advice to help you in international negotiations. You will learn to cope with culture clashes, weigh culture against other important factors, prepare for possible cultural barriers and much more.
… Read More
Redevelopment Negotiation: The Challenges of Rebuilding the World Trade Center
In the wake of the destruction of the World Trade Center more than 20 years ago in New York City, there were difficult questions and challenges facing those who were involved in the redevelopment negotiation. For instance, how do we build consensus around complex solutions when there are emotionally charged issues at stake?
The Teaching Negotiation … Read More
Solutions for Avoiding Intercultural Barriers at the Negotiation Table
Even with a common language and the best of intentions, business negotiators from different cultures face special challenges. Try these solutions for avoiding intercultural barriers when preparing for negotiation between two companies from different cultures.
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Dispute Resolution on Facebook: Using a Negotiation Approach to Resolve a Conflict
For several years, Facebook has been working with social scientists to bring traditional methods of dispute resolution to cyberspace. The site has begun to offer users tools to resolve disputes with one another over offensive or upsetting posts, including insults and photos.
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Teach Your Students to Negotiate the Technology Industry
Technology is a pervasive feature of modern life, providing countless benefits ranging from new cancer treatments to smart phones. Especially since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, technology has been embedded in many parts of our everyday lives. Technology can also be a source of disruption and is at the root of many disputes. Parties … Read More
Negotiation Skills from the World of Improv for Conflict Management
A Q&A with Michael Wheeler, author of The Art of Negotiation: How to Improvise Agreement in a Chaotic World.
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Negotiation Skills: What’s the Best Process?
This three-step approach to managing process issues in negotiations will reap significant rewards at the bargaining table.
… Read Negotiation Skills: What’s the Best Process?
Negotiation Case Study: Sincerity’s Power in Negotiation
Most of us have had the experience of delivering an apology that fell on deaf ears. When apologies fail to achieve their aims, poor delivery is usually to blame. The importance of sincerity in such a situation cannot be overstated, because if the recipient thinks your apology is less than sincere, she is unlikely to … Read More
Best-In-Class Negotiation Case Studies
What’s one of the best ways to teach the art and science of negotiation? Case studies and articles that spark lively discussion or facilitate self-reflection. Based on real-world examples, these teaching resources are designed to help students envision how to apply what they’ve learned in the classroom and beyond.
The Teaching Negotiation Resource Center (TNRC) at … Read Best-In-Class Negotiation Case Studies
Managing Faultlines in Group Negotiations
Group negotiations are a fact of managerial life, yet the outcomes of teamwork are highly unpredictable. Sometimes groups cohere, reaching novel solutions to nagging problems, and sometimes infighting causes them to collapse. How can you predict when conflict will emerge in groups, and what can you do to stop it?
Dora Lau of the Chinese University … Read Managing Faultlines in Group Negotiations
Four Obstacles to Learning from Negotiation Simulations
Participants will learn from a simulation only if they buy into the premise of the game. The following are the most common obstacles to a successful interactive negotiation training.
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Great Negotiators vs. Great Negotiations: The Program on Negotiation’s Great Negotiator Teaching Series
Teaching negotiation using case studies focused on the efforts of great negotiators can help achieve several pedagogical goals at the same time. Developed by Professor James Sebenius of Harvard Business School, the Program on Negotiation’s Great Negotiator case study series, available from the PON Clearinghouse, highlights the lessons learned by each recipient of PON’s Great … Read More
Gravel quarry or hiking grounds?
The PON Clearinghouse offers hundreds of role simulations, from two-party, single-issue negotiations to complex multi-party exercises. Rockwell Quarry is a five-party, multi-issue negotiation among elected officials, property owners, and a gravel company over a permit for a gravel quarry in a recreationally valuable canyon.
The Rockwell Quarry Complex Environmental Negotiation is a five-party, multi-issue simulation that … Read Gravel quarry or hiking grounds?