Emotional flooding – when strong, specific, and often negative feelings overwhelm us – poses obvious hazards to negotiators, who need to be able to think clearly when faced with the complex, strategically demanding task of creating and claiming value.
For this reason, emotional regulation can be an essential component of negotiation.
But different types of regulation create … 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
What is Negotiation?
Negotiation is a bargaining process through which parties attempt to forge an agreement to resolve disputes, establish a business contract, purchase a new home, or conclude a peace treaty. In the business world, some negotiators always seem to get what they want, while others more often tend to come up short. What might make some people better negotiators than others? People bring different negotiation styles and strategiesto the bargaining table, based on their different personalities, experiences, and beliefs about negotiating.
The Program on Negotiation’s founder Roger Fisher authored the book Getting to Yes with Harvard faculty William L. Ury and Bruce Patton and defines negotiation as a “back-and-forth communication designed to reach an agreement when you and the other side have some interests that are shared and others that are opposed.”
Other experts define negotiation using similar terms. In her negotiation textbook The Mind and Heart of the Negotiator, Leigh Thompson refers to negotiation as an “interpersonal decision-making process” that is “necessary whenever we cannot achieve our objectives single-handedly.” And in their book Judgment in Managerial Decision Making, Max H. Bazerman and Don A. Moore write, “When two or more parties need to reach a joint decision but have different preferences, they negotiate.”
Together, these negotiation definitions encompass the wide range of negotiations we carry out in our personal lives, at work, and with strangers or acquaintances.
You can improve your negotiation skills in business and personal disputes by downloading a complimentary copy of our special report, Negotiation Skills: Negotiation Strategies and Negotiation Techniques to Help You Become a Better Negotiator, from Harvard Law School, right now! We will send you a download link to your copy of the report and notify you by email when we post new business negotiation advice and information.
The following items are tagged negotiation:
Mediating Disputes – Fall 2019
Course Dates: October 14 – 18, 2019
In this popular program, you will acquire the practical skills and techniques for facilitating negotiations between disputing parties. From family and employment matters to public policy and business disagreements, you will discover effective ways to settle differences and mediate disputes across a variety of contexts.
This program will provide you … Read More
Power Asymmetry and the Principal Agent Problem
Lawrence Susskind and Robert Wilkinson
This brief video simulation provides insights into the challenges surrounding principal agent dynamics and power asymmetry in negotiation.
… Read More
Negotiation and Leadership Spring 2020 Brochure
It’s often said that great leaders are great negotiators. But how does one become an effective negotiator? On-the-job experience certainly plays a role, but for most executives, taking their negotiation skills to the next level requires outside training.
… Read More
Women Negotiators and Barriers to the Bargaining Table
The barriers women negotiators face when negotiating for jobs and career advancement are well known: Women who ask for more money or better opportunities can face a backlash for violating traditional gender norms.
… Read More
Negotiation Workshop: Improving Your Negotiating Effectiveness
Course Dates: June 2020 – Exact Dates TBD
Too many negotiators leave value on the table. They painfully divide a small pie after a costly battle while failing to capture offsetting opportunities for joint gain, or win the battle, but at the cost to relationships and reputation that limit long-term value. Reliably negotiating optimal outcomes requires … Read More
The First Move A Negotiator’s Companion
Alain Lempereur, Aurelien Colson, & Michele Pekar
… Read More
Negotiation Master Class Spring 2020 Program Guide
Over the years thousands of professionals have participated in negotiation programs at the Program on Negotiation (PON) at Harvard Law School. And after a few months or years of putting their negotiation skills and techniques to work, participants inevitably ask us, what’s next?
The Program on Negotiation is pleased to announce the Negotiation Master Class, … Read More
How to Overcome Cross Cultural Barriers in Negotiation
How different cultural perspectives impact bargaining strategies at the negotiation table
… Read More
The Harvard Negotiation Intensive: A Two-Day Workshop
Course Dates: June 2020 – Exact Dates TBD
Whether you’re a vice president, litigator, manager, or transactional attorney, negotiation is central to nearly every professional activity. Systematic and thorough preparation, as well as an ability to manage shared, different, and conflicting interests, is critical to success.
Designed to address the core issues that you experience as you … Read More
When Spider Webs Unite Five Case Studies of the Third Side in Action
When Spider Webs Unite is the next work in the evolution of William Ury’s “Third Side” concept. Through a series of case studies, the book illustrates how the “Third Side” becomes operationalized in actual conflict situations.
The five case studies, written by Program on Negotiation Graduate Fellows, represent a wide range of conflicts: Native American land … Read More
Negotiation Master Class Fall 2019 Program Guide
Over the years thousands of professionals have participated in negotiation programs at the Program on Negotiation (PON) at Harvard Law School. And after a few months or years of putting their negotiation skills and techniques to work, participants inevitably ask us, what’s next?
The Program on Negotiation is pleased to announce the Negotiation Master Class, … Read More
What is BATNA?
What is BATNA? Negotiations in which each counterpart has a best alternative to a negotiated agreement are scenarios in which the incentive to work together must exceed the value of alternatives away from the negotiation table.
… Read More
Negotiation Workshop: Strategies, Tools, and Skills for Success
Course Dates: June 2020 – Exact Dates TBD
Turn disputes into deals. Transform deals into better deals. Resolve intractable problems. Negotiating effectively requires the ability to change the game – moving away from conflict and toward collaboration. In this intensive, interactive program, you acquire a proven framework for maximizing the value of your negotiation.
… Read More
Team Talk The Power of Language in Team Dynamics
Both negotiators in organizations and students of organizational theory will be interested in this book. In this study, the author makes use of sociolinguistics to analyze team conversations and their organizational context to explain why cross-functional teamwork poses so many challenges. Drawing on interviews and observations of teams in Fortune 200 companies, the author compares … Read More
Negotiation Advice from Negotiation Briefings: The Best of “Dear Negotiation Coach”
This free report offers best practices on a variety of negotiation and conflict resolution topics—from how to quell nerves, to drawing information out of counterparts, to dealing with hard bargainers.
… Read More
Ethics in Negotiation: How to Avoid Deception in Employment Negotiations
Ethics in negotiation can involve expectations of fairness, equity, and honesty but, sometimes, despite your best intentions, one or more of these four forces might lead you to behave unethically during job offer negotiations:
… Read More
Secrets of Successful Dealmaking
Course Dates: June 2020 – Exact Dates TBD
In corporate dealmaking, much of the action happens away from the negotiating table. Successful dealmakers understand that deal set-up and design greatly influence negotiation outcomes. In this program, you will examine the legal, tactical, and structural elements of dealmaking and acquire practical skills and techniques for navigating difficult … Read More
Seven Secrets for Negotiating with Government How to Deal with Local, State, National, or Foreign Governments–and Come Out Ahead
Addresses the key variables involved in negotiating with government, from the influence of bureaucracy to the perception of power on the government side of the negotiating table
… Read More
Negotiation and Leadership Fall 2019 Brochure
It’s often said that great leaders are great negotiators. But how does one become an effective negotiator? On-the-job experience certainly plays a role, but for most executives, taking their negotiation skills to the next level requires outside training.
… Read More
When Michael Bloomberg and NYC Teachers Both Lost
It’s hard to imagine a negotiation example in which negotiating counterparts would choose to sacrifice hundreds of millions of dollars rather than reach agreement.
But back in 2013, this is the choice that New York City and its teachers union, the United Federation of Teachers (UFT), made when they declared impasse on a new teacher evaluation … Read More
Negotiating Difficult Conversations: Dealing with Tough Topics Productively
Course Dates: June 2020 – Exact Dates TBD
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 … Read More
Power of a Positive No (The)How to Say No and Still Get to Yes
From the coauthor of Getting to YES, a simple yet powerful three-step method for saying No firmly and effectively, without destroying relationships
… Read More
Negotiation and Leadership Summer 2019 Brochure
It’s often said that great leaders are great negotiators. But how does one become an effective negotiator? On-the-job experience certainly plays a role, but for most executives, taking their negotiation skills to the next level requires outside training.
… Read More
Negotiation Pedagogy Conference 2019: Register Now!
Join us in Cambridge on Friday, November 15th, 2019 for a conference on excellence and innovation in teaching negotiation.
REGISTER NOW
The Teaching Negotiation Resource Center (TNRC) at the inter-university Program on Negotiation at Harvard Law School is pleased to announce that the 2019 Negotiation Pedagogy Conference will take place on Friday, November 15th, 2019 at Harvard … Read More
Advanced Mediation Workshop: Mediating Complex Disputes
Course Dates: June 2020 – Exact Dates TBD
You’ve handled numerous mediation sessions with ease. You are confident in your mediation skills, especially between two parties who want a fair resolution. But how do the dynamics change when their lawyers join the session? What happens when the mediation expands to multiple parties who are bringing many … Read More
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
Harvard Negotiation Institute 2019 Summer Programs Guide
In this Special Guide, we provide details on all the courses available at Harvard Negotiation Institutes Summer Programs. Included in this guide are details on why you should attend the Harvard Negotiation Institutes Summer Program, learning objectives for each course, distinguished faculty who will be teaching the courses, and registration details.
… Read More
Advice for Bargaining Abroad: Tips on How To Overcome Cultural Barriers
Imagine that you’re the CEO of a sports clothing manufacturer based in Chicago. You recently traveled to Amsterdam, the Netherlands, to meet with a distributor who has a rich and diverse network in the European sports market.
… Read More
Negotiation and Leadership: Dealing with Difficult People and Problems BR
Negotiation and Leadership Dealing With Difficult People and Problems Spring sessions: April 16–18 | May 14–16 | June 18–20 2018 Fall sessions: September 24–26 | October 15–17 | December 3–5 2018 Focused one-day sessions Spring sessions: April 19, 2018 | May 17, 2018 | June 21, 2018 Fall sessions: September 27, | October 18, | December 6, 2018
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Making Global DealsWhat Every Executive Should Know About Negotiating Abroad
Picking up where other negotiation books leave off, this practical, incisive handbook shows executives, lawyers, and government officials how to survive and thrive in today’s highly competitive international marketplace.
Making Global Deals explains how to overcome the obstacles-the instability of the international marketplace and differences in culture, ideology, law, politics, and currencies-and come out on top … Read More
Negotiation Master Class Spring 2019 Program Guide
Over the years thousands of professional have participated in negotiation programs at the Program on Negotiation (PON) at Harvard Law School. And after a few months or years of putting their negotiation skills and techniques to work, participants inevitably ask us, what’s next?
The Program on Negotiation is pleased to announce the Negotiation Master Class, … Read More
How to Defend Against “Scope Creep” at the Negotiation Table
The following question was asked of Negotiation Coach and PON faculty member Guhan Subramanian in the February 2014 issue of the Negotiation Briefings newsletter:
Question: I run a small consulting firm that has a services contract with a major multinational corporation. The team we work with has a bad habit of continually adding items to the … Read More
Negotiation and Leadership: Dealing with Difficult People and Problems AQ
Negotiation and Leadership Dealing With Difficult People and Problems Spring sessions: April 16–18 | May 14–16 | June 18–20 2018 Fall sessions: September 24–26 | October 15–17 | December 3–5 2018 Focused one-day sessions Spring sessions: April 19, 2018 | May 17, 2018 | June 21, 2018 Fall sessions: September 27, | October 18, | December 6, 2018
.embed-container { position: relative; padding-bottom: 56.25%; height: 0; … Read More
Lectures on Negotiation Analysis
An edited version of three lectures on negotiation analysis by Professor Howard Raiffa
… Read More
Negotiation and Leadership Spring 2019 Brochure
It’s often said that great leaders are great negotiators. But how does one become an effective negotiator? On-the-job experience certainly plays a role, but for most executives, taking their negotiation skills to the next level requires outside training.
… Read More
Body Language in Negotiation: How Facial Expressions Impact a Negotiation
When we’re deciding whether to trust a counterpart, his facial expressions matter a great deal, suggests a study by negotiation researchers Jeroen Stouten of the University of Leuven, Belgium, and David De Cremer of the Rotterdam School of Management, the Netherlands.
… Read More
Negotiation and Leadership NL P
It’s often said that great leaders are great negotiators. But how does one become an effective negotiator? On-the-job experience certainly plays a role, but for most executives, taking their negotiation skills to the next level requires outside training. Designed to accelerate your negotiation capabilities, Negotiation and Leadership examines core decision-making challenges, analyzes complex negotiation scenarios, … Read More
Handbook of Dispute Resolution (The)
Winner, National Institute for Advanced Conflict Resolution’s 2005 Book Award –
A cutting-edge, comprehensive, inter-disciplinary resource regarding the nature of disputes and the range of dispute resolution processes
… 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
Negotiation Techniques: How to Predict a Negotiator’s Decisions
Improving your negotiation skills can only take you so far – eventually you need to assess you behavior preferences as a negotiator. Being able to predict how you will behave in a given bargaining scenario will help you augment the negotiation training you have received as well as help you achieve better outcomes at the … Read More
Negotiation and Leadership NL O
It’s often said that great leaders are great negotiators. But how does one become an effective negotiator? On-the-job experience certainly plays a role, but for most executives, taking their negotiation skills to the next level requires outside training. Designed to accelerate your negotiation capabilities, Negotiation and Leadership examines core decision-making challenges, analyzes complex negotiation scenarios, … Read More
Getting Past NoNegotiating in Difficult Situations
Winner of the 1991 CPR Award for Excellence in ADR (Outstanding Book Category)
… Read More
Overcoming Cultural Barriers in Negotiation
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
Metaphorical Negotiation and Defining Negotiation Skills
Negotiators talk about building agreement, bluffing the opposition, and volleying offers back and forth. According to mediator Thomas Smith, careful attention to such metaphors can reveal deeper meaning beneath the explicit words that people use, notably regarding how they view the negotiation process and their relationship to one another.
… 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
Breaking the Impasse Consensual Approaches to Resolving Public Disputes
Drawing on his experience in the MIT-Harvard Public Disputes Program, a leading mediator and his co-author provide the first jargon-free guide to consensual strategies for resolving public disputes-indispensable to citizen activists and to business and government leaders.
“A complement to Getting to Yes . . . shows how parties involved in public disputes over housing projects, … Read More
Negotiation Training: How Harvard Negotiation Exercises, Negotiation Cases and Good Negotiation Coaching Can Make You a Better Negotiator
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
Negotiation Skills in Business Communication – Use Chaos to Your Advantage at the Bargaining Table
Some of the most successful negotiation examples that we have covered here include negotiators engaging in improvisation at the negotiation table, turning chaotic situations into advantages in negotiation scenarios.
… Read More
Harvard Negotiation Master Class: Advanced Strategies for Experienced Negotiators – April 6-8th, 2020
Strictly limited to 60 participants who have completed a prior course in negotiation, this first-of-its-kind program offers unprecedented access to experts from Harvard Law School, Harvard Business School, and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology—all of whom are committed to delivering a transformational learning experience. By working closely with them, you will:
… Read More
Beyond Reason
Roger Fisher and Daniel Shapiro
Winner of the 2005 CPR Award for Excellence in ADR (Outstanding Book Category). Practical and straightforward advice to use emotions to turn a professional or personal disagreement – big or small – into an opportunity for mutual gain.
… Read More
BATNA Basics: Boost Your Power at the Bargaining Table
Perfect your negotiation skills in this free special report, BATNA Basics: Boost Your Power at the Bargaining Table from Harvard Law School.
… Read More
Deal-Making Negotiation Strategies: Short on Cash? Try Bartering
In an economic downturn, negotiation opportunities sometimes dry up because parties think they have nothing left to give. During times like these, bartering flourishes. This article will help you decide how and when to include bartering as a component of your negotiations. Here are four guidelines to help you bargain successfully at the negotiation table.
… Read More
Negotiation and Leadership: Dealing with Difficult People and Problems
Negotiation and Leadership Dealing With Difficult People and Problems Fall: December 5-7, 2016 Spring: April 18-20, 2017 | May 15-17, 2017 | June 19-21 2017
Become a More Effective Negotiator Great leaders are great negotiators. By equipping you with the innovative negotiation strategies you need to excel at the bargaining table, Negotiation and Leadership will help you:Improve working relationships and resolve seemingly … Read More
Behavioral Theory of Labor Negotiations, A An Analysis of a Social Interaction System
In this book Walton and McKersie attempt to describe a comprehensive theory of labor negotiation. The authors abstract and analyze four sets of systems of activities which they believe account for much of the behavior found in labor negotiations.
The first system of activities, termed “distributive bargaining,” comprises competitive behaviors that are intended to influence the … Read More
Business Negotiation Strategies: How to Negotiate Better Business Deals
New Free Report – Business Negotiation Strategies: How to Negotiate Better Business Deals
… Read More
In Preparation for Negotiation, Choose the Right Process
In preparation for negotiation, sellers face a choice between negotiating one on one with buyers, holding an auction, or combining elements of both processes. Consider the different paths that Amazon and Apple followed in 2017 when each began scouting locations for a new campus:
Dangling the prospect of a $5 billion campus and about 50,000 jobs, … Read More
Difficult Conversations: How to Discuss What Matters Most
Whether dealing with a challenging customer, a difficult supplier, an unhappy employee, an unreasonable official, or a demanding boss, we all have conversations we anticipate with dread. Gain the strategies, tools, and frameworks you need to manage difficult conversations effectively in this one-day program led by negotiation experts Bruce Patton and Douglas Stone.
… Read More
Assessing Our Students, Assessing OurselvesVolume 3 in the Rethinking Negotiation Teaching Series
This third volume in the Rethinking Negotiation Teaching book series critically examines what is taught in contemporary negotiation courses and how they are taught, with special emphasis on how best to “translate” teaching methodology to succeed with diverse, global audiences.
… Read More
Business Crisis Management: Crisis Communication Examples and How to Use Police Negotiation Tecniques
In this free special report negotiation experts offers advice on how to turn crisis situations into collaborative negotiations. Throughout the report, you will discover how to apply the lessons of professional hostage negotiators, avoid disasters through careful planning, diffuse tensions with angry members of the public, and break through impasse with open communication.
… Read More
What is Conflict Resolution, and How Does It Work?
If you work with others, sooner or later you will almost inevitably face the need for conflict resolution. You may need to mediate a dispute between two members of your department. Or you may find yourself angered by something a colleague reportedly said about you in a meeting. Or you may need to engage in … Read More
Practical Lessons from the Great Negotiators
Since 2001, the Program on Negotiation has bestowed the “Great Negotiator Award” on individuals who have successfully negotiated against great odds to accomplish worthy goals. In this fascinating one-day session, you’ll have the rare opportunity to explore how these remarkable negotiators overcame their most formidable challenges—and how to apply these lessons in your own negotiations. … Read More
Art & Science of Negotiation (The)
Howard Raiffa
Winner of the 1985 Leo Melamed Prize of the Journal of Business for the most significant published work by a faculty member in a school of business in the preceding two years.
… Read More
The New Conflict Management: Effective Conflict Resolution Strategies to Avoid Litigation
This report reveals how wise negotiators extract unexpected value using an indirect approach to conflict management. An aggressive management style can set you up for repeated failure. Direct conflict management approaches can be overly combative and counter-productive. Experienced negotiators know that compromise seldom succeeds. Win/lose is really lose/lose. The best negotiation strategy results in … Read More
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.
… Read More
Fall Negotiation and Dispute Resolution
This highly interactive semester-length seminar explores the ways that people negotiate to create value and resolve disputes. Designed both to improve understanding of negotiation theory and to build negotiation skills, the curriculum integrates negotiation research from several academic fields with experiential learning exercises.
… Read More
The Art of Negotiation
Program on Negotiation faculty member and Harvard Business School professor Michael Wheeler brings you a new, next-generation approach to negotiation.
Michael Wheeler’s new book, The Art of Negotiation, demonstrates that the best negotiators are adept at managing chaos and uncertainty and rarely trap themselves with rigid plans and entrenched positions. Understanding that negotiation is a process … Read More
Dealing with Difficult People
At the Program on Negotiation at Harvard Law School (PON), we are dedicated to helping professionals deal with hard bargainers and resolve even the most challenging disputes. To help you understand the principles of negotiation and conflict resolution, we put together a special report: Dealing With Difficult People.
Discover how to collaborate, negotiate, and bargain … Read More
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
Spring Mediation and Conflict Management
This course is designed to raise your awareness of your own approach to conflict, introduce a range of theories about mediation and participatory processes, and improve your conflict management skills. While we will discuss a wide range of dispute resolution processes that involve third parties, we will focus on mediation. Each class moves … Read More
Global Negotiator, The
Jeswald Salacuse
Selected by TIME as one of the best negotiation books of 2015
… Read More
Dealmaking: Secrets of Successful Dealmaking in Business Negotiations
Discover how to boost your power at the bargaining table in this free special report, Dealmaking: Secrets of Successful Dealmaking in Business Negotiations, from Harvard Law School.
… Read More
The Advantages of Bias at the Negotiation Table
What impact do cognitive biases have on bargaining scenarios? Work by negotiation researchers Russell B. Korobkin of UCLA and Chris P. Guthrie of Vanderbilt University suggests how to turn knowledge of four specific biases into tools of persuasion.
… Read More
Leveraging the Power of Emotions As You Negotiate
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
Predictable Surprises The Disasters You Should Have Seen Coming and How to Prevent Them
An exploration of why political and organizational leaders so often miss or ignore impending disasters, despite having all of the evidence necessary to anticipate them, and what they can do to prevent them
… Read More
Dispute Resolution: Working Together Toward Conflict Resolution on the Job and at Home
The experts and editors from Harvard’s Program on Negotiation offer a sampling of advice from past issues of Negotiation to help
you learn to foster relationships by building rapport, manage conflict in long-term relationships and negotiate business decisions with family members.
… Read More
NEW! International Investor-State Arbitration Video Course
Master Class on International Investor-State Arbitration: What is it? How Does it Work?
This two-hour video course is intended to teach students, legal practitioners, business executives, and government officials the essentials of international investor-state arbitration, an area of increasing concern for legal practice, business strategy, and government policy.
In the video Master Class on International Investor-State Arbitration: … Read More
The Art of Saying No: Save the Deal, Save the Relationship, and Still Say No
No is perhaps the most important and certainly the most powerful word in the language. For many people, it is
also the hardest to say. Yet every day we and ourselves in situations where we need to say no—to people at work, at home, and in our communities—because it is the word we must use to … Read More
Entrepreneurial Negotiation
Samuel Dinnar and Lawrence Susskind interview eight entrepreneurs and provide a detailed analysis of what the interviewees did wrong and what they now realize they should have done to prevent, detect or respond more effectively to their errors.
… Read More
Harborco: Role-Play Simulation
Harborco is a consortium of development, industrial, and shipping concerns that are eager to proceed with the building of a new port, but face hurdles and potential opposition as they advance through the licensing process. The Federal Licensing Agency would like to see them work with other stakeholders to develop a project that is acceptable … Read More
In Group Negotiation, Avoid a Turf Battle
In group negotiation, turf battles—heated conflicts over territory, control, rights, or power—are common. Department heads clash over scarce resources. Companies, community groups, and governments get tied up in lawsuits over undeveloped land. Across the globe, fishing groups have depleted fish stocks in their rush to catch the biggest share for themselves.
… Read More
Negotiation and Leadership: Dealing with Difficult People and Problems
It’s often said that great leaders are great negotiators. But how does one become an effective negotiator? On-the-job experience certainly plays a role, but for most executives, taking their negotiation skills to the next level requires outside training. Designed to accelerate your negotiation capabilities, Negotiation and Leadership examines core decision-making challenges, analyzes complex negotiation scenarios, … Read More
Trouble at the Watering Hole
Trouble at the Watering Hole is a breakthrough book that focuses on the skills of conflict resolution. This fun and educational book builds a foundation for kids to learn ways to constructively resolve problems and to build strong skills that can be used to resolve conflict for the rest of their lives.
… Read More
International Negotiations: Cross-Cultural Communication Skills for International Business Executives
In this Special Report, we offer expert advice from the ‘Negotiation’ newsletter 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
Know Your BATNA: The Power of Information in Negotiation
Knowing when to walk away in a negotiation is some of the most powerful information in negotiation a negotiator can bring to the bargaining table – and this means a negotiator should know her BATNA or best alternative to a negotiated agreement.
… Read More
3-D Negotiation
David Lax & James Sebenius
A path-breaking introduction to the “three dimensions” of complex negotiated deal-making: table tactics, deal design, and the crucial but often overlooked dimension of setup
… Read More
Mediation Secrets for Better Business Negotiations: Top Techniques from Mediation Training Experts
In this Special Report, the experts and editors from Harvard’s Program on
Negotiation offer a sampling of advice from past issues of Negotiation to help you learn the techniques you need to resolve your disputes through mediation. You will learn to select the right dispute-resolution process, choose a mediator with appropriate expertise, learn the steps your … Read More
How to Use MESOs in Business Negotiations
It’s not uncommon in business negotiations to find yourself on the brink of impasse. You and your counterpart have exchanged a series of offers and counteroffers, and you’ve met somewhere close to the middle—but not close enough. With each side firmly rooted in its position, there may seem to be no way forward.
… Read More
Winning From Within A Breakthrough Method for Leading, Living and Lasting Change
Winning from Within by leadership and negotiation expert Erica Ariel Fox presents a contemporary approach for getting more of what you want, improving relationships, and enjoying life’s deeper rewards.
With principles developed while teaching negotiation at Harvard Law School and coaching executives around the world, Fox provides a map for understanding your inner world and a … Read More
Negotiation Skills: Negotiation Strategies and Negotiation Techniques to Help You Become a Better Negotiator
Students who master business negotiation become better leaders. But it starts with building the right skills. And that’s where our latest free report comes in. In Negotiation Skills: Negotiation Strategies and Negotiation Techniques to Help You Become a Better Negotiator, you’ll learn:
… Read More
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
Solar Power
Georg Berkel
Two-party, one-issue distributive negotiation about the acquisition of a renewable energy firm
… Read More
Negotiation Strategies for Women: Secrets to Success
As a general manager of a business unit and the father of two daughters in college, I have no tolerance for gender bias in the workplace or anywhere else for that matter. At least that’s what I thought, until a women manager handed me the Negotiation Strategies for Women report that she recently received from … 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
Collective Bargaining at Central Division
Lawrence Susskind, Charles Hecksher, and Elaine Landry
Two-team, multi-issue collective bargaining contract negotiation between three union representatives and three management representatives for a telephone company; includes an internal team meeting before external negotiations
… Read More
Real Leaders Negotiate: Understanding the Difference Between Leadership and Management
In this FREE special report, we offer advice taken from the Negotiation Briefings newsletter, to help you improve your leadership and negotiation skills.
… Read More
How Mood Affects Negotiators
What are social psychologists learning about the connections among emotions, negotiation, and decision making? Negotiation contributor Jennifer S. Lerner of Harvard Kennedy School and her colleagues have identified two critical themes. First, they have studied the carryover of emotion from one episode, such as a car accident, to an unrelated situation, such as a workplace … Read More
What Works
Iris Bohnet
A “game-changer” that demonstrates how research is addressing gender bias, improving lives and performance.
… Read More
Sales Negotiation Training: Essential Negotiation Skills for Sales Professionals
In this Special Report, we offer expert advice from the ‘Negotiation’ newsletter to help you close your most important sales negotiations.
… Read More
3 Negotiation Strategies for Conflict Resolution
When a dispute flares up and conflict resolution is required, the outcome can be sadly predictable: the conflict escalates, with each side blaming the other in increasingly strident terms. The dispute may end up in litigation, and the relationship may be forever damaged.
… Read More
Great Negotiator Case Study Package
James K. Sebenius and Jeswald Salacuse, with Daniel Curran, Laurence A. Green, Rebecca Hulse and Kristin Schneeman
A package of factual case studies featuring recipients of the Program on Negotiation’s Great Negotiator Award
… Read More
Sally Soprano: Role-Play Simulation
Sally Soprano is a distinguished soprano who is now somewhat past her prime. She has not had a lead role in two years but would like to revive her career. The Lyric Opera has a production scheduled to open in three weeks, but its lead soprano has become unavailable. Lyric’s representative has requested a meeting … Read More
5 Common Negotiation Mistakes and How You Can Avoid Them
Sometimes our negotiation mistakes are glaring: We accidentally reveal our bottom line, criticize the other party when patience was warranted, or get our numbers mixed up. More often, though, our negotiation mistakes are invisible: We get a perfectly good deal, but are unaware that we could have gotten a better one if we hadn’t succumbed … Read More
Martti Ahtisaari And The Helsinki Accords
James K. Sebenius and Laurence A. Green
… Read More
Team-Building Strategies: Building a Winning Team for Your Organization
Discover how to build a winning team, find an effective negotiation “coach,” budget for negotiations training and boost your business negotiation results in this free special report from Harvard Law School.
… Read More
Negotiation Strategies: Seek Advice from Others When Negotiating
Negotiation skills in business communication and seeking advice from others, what are the potential benefits? Advice seeking inherently employs multiple self-presentation tactics (including ingratiation, self-promotion, and supplication), it allows us to improve both our competence and our likability.
… Read More
Negotiating Life
Jeswald Salacuse
Arguing that life is really a series of negotiations, deal making, and diplomacy, Salacuse gives readers the tools to make the most of any situation.
… Read More
Training Women to Be Leaders: Negotiating Skills for Success
In this Special Report, we offer advice selected from the Negotiation newsletter to help women develop the negotiation skills essential to career advancement, and to help organizations encourage women employees to be more effective at the bargaining table. You will learn what hold women back from asking for more, the link between gender and flexible … Read More
Definition of the Winner’s Curse in Negotiations
The winner’s curse negotiations, when a negotiator overbids for an item due to competitive pressure or other non-value related factors, is a major pitfall that integrative bargainers should seek to avoid.
… Read More
Law of Investment Treaties (The)
Jeswald Salacuse
In this revised edition, the nature, history, and significance of investment treaties are examined, as well as their impact on international investors and investments, and the governments that are party to them. Recent treaties, trends, and controversy are also discussed.
… 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
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
Cross-Cultural Negotiation Video: What Is There To Teach About?
Produced by Larry Susskind and Warren Dent
The Program On Negotiation at Harvard Law School invited three members of its highly experienced negotiation faculty to share stories about how they have adapted their teaching strategies in various cross-cultural contexts.
… Read More
Teaching Negotiation: Understanding The Impact Of Role-Play Simulations
Negotiation can be challenging. And so can teaching it! At the Program on Negotiation (PON) at Harvard Law School, we help educators, scholars and practitioners like you learn how to more effectively teach negotiation.
Notably, role-play simulations are a particularly useful way to facilitate experimentation and introduce participants to new dispute resolution tools, techniques and … Read More
The Angry Negotiator
Most negotiations require us both to compete to claim value and to cooperate to create value. The ability to move back and forth between these two goals is a critical—and difficult—skill. How do emotions affect value creation and claiming? Researchers Alice Isen and Peter Carnevale found that a positive mood leads to greater value creation. … Read More
Negotiating At Work
Deborah Kolb & Jessica Porter
Selected by TIME as one of the best negotiation books of 2015, Negotiating at Work offers practical advice for managing your own workplace negotiations: how to get opportunities, promotions, flexibility, buy-in, support, and credit for your work.
… Read More
Diplomacy and Negotiation Skills Fall Short In U.S.-China Trade Talks
Among the many diplomacy and negotiation skills required in international negotiation, business negotiators need to be able to size each other up accurately, taking into account cultural, organizational, and other differences. To capitalize on the benefits of diplomacy, they also need to be able to present a united front. Those diplomacy and negotiation skills came … Read More
Job Negotiation, The
Jennie Hatch & Kessely Hong
A three-party employment negotiation involving a mid-career student negotiating two job offers via email at the same time.
… Read More
5 Conflict Resolution Strategies
Whether a conflict erupts at work or at home, we frequently fall back on the tendency to try to correct the other person or group’s perceptions, lecturing them about why we’re right—and they’re wrong. Deep down, we know that this conflict management approach usually fails to resolve the conflict and often only makes it worse.
… Read More
Getting To Yes With Yourself
William Ury
Selected by TIME as one of the best negotiation books of 2015
… Read More
Dealing with Difficult People: Lies, Lies, and More Lies
Are you facing a negotiator you don’t think you can trust? Here are five common types of deception you may come across when dealing with difficult people in a negotiation.
… Read More
Tommy Koh And The United States-Singapore Free Trade Agreement
James K. Sebenius and Laurence A. Green
… Read More
Make the Most of Negotiation Skills Training
Across the globe, negotiation skills training has become a common activity in managerial life. Organizations often take steps to improve their managers’ negotiation skills and their ability to manage other negotiators by enrolling them in negotiation skills training programs.
… Read More
The Mercury Negotiation Simulation
Leah C. Stokes, Lawrence Susskind, and Noelle E. Selin
This mercury game is a role-play simulation aimed at scientists, students and decision makers. Playing the game will help participants explore the consequences of representing scientific uncertainty in various ways in a policy context.
… Read More
Win Win Negotiation Example – Change the Name of the Game
Suppose that two businesses have similar sounding names. The similarity is confusing to customers or could be down the line. One of the businesses decides to do something about it. How can they engage in a successful dispute-resolution negotiation process?
… Read More
A Green Victory Against Great Odds, But Was It Too Little Too Late?
Gina Coplon-Newfield
This case study provides an intimate view into the fierce battle among major US nonprofit environmental groups, Members of Congress, and industry over energy policy in 2007. The resulting law slashed pollution by raising car efficiency regulations for the first time in three decades. For negotiators and advocates, this case provides important lessons about … Read More
How to Overcome Barriers and Save Your Negotiated Agreement at the Bargaining Table
Back in November 2012, Hostess Brands announced that it had failed to reach a negotiated agreement with its second-biggest union and, as a result, was permanently shutting down its operations.
The news was met with dismay by baby boomers and others who had grown up with the 80-year-old company’s shelf-stable confections. But consumers had been passing … Read More
Dioxin – Waste to Energy Game
Denise Madigan, Steve Foster, and Lawrence Susskind
Six-party, multi-issue negotiation among four scientists, a city representative, and an environmentalist to develop the city’s solid waste management strategy; also known as: Dioxin: Resource Recovery.
… Read More
Teach Your Students Value Distribution with a Simulation on Solar Power
Do your students really understand the difference between value distribution and integrative negotiation, and have you given them a chance to practice their distributive bargaining skills? Do they understand that every negotiation includes elements of both value creation and value distribution? To help teach these key negotiation skills the Teaching Negotiation Resource Center (TNRC) has developed a … Read More
Inside Out
Gary Friedman
Designed to help people who work with parties in conflict use their inner experiences for the benefit of their clients, this book challenges many of the conventions conflict-resolution professionals bring to this field. Rooted in self-awareness, this practical guide encourages us to work from the “inside out”.
… Read More
What are the Three Basic Types of Dispute Resolution? What to Know About Mediation, Arbitration, and Litigation
When it comes to dispute resolution, we now have many choices. Understandably, disputants are often confused about which process to use.
… Read More
Caitlin’s Challenge
Deborah M. Kolb, with the Simmons College Graduate School of Management, and the Program on Negotiation at Harvard Law School
“Caitlin’s Challenge” is a short case recounting Caitlin Elliot’s history at a company called Microenterprises Incorporated and her negotiation with its CEO, George Baker, about a promotion and a bonus. The case is good for … Read More
Negotiation Skills for Win-Win Negotiations
A few characteristics of negotiation styles include hard bargaining tactics focused on claiming as much value as possible and integrative negotiation strategies such as value creation or win-win negotiation scenarios. What negotiation styles leads to optimal negotiated agreements and are suitable to win-win negotiations? One skill to cultivate that will have a positive impact on … Read More
Hydropower In Santales
Jennie Hatch under the supervision of Lawrence Susskind
Six-party, multi-issue negotiation focused on issues of public engagement in hydropower-based
energy development
… Read More
Negotiating Around a Bad BATNA
Don’t assume your public statements will win over a reluctant negotiator. Know when it’s best to move on and make the most of your current situation.
… Read More
West Wind in Pine Hills
A 2-participant, 2-issue, scorable negotiation between a wind company rep and a rural community rep about a proposed wind turbine project
… Read More
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
Power Of Noticing (The)
Max Bazerman
A guide to making better decisions, noticing important information in the world around you, and improving leadership skills.
… Read More
The Difficulty of Achieving a Win-Win Negotiation Outcome
In a negotiation, it may help to signal to your counterpart your willingness to engage in bargaining aimed at creating a win-win outcome for both parties.
… Read More
Good For You, Great For Me
Lawrence Susskind
Win at win-win negotiating! Find trades that create much more value than either you or your opponent thought possible while satisfying the interests of your back table – the people to whom you report.
… Read More
Deception in Negotiation
Daniel, a senior manager at a large consumer products firm, has been asked by a company vice president to submit a detailed budget request for his department. Daniel has an incentive to overstate anticipated costs: in the case of overruns, it’s nice to have a little cushion built into the budget, rather than having to … Read More
Negotiating with the Ministry of Health
Larry Susskind (MIT), Ona Ferguson, and Meredith Sciarrio
Two, separate, two-person, non-scorable negotiations: one between Technical Co-chairs from the Center for Disease Control and USAID; the other between a CDC Technical Co-Chair and the Minister of Health in the imaginary host country of Sabada.
… 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
Negotiating with Another Federal Agency
Larry Susskind (MIT), Ona Ferguson, and Meredith Sciarrio
Two, separate, two-person, non-scorable negotiations: one between Technical Co-chairs from the Center for Disease Control and USAID; the other between a CDC Technical Co-Chair and the Minister of Health in the imaginary host country of Sabada.
… Read More
Undecided on Your Dispute Resolution Process? Combine Mediation and Arbitration, Known as Med-Arb
The choice: arbitration vs. mediation. You’re not sure which of two common dispute resolution processes, mediation or arbitration, to use to resolve your conflict.
… Read More
Akron Steel
Allison Berland
A non-team, multi-issue, non-scorable exercise that gives participants an opportunity to map a conflict at the workplace.
… Read More
South Korea’s Innovative Long-Term Negotiation Strategy with North Korea
In negotiation, a combination of several negotiation strategies may be needed to move past a difficult impasse. The decades-long protracted negotiations between North Korea and South Korea provides such a case study.
… Read More
Flooding and Climate Change Risks in Northam
Seven-person, multi-issue facilitated negotiation among local government, community, business, environmental, and engineering representatives trying to reach agreement on a strategy for managing climate change risks in a small coastal city
… Read More
Negotiation Games
Going to trial, it’s said, is like rolling the dice. In this article, we discuss what negotiators need to be aware of to avoid negotiation games before heading to the courtroom.
… Read More
Coastal Flooding in Shoreham
Seven-person, multi-issue facilitated negotiation among local government, community, business, and environmental representatives trying to reach agreement on a strategy for managing climate change risks in a medium-sized coastal community
… Read More
Patience is a Winning Negotiation Skill for Getting What You Want at the Negotiation Table
On April 9, 2012 the hearts of internet entrepreneurs everywhere must have skipped a beat at the news that Facebook was paying $1 billion in cash and stock to buy Instagram, a San Francisco-based start-up.
… Read More
Coastal Flooding and Climate-Related Risks in Launton
Seven-person, multi-issue facilitated negotiation among local government, community, business, and environmental representatives trying to reach agreement on a strategy for managing climate change risks in a small, beachfront community.
… Read More
Price Negotiation Advice for Consumers
It’s official: Price negotiations aren’t just for big-ticket items anymore. The prices of furniture, electronics, wine, jewelry, and other “medium-ticket” goods are now frequently up for discussion. The ancient art of haggling has made a comeback, so brush up on your skills with our six price negotiation tactics.
… Read More
Flooding in Milton
Seven-person, multi-issue facilitated negotiation among local government, community, business, and environmental representatives trying to reach agreement on a strategy for managing climate change risks in a mid-size coastal city.
… Read More
Negotiation Tools and Techniques: Research Roundup
Recent negotiation research offers negotiation tools and techniques to use in your business negotiations to make strong opening offers, negotiate effectively online, and boost your sense of power.
… Read More
Browning Brothers Search
Jeswald W. Salacuse
Five- to six-person negotiation between search committee members asked to reach consensus on characteristics needed for a new leader to right a financial company in crisis
… Read More
Top 10 Negotiation Skills You Must Learn to Succeed
Increasingly, business negotiators recognize that the most effective bargainers are skilled at both creating value and claiming value—that is, they both collaborate and compete. The following 10 negotiation skills will help you succeed at integrative negotiation.
… Read More
Canada-China Panda Acquisition Negotiation
Stephen Weiss
Two-team (6 person), multi-issue contract negotiation between Canadian zoo CEOs and representatives of Chinese organization responsible for giant panda loans
… Read More
Mutually Beneficial Agreements: Tips for Creating Deals that Last
David Schwimmer, the actor who played Ross on the hit television comedy Friends, famously convinced the show’s five other leads in the early years of its run to negotiate their contracts with NBC as a team. The “mini union” formed by the actors ultimately helped them negotiate an unprecedented $1 million each per episode during … Read More
What To Do With Hexiglass?
Beth Doherty and Hal Movius
3-player, non-scoreable game designed to teach the benefits of managing communication and trust in the context of a technology negotiation.
… Read More
How Does Mediation Work in a Lawsuit?
No one likes to go to court. Not only is it expensive and time-consuming, but it often leads to frustrating results and damaged relationships. So, how does mediation work in a lawsuit and is legal mediation a better route?
… Read More
Win As Much WATER As You Can!
Catherine Ashcraft
Four-person, scoreable, prisoner’s dilemma game where players decide how to handle low water levels in 10 quick rounds; an adaptation of the case “Win As Much As You Can.”
… Read More
Deceptive Tactics in Negotiation: How to Ward Them Off
Deceptive tactics in negotiation can run rampant: parties “stretch” the numbers, conceal key information, and make promises they know they can’t keep. The benefits of negotiation in business offer strong incentives to detect these behaviors. Unfortunately, however, most of us are very poor lie detectors.
Even professionals who encounter liars regularly, such as police officers and … Read More
Civic FusionMediating Polarized Public Disputes
By Susan L. Podziba. Civic fusion is when people bond to achieve a common public goal, even as they sustain deep value differences. This book offers proven strategies for moving polarized parties to consensus solutions based on the author’s 25 years of mediation experience, including working with pro-life and pro-choice leaders after fatal shootings at … Read More
How to Balance Your Own Values in Negotiation
What are the best negotiation examples from real life? Imagine that you’ve been negotiating the sale of a property that is owned by your company. The buyer has made an attractive offer that you’ve tentatively accepted. Your boss is pleased with the terms as they stand, but suggests that you go back to the buyer … Read More
Finn River Basin
Danya Rumore, Anjali Lohani, and Mubarik Imam
Seven-party, seven-person, multi-issue negotiation game involving a dispute over inter-provincial water allocations. It explores issues of prediction and monitoring, water sharing, and the environmental adequacy of water flows.
… Read More
10 Top Negotiation Examples
Here’s a recap of some of the most interesting and challenging negotiation examples, featuring many of the world’s most famous negotiators.
… Read More
Negotiating About Pandas for San Diego Zoo
Stephen Weiss and Sarah Tatrallyay
This case study centers on the most challenging task for a negotiator: to reach a satisfactory agreement with a tough counterpart from a position of low power—and to do so in an uncommon context. The case concerns the executive director of a zoo in the U.S. who seeks two giant pandas, … Read More
Conflict and Negotiation Case Study: Long-Term Business Partnerships and Negotiated Agreements
To protect the future interests of their organization, negotiators sometimes must accept fewer benefits or absorb greater burdens in the short run to maximize the value to all relevant parties – including future employees and shareholders – over time.
Suppose that the operations VPs of two subsidiaries of an energy company are preparing to negotiate the … Read More
Venturing Beyond the ClassroomVolume 2 in the Rethinking Negotiation Teaching Series
This volume presents a cross-section of the new thinking at the midpoint of the Rethinking Negotiation Teaching project. It features 28 chapters authored by scholars reflecting on their participation in Hamline-sponsored international negotiation conference.
… Read More
15 Things You Need to Know About Environmental Dispute Resolution
Here are 15 things about dispute resolution in environmental negotiations that Program on Negotiation faculty member Lawrence Susskind published on his website, Consensus Building Approach.
… Read More
Rethinking Negotiation TeachingInnovations for Context and Culture
This book is the first in a series of three volumes examining negotiation pedagogy, and features 22 innovative chapters written by international scholars who gathered at a Hamline-sponsored conference to begin the multi-year Rethinking Negotiation Teaching project.
… Read More
Right of First Refusal: A Potentially Win-Win Negotiation Tool
Looking for ways to get more value out of your sales negotiations? You may be able to do so by negotiating a right of first refusal.
A right of first refusal, also known as a matching right or right of first offer, is a contractual guarantee that one party to a business deal can match … Read More
Papers on International Environmental Negotiation, Volume 18: The Next Generation of Environmental Agreements (2011)
Papers on International Environmental Negotiation, Volume 18: The Next Generation of Environmental Agreements (2011)
“Introduction,” by Lawrence Susskind
“Expanding the Role and Function of Science Advisory Panels: A New Way to Bridge Science and Policy in Environmental Treaty Regimes,” by Mona Funiciello
“Toward an International Geoengineering Agreement: The Promises (and Pitfalls) of Negotiating a Convention on Global Climate Interventions,” … Read More
How Mediation Can Help Resolve Pro Sports Disputes
Worldwide, mediation has become a common means of resolving conflict, ranging from divorce to workplace disputes to broken contracts. Yet mediation remains an underused tool for resolving disputes in U.S.
… Read More
Papers on International Environmental Negotiation, Volume 17: On the Road to Copenhagen (2009)
Papers on International Environmental Negotiation, Volume 17: On the Road to Copenhagen (2009)
“Introduction,” by Lawrence Susskind “Looking Beyond Kyoto: A Vision for 2050 – And How to Get There,” by Justin Ginnetti “A Framework Proposal for a post-2012 Copenhagen Protocol – How to Reach 80% Reductions by 2062,” by Ines Kapphan
“Post-Kyoto Climate Change Negotiations: The View from the Coalition … Read More
Win Win Negotiation: Different Cultures, Shared Meals
From movie moguls hammering out film deals in Los Angeles to publishers and agents assessing each other’s tastes in New York, the “power lunch” has become a familiar institution. Across the globe, negotiators often do business over shared meals, whether out of convenience or as part of a concerted effort to get to know one … Read More
Water Diplomacy
Shafiqul Islam and Lawrence E. Susskind
In this book, the authors show how open and constantly changing water networks can be managed successfully using collaborative adaptive techniques to build informed agreements among disciplinary experts, water users with conflicting interests, and governmental bodies with countervailing claims.
… Read More
A Lesson from Turkey: Raise Your Profile in International Negotiations
Negotiators seek to raise their stature and increase their influence in international negotiations and other realms by serving as mediators and peacekeepers when conflicts emerge. To do so, they need to cultivate a reputation for impartiality or, at the very least, a willingness to listen to both sides.
… Read More
Papers on International Environmental Negotiation, Volume 04 (1994)
Papers on International Environmental Negotiation, Volume 4 (1994) This volume is currently out of print.
“Getting Industry to Work for Environmental Treaty Making,” by Brent E. Omdahl
“Linking Human Rights and Environmental Quality,” by Kristi N. Rea
“Linking Trade and the Environment In a Post-Uruguay World,” by Katherine M. Howard
“Mass Media and the Environment: A Content Analysis,” by Paul A. Barresi
“Multinational Corporations: A … Read More
Negotiation Skills in Business Negotiation and Status Consciousness
Before and during your negotiation, think about who you’ve chosen as a reference group against which you measure yourself. Did you select the group purely to enhance your own status, or did you try to make a more appropriate comparison? What are your negotiation skills in business communication?
… Read More
Papers on International Environmental Negotiation, Volume 10: Reforming the International Environmental Treaty-Making System (2001)
Papers on International Environmental Negotiation, Volume 10: Reforming the International Environmental Treaty-Making System (2001)
“A Declaration on Transnational Relief and a Code of Conduct in Cases of Environmental Emergency: A New Proposal,” by Naoki Maegawa
“A Proposed International Framework Convention on Bioinvasive Species,” by Wendy Jastremski
“Addressing North-South Power Asymmetry in International Environmental Negotiations,” by Robert Blair
“Capacity-Building Strategies in Support of … Read More
Body Language in the Negotiation Process and the Impact of Gender at the Bargaining Table
How important is body language in the negotiation process? Negotiators are often advised to engage in small talk before getting down to business.
… Read More
Papers on International Environmental Negotiation, Volume 14 (2005)
Papers on International Environmental Negotiation, Volume 14 (2005) This volume is available in print. Click here to order.
“Introduction,” by Lawrence E. Susskind and William R. Moomaw
“A ‘Zero Environmental Impact’ Treaty: A Full Environmental Compensation Mechanism for International Projects,” by Rodolfo Lacy
“A Sustainable Agriculture Amendment: Incorporating Sustainable Agriculture into International Environmental Negotiations,” by Hilde Petersen
“An Ecosystem Program … Read More
Negotiation Case Studies: The Bangladesh Factory-Safety Agreements
We can learn a lot from negotiation case studies. On April 24, 2013 an eight-story building in Bangladesh known as Rana Plaza collapsed, killing an estimated 1,129 people, many of them low-wage garment workers who made goods for foreign companies.
In the weeks after the disaster, apparel outsourcers faced mounting public pressure to address hazardous conditions … Read More
Papers on International Environmental Negotiation, Volume 15: Ensuring a Sustainable Future (2006)
Papers on International Environmental Negotiation, Volume 15: Ensuring a Sustainable Future (2006)
“Introduction,” by Lawrence E. Susskind and William R. Moomaw “ASEAN Energy Cooperation: An Opportunity for Regional Sustainable Energy Development,” by Phinyada Atchatavivan
“Engaging Non-Governmental Organizations with International Environmental Negotiations: Institutional Approaches to Reforming State-NGO Interactions,” by Beaudry E. Kock
“Gender and International Environmental Negotiations – How Far … Read More
An Alternative Dispute Resolution Definition and How Fast-Food Workers Used ADR to Demand Higher Wages
Labor unions are the most obvious example of negotiating coalitions. If an individual employee made demands of its employer, the company could threaten to hire someone else.
… Read More
Papers on International Environmental Negotiation, Volume 16: Enhancing the Effectiveness of the Treaty-Making System
Papers on International Environmental Negotiation, Volume 16: Enhancing the Effectiveness of the Treaty-Making System (2007) This volume is available in print. Click here to order.
“Introduction,” by Lawrence E. Susskind and William R. Moomaw
“A Process and Implementation Protocol to the UNFCCC,” by Jonathan Phillips
“Building Adaptive Capacity into Transboundary Water Regimes,” by Anna Schulz
“Capacity Building and a … Read More
Fundamental Aspects of Negotiation: Setting the Table
In March 2018, U.S. president Donald Trump shocked even his own White House staff when he revealed that he had accepted an invitation to meet with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un. After months of name-calling and threats between Trump and Kim, the news that the two leaders would discuss the possibility of North Korea dismantling … Read More
Viatex
Hal Movius
Two-party negotiation between representatives of Viatex and one of its clients, Brattlebury, involving trade-offs between short and long-term gains as well as dealing with internal stakeholders.
… Read More
What is BATNA? How to Find Your Best Alternative to a Negotiated Agreement
Your BATNA, or the ability to identify a negotiator’s best alternative to a negotiated agreement, is among one of the many pieces of information negotiators seek when formulating dealmaking and negotiation strategies. If your current negotiation reaches an impasse, what’s your best outside option?
… Read More
Papers on International Environmental Negotiation, Volume 13
Lawrence E. Susskind, William Moomaw, and Nancy J. Waters, eds.
… Read More
Conflict Management and Negotiating When Pride is at Stake
The fallout from Iceland’s financial crisis offers a case study in dealing with those who have suffered a significant blow to their self-esteem. In late 2008, Iceland teetered on the edge of bankruptcy following the collapse of its three largest banks. Since becoming independent of the government in 2002, the banks had pursued a strategy … Read More
Papers on International Environmental Negotiation, Volume 12 Negotiating a Sustainable Future: Innovations in International Environmental Negotiations
William R. Moomaw, Lawrence E. Susskind, and Kristen Kurczak
… Read More
Famous Negotiation Case: How Jamie Dimon Avoided Disaster
Sometimes your goal in negotiation is to improve your fortunes. But sometimes, as in this famous negotiation case, the best you can hope for is to lessen the fallout from past mistakes.
… Read More
Papers on International Environmental Negotiation, Volume 09 An Integrative Approach
Lawrence E. Susskind, William Moomaw, and Kevin Gallagher, eds.
… Read More
The Impact of Anxiety and Emotions on Negotiations: How to Avoid Misjudgment in Negotiation Scenarios
Intense negotiation scenarios, we often choose to consult an expert for advice, preferably someone who has carried out hundreds of similar deals with great success. When we consult with others on our negotiations, we must weigh their advice against our own opinions and research. Past negotiation research finds that we tend to undervalue advice from … Read More
Papers on International Environmental Negotiation, Volume 08 New Directions in International Environmental Negotiation
Lawrence E. Susskind and William Moomaw, eds.
… Read More
Powerful Conflict Resolution Games to Help You Teach Negotiation
From complicated negotiation strategies to artful subterfuge, conflict resolution games are one of the very best ways to prepare for the challenges of real-world negotiation. Games that employ a Prisoner’s Dilemma structure (where rational parties may not cooperate despite their best interests) enable participants to analyze negotiations, make strategic decisions, and anticipate their counterpart’s next … Read More
Papers on International Environmental Negotiation, Volume 07 Global Environment: Negotiating Its Future
The seventh in the International Environmental Paper Series is divided into three sections. The first proposes global agreements which can be reached in the areas of nitrogen emissions, “common heritage” resources, and the development of renewable energy technologies.
The second section proposes two separate environmental management plans that share in common some important principles: the emphasis … Read More
Contract Negotiations and Business Communication: How to Write an Iron-Clad Contract
In contract negotiations, writing a contract that both encapsulates the negotiated agreement but also incorporates future elements such as the business relationship and the sustainability of the agreement can be a daunting task for even the most experienced negotiators. Executives often leave the legal issues surrounding their deals to their attorneys. While this division of … Read More
Papers on International Environmental Negotiation, Volume 05
William R. Moomaw, Lawrence E. Susskind, and Janet L. Sawin, eds.
… Read More
Setting Standards in Negotiations
As the starting point from which all commercial transactions occur, from purchasing equipment to setting salaries, negotiatiosn in business is an essential skill no matter what field a negotiator finds herself. Using an objective standard can strengthen your proposal and eliminate emotional bias.
… Read More
Papers on International Environmental Negotiation, Volume 03
Lawrence Susskind, William R. Moomaw, and Adil Najam, eds.
… Read More
The Top Three Defensive Negotiation Strategies You Need to Know
In the course of a career, a negotiator will confront many skilled persuaders. Here, we review three defensive negotiation strategies a negotiator can employ.
… Read More
Papers on International Environmental Negotiation, Volume 02 International Environmental Treaty Making
Lawrence Susskind, Eric Dolan and J. William Breslin
… Read More
Negotiation Strategies: Emotional Expression at the Bargaining Table
Most of the existing negotiation research on affect in negotiation has focused on emotional experience rather than on emotional expression.
… Read More
ENCO
Jeswald W. Salacuse, Arun Venkataraman, and Fritz von Carp
… Read More
Integrative Negotiation: When Dividing the Pie, Smart Negotiators Get Creative
Typically, when parties are negotiating over a resource they both desire – whether fees, budgets, salaries, schedules, or staff – the process results in an uninspired compromise somewhere between their positions. Is it possible to avoid a compromise when negotiating tough distributive issues.
… Read More
Fact-Finding Harassment and Discrimination Charges in the Company
Paddy Moore
… 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
George Mitchell in Northern Ireland – “To Hell with the Future, Let’s Get On With the Past”
Daniel F. Curran, under the supervision of James Sebenius
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3 Types of Conflict and How to Address Them
In the workplace, it sometimes seems as if conflict is always with us. Miss a deadline, and you are likely to face conflict with your boss. Lash out at a colleague who you feel continually undermines you, and you’ll end up in conflict. And if you disagree with a fellow manager about whether to represent … Read More
Charlene Barshefsky – Negotiating a Trade Agreement with China
James K. Sebenius and Rebecca Hulse
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Framing in Negotiation
So, you’ve offered what you think is a great deal, but your counterpart doesn’t seem to agree. What’s the problem? The offer may be excellent—it’s how you’ve approached framing in negotiation that’s holding you back.
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Lakhdar Brahimi – Negotiating a New Government for Afghanistan
James K. Sebenius and Kristin Schneeman
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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
Stuart Eizenstat: Negotiating the Final Accounts of World War II
Jeswald Salacuse and Kristin Schneeman
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Fairness in Negotiation
Imagine that you and your business partner agree to sell your company. You end up getting an offer that pleases you both, so now you face the enviable task of splitting up the rewards. How do you ensure that there is fairness in negotiation?
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Hard/ Soft Negotiation Choice Exercise
Roger Fisher
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Try a Contingent Contract if You Can’t Agree on What Will Happen
In negotiation, all the goodwill, trust, and cooperation you create can seem useless if you and your negotiating counterpart disagree about how future events may play out. In such cases, a contingent contract can be a highly useful, though widely overlooked, tool for creating value in negotiation.
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Listening and Interviewing Exercise
Wayne H. Davis, based on an idea by Debby Lanstaff
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3-D Negotiation Strategy
Here are some negotiating skills and negotiation tactics from 3-D negotiation by Jeswald Salacuse and David Lax.
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Mariyinsky Palace Negotiations, The
Jason Campbell, with Anika Binnendijk and Andrew Wilson
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International Negotiation Strategies
Negotiation researchers have reached many fascinating discoveries about how people negotiate, such as uncovering flaws in our decision making and identifying useful persuasion techniques. But a great deal of this research has been conducted in Western cultures, and particularly the United States, leaving open the question of whether the results—and the advice they inspire—apply across … Read More
Monroe Energy Assistance Game II
Jeffrey B. Litwak and Lawrence Susskind
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The Importance of Negotiation in Business and Your Career
What are the essential ingredients to getting ahead in the workplace? Hard work, communication skills, and a generous dose of luck all play a role, of course. Another key ingredient—one that is often overlooked—is the ability to recognize and capitalize on opportunities to negotiate for your career success. Why is negotiation in business important? Because … Read More
Negotiating a Template for Labor Standards The U.S.-Chile Free Trade Agreement
Leonard Bierman and Jason Campbell
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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.
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Overworked HR Professional Professional Strategies for Integrating New Skills into Daily Operations
Deborah Kolb
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Examples of Negotiation in Business: Starbucks and Kraft’s Coffee Conflict
Sometimes even the best agreements arising out of negotiation in business and are liable to failure and such is the case with the dispute between food giants Starbucks and Kraft (now Kraft-Heinz).
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Role Reversal Exercise
Andrew Clarkson
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Why Negotiations Fail
When we think of failed business negotiations, most of us picture negotiators walking away from the table in disappointment. But that’s only one type of disappointing negotiation. Failed business negotiations also include those that parties come to regret over time and those that fall apart during implementation. The following three types of negotiation failures are … Read More
Probation Games
Lawrence Susskind and Susan Podziba
A set of three simulations developed for and used in training court probation officers in negotiation techniques.
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How to Renegotiate a Bad Deal
Think you have some stories from trying to renegotiate? Try this one on for size. Many viewed the deal to be a terrible one from the start. Back in December 2008, Richard M. Daley, then Chicago’s mayor, announced that his administration had agreed to lease the city’s parking meters for 75 years to a private company … Read More
Collaborative Negotiation for Human Resource Professionals
A six-component curriculum designed to develop skills in Crisis Management, Consultation, Fact-Finding, Negotiation, Facilitation, and Integration of Skills
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Six Guidelines for “Getting to Yes”
In their revolutionary book Getting to Yes: Negotiating Agreement Without Giving In (Penguin, 3rd edition, 2011), Roger Fisher, William Ury, and Bruce Patton introduced the world to the possibilities of mutual-gains negotiation, or integrative negotiation. The authors of Getting to Yes explained that negotiators don’t have to choose between either waging a strictly competitive, win-lose … Read More
Building Bridges A High School Curriculum on Negotiation
A high school curriculum on resolving differences through negotiation
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Negotiation Research and Improving Your Negotiation Techniques: The Similarity Effect in Business Negotiations
Negotiators mimic the behaviors of those they consider peers. What implications does this have for negotiating styles at the bargaining table? To build rapport, social science and negotiation research advise to bargainers to look for common ground.
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Hans Brandt
Jeswald W. Salacuse, Program on Negotiation (2003)
Hans Brandt is a short film which presents a dramatized problem for use in courses on negotiation, conflict resolution, management, or leadership. The brevity of the film and the richness of the teaching notes make the film highly adaptable for use in a variety of classroom settings.
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Dealmaking and the Anchoring Effect in Negotiations
The following question regarding the anchoring effect was asked of Program on Negotiation faculty member and Harvard Business School and Harvard Law School professor Guhan Subramanian.
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Indopotamia
Catherine M. Ashcraft under the supervision of Professors Lawrence Susskind and Shafiqul Islam
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Putting Your Negotiated Agreement Into Action
Normally negotiators focus on the deal-at-hand as well as those present at the negotiation table, neglecting other aspects of the negotiated agreement that would not only impact others outside of the room but also require their cooperation for the agreement’s success and viability.
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Pedagogy at the Program on Negotiation (Pedagogy @ PON) at Harvard Law School
Pedagogy at the Program on Negotiation at Harvard Law School (Pedagogy @ PON) is a venture dedicated to improving teaching and learning about negotiation.
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Negotiation in Business: Ethics, Bias, and Bargaining in Good Faith
As we’ve discussed in previous articles about negotiation examples in business, a negotiator’s beliefs concerning negotiation ethics are affected by cognitive biases. You probably can recall times when a negotiating opponent made what appeared to be a blatant misstatement. If you’re like most people, you assumed the person was lying to gain an advantage.
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Harvard Negotiation Law Review
For subscription information, please click here.
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Managing Difficult Employees: Listening to Learn
Managing difficult employees is one of the biggest challenges that leaders face. When employees seem unreasonable, belligerent, or uncooperative, managers may be tempted either to brush aside the problem or, alternatively, to fly off the handle.
A better solution when managing difficult staff? Use negotiation techniques to get to the root of underlying problems. The following … Read More
Coping with International Conflict A Systematic Approach to Influence in International Negotiation
This text combines the clear, concise, and proven principles and practice of conflict management from Fisher’s bestselling Getting to Yes with the newest problem-solving approaches to international relations. Many of the concepts grew out of materials Fisher and his colleges use in their international consulting work to teach problem-solving and conflict management skills to diplomats … Read More
How to Resolve Cultural Conflict: Overcoming Cultural Barriers at the Negotiation Table
After recently losing an important deal in India, a business negotiator learned that her counterpart felt as if she had been rushing through the talks. The business negotiator thought she was being efficient with their time. In this useful cross-cultural conflict negotiation example, how should this negotiator improve her negotiation skills?
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Saving the Last Dance
Gary J. Friedman, Jack Himmelstein, and Robert H. Mnookin
A mediation training video illustrating the non-caucus “Mediation through Understanding” model
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Diplomatic Negotiations: The Surprising Benefits of Conflict and Teamwork at the Negotiation Table
As the US presidential primary season heats up for both parties, it helps to take a look back at the 2008 US presidential election and the win-win coalition forged between Barack Obama and his then-rival, Hillary Clinton. As this example demonstrates, if carefully managed, disagreements can lead to better results than you might expect.
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Women Negotiate
Deborah M. Kolb, with the Simmons College Graduate School of Management, and the Program on Negotiation at Harvard Law School
An exploration of the issue of gender in negotiations, featuring interviews with three professional women negotiators
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Conflict Management Skills When Dealing with an Angry Public
When negotiators get along well, creative problem solving is easy. When they become upset, however, they seem to forget everything they know about finding joint gain, to the point of giving up tangible wins simply to inflict losses on the other party. This is especially true in high-profile negotiations that turn nasty.
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Robyn & Luis
Jeswald W. Salacuse
A short dramatized problem regarding a dispute between two corporate officers over the best way to improve company profitability
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Repairing Relationships Using Negotiation Skills
Negotiation is not only something we do at work; often the toughest negotiations we encounter are in our personal lives. Some of the most successful negotiation examples of the power of negotiation skills in dispute resolution is when they repair relationships between friends.
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Rebuilding the World Trade Center Site
Lawrence Susskind
A group of legal, business, and dispute resolution professionals negotiate a six-person, facilitated role simulation regarding the reconstruction of the World Trade Center site in New York City, following the 9/11/2001 terrorist attacks
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Negotiation Examples: How Crisis Negotiators Use Text Messaging
In their negotiation training, police and professional hostage negotiators are taught skills that will help them defuse tense situations over the course of long phone calls, such as engaging in active listening, determining the person’s emotions from his or her inflection, and trust building.
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Politics of Discourse in Mediation
Sara Cobb
An educational video for mediators or mediation students regarding the management of mediation
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Top 10 International Business Negotiation Case Studies
Here is a list offering a broad overview of negotiation case studies from the recent past along with analysis of each bargaining scenario:
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Negotiation Pedagogy Video Series, Part III
Sheila Heen and Melissa Manwaring
An unscripted video showing an experienced negotiation instructor running and debriefing the “Oil Pricing” exercise, interspersed with excerpts from a post-workshop interview with the instructor
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Effective Negotiation Behavior: Are You Consistent?
We might hope that when we adopt effective negotiation strategies—such as spending lots of time preparing and asking questions at the table—we would achieve consistently strong results in our negotiations. Yet as most of us have experienced, our outcomes and personal satisfaction can vary a great deal from one negotiation to the next. Why? Likely … Read More
Negotiation Pedagogy Video Series, Part II
Lawrence Susskind and Melissa Manwaring
An unscripted video showing an experienced negotiation professor teaching an executive education session through the running and debriefing of the Teflex Products role simulation, interspersed with instructor commentary
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Negotiating Skills: Learn How to Build Trust at the Negotiation Table
In this article some negotiating skills and negotiation tactics for building trust with your counterpart are presented.
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Negotiation Pedagogy Video Series, Part I
Professor Michael Wheeler
An unscripted video showing an experienced negotiation professor teaching a complete class session through role simulation debrief, video, and discussion, interspersed with instructor commentary
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Negotiation Case Studies: Google’s Approach to Dispute Resolution
Here’s a great example on how to avoid litigation by pursuing negotiation with your counterparts. In the face of antitrust charges, Google’s guiding principle for dispute resolution is “Don’t litigate, negotiate,” according to the Wall Street Journal.
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Negotiation of a Commercial Lease
The Program on Negotiation
An unscripted video showing two different pairs of real estate professionals negotiating the terms of a commercial lease
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Top 10 Dispute Resolution Skills
Too often, dispute resolution can be an acrimonious and unproductive process. The following 10 negotiation and conflict resolution strategies can help you find creative ways to reach mutually satisfactory agreements.
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Mediators At Work: Breach of Warranty
Marjorie Corman Aaron and Dwight Golann
An unscripted, realistic demonstration of the mediation of a commercial legal dispute
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Negotiation Tactics for Bargaining with Difficult People: The Comcast Merger
If a competitive bargaining session shifts in a counterpart’s direction, your anger could send the wrong signals to your negotiation counterpart. In this instance, strong emotions portray desperation rather than strength. Here are some bargaining and negotiation tactics for dealing with difficult situations in relationships.
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Oil Pricing Exercise
Roger Fisher
Two-team, scoreable, multiple round, “prisoner’s dilemma”-style negotiation between representatives of two countries over the monthly price for barrels of oil.
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Mediation Checklist: What to Know When Hiring Mediators
Are you hiring a mediator? When considering a potential mediator, create a mediation checklist and ask the following questions of those who have worked with him in the past.
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Working It OutA Handbook on Negotiation for High School Students
A 27-page handbook designed to introduce high school students to problem-solving, interest-based negotiation
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5 Win-Win Negotiation Strategies
Business negotiators understand the importance of reaching a win-win negotiation: when both sides are satisfied with their agreement, the odds of a long-lasting and successful business partnership are much higher. But concrete strategies for generating a win-win contract often seem elusive. The following five, from experts at the Program on Negotiation at Harvard Law School, … Read More
Mediators At Work: Termination Tempest
Marjorie Corman Aaron and Dwight Golann
An unscripted, realistic demonstration of the mediation of an employment dispute
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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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Mediator Responsibility and Accountability in Public Disputes
Lawrence Susskind
An educational video for mediators or mediation students regarding mediator responsibility when parties have unequal knowledge, skills or power
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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
Mediation Lecture Video Series
Sarah Cobb and Lawrence Susskind
Three videos featuring guest lecturers from the “Mediation and Other Facilitative Roles in Dispute Resolution” seminar, offered by the Program on Negotiation:
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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.
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Live-Mediation Teaching Video
Charles Doran
Video featuring an actual landlord-tenant small claims mediation
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Pope Francis and the Benefits of Servant Leadership in Negotiations
Progress on global climate change accords has been incremental at best and nonexistent at worst. As in any negotiation, it is important to get the issues right and make sure all the relevant parties are at the table, but this is often easier said than done. Good leadership can help you ensure that both happen, … Read More
Lawyers & Clients
Robert H. Mnookin and Susan Hackley
An illustration of interviewing and listening techniques appropriate for lawyer-client interviews, featuring Harvard Law School Professor Robert Mnookin
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Negotiating Identity and Values-Based Disputes
How Do Parties in Conflict Negotiate Core Beliefs?
Identity and values-based disputes are particularly challenging to resolve, as identities are naturally inflexible and values are typically much less elastic than interest-based issues. In conventional interest-based negotiation, parties often do give up one thing in exchange for getting something they want more. This is often not possible … Read More
In the Shadow of the City
Michael Wheeler
A simulated mediation between an aid worker and a project funder, featuring Getting to YES co-author Bruce Patton as the mediator
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Negotiation Techniques: The First Offer Dilemma in Negotiations
The first offer dilemma in negotiations – should you make the first offer? Few questions related to negotiation techniques and negotiation strategies have yielded more academic attention and debate among practitioners in negotiation research.
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HackerStar Negotiation, The
Morgan Guaranty Trust Company
Realistic video depicting the use of principled negotiation to prepare for and negotiate a bitter business dispute, featuring Getting to YES co-author Roger Fisher
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Union Strikes and Dispute Resolution Strategies
When a conflict looms, it can be tempting for each side to try to make unilateral decisions on key issues because of the belief that negotiations with the other side will be a dead end. This dispute resolution strategy may pay off in the short term, but it’s important to factor in the long-term costs … Read More
Great Negotiator 2004: Ambassador Richard Holbrooke
Edited by James K. Sebenius and Ellen Knebel
Video featuring Ambassador Richard Holbrooke discussing his role brokering the Dayton agreement that ended the 1992-95 war in Bosnia as well as his role in resolving the multinational dispute over U.S. dues owed in arrears to the United Nations
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Types of Power in Negotiation: Chaos Theory and Bargaining Scenarios
Among the many types of power in negotiation a negotiator can exhibit is an ability to exert control over the negotiation process. But what about those bargaining scenarios in which the negotiator unable to gain control of proceedings? How should she formulate her negotiation strategy?
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Great Negotiator 2003: Stuart Eizenstat
Edited by James K. Sebenius
Video featuring excerpts from a discussion with Stuart Eizenstat regarding his efforts negotiating reparations for victims of Nazi Germany
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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.
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Great Negotiator 2002: Lakhdar Brahimi
James Sebenius and Kristen Schneeman
Video featuring excerpts from a discussion with Ambassador Lakhdar Brahimi regarding his international negotiation experiences, including negotiating a new government for Afghanistan in 2002
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Negotiation Research: 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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Good Offices in a War-Weary World
Michele Ferenze, Executive Producer
An exploration of the role of “good offices” providers in long-standing, complex conflicts
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Definition of Mediation and the Mediation Process: The Impact of Lawyers on Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR)
How does the presence of lawyers affect the mediation process and mediations in general? You might guess that when one or both sides bring an attorney to a mediation, the process would become more contentious and adversarial, with impasse more likely, than if the parties worked solely with a mediator.
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Deliberative Democracy Meets Dispute Resolution Reflections and Insights from the 2005 Workshop on Deliberative Democracy and Dispute Resolution, Cambridge, Massachusetts
Carri Hulet (producer), under the supervision of Lawrence Susskind
Highlights of dialogue from a two-day workshop on deliberative democracy and dispute resolution approaches to civic engagement
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How Body Language Affects Negotiation
Experts typically advise us to study our counterparts’ body language in negotiation and to be aware of our own body language. What, exactly, can we learn from others’ nonverbal behavior? And how can we modify our own nonverbal behavior to increase our negotiation success? We analyze three scenarios to help you understand how body language … Read More
DEC v. Riverside Discussion of the PON Simulation
David Lax
A videotaped analysis of players’ scores from the PON role simulation “DEC v. Riverside”
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Must-Read Negotiation Books for 2019
The year 2017 offered plenty of negotiation hits and misses in the realms of government, business, and beyond. To avoid failed negotiations in 2018, politicians, business leaders, and the rest of us would be wise to explore the following recent negotiation books, which can help steer us through our most difficult negotiating dilemmas:
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A Conversation with the Founders
Susan Hackley and Eleanor Jewett
Seven of the Program on Negotiation’s founders reflect on PON’s beginnings twenty years earlier, and on their own journeys as leaders in the field that they helped to create
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Using Negotiation Games to Develop Skills for Commercial Dispute Resolution
Teach your students the art of negotiating for success with these great negotiation games.
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When Talk Works Profiles of Mediators
When mediator Jimmy Carter talks, world leaders listen. When violence erupts in a public housing project, Linda Colburn mediates for peace. And when attorney William Hobgood intervenes to resolve a labor dispute, he saves workers and management the economic and emotional costs of litigation.
When Talk Works goes behind the scenes with accomplished mediators to show … Read More
Three Questions to Ask About the Dispute Resolution Process
Dispute resolution is often a multistep process that can start with negotiation, move on to mediation, and, if necessary, end in arbitration or litigation.
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What’s Fair Ethics for Negotiators
An edited collection of writings on the topic of ethics in negotiation
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How to Deal with Difficult Customers
To hear some salespeople and service representatives tell it, difficult behavior from customers is at an all-time high. Stories of demanding customers proliferate in the press and on social media, while customers likewise complain that their needs increasingly are not being met by companies focused on the bottom line.
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Studies in International Mediation
Studies in International Mediation brings together a number of the most prominent scholars in the field of international relations and conflict management to consider the uses of mediation in international conflict resolution. Edited by Jacob Bercovitch, the volume highlights three major themes: the reasons mediation succeeds or fails, the range and diversity of mediation as … Read More
How to Deal with Cultural Differences in Negotiation
When figuring out how to deal with cultural differences in negotiation, it helps to consider the cultural prototypes represented at the bargaining table—but individual differences count, as well.
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Strategic NegotiationsA Theory of Change in Labor-Management Relations
Labor-management relations have changed dramatically in recent years. Global competition and related economic, technological, political, and institutional changes have forced the collapse of the traditional social compact—based on steadily increasing wages and benefits for workers in exchange for unchallenged managerial autonomy—underpinning the U.S. labor market. In today’s competitive environment, managers can no longer afford the … Read More
NEW Simulation! The Abraham Path: A Thousand Miles on Foot
The Abraham Path is a cultural route tracing Abraham’s footsteps across the present-day Middle East. The path offers hikers the opportunity to engage with the peoples and landscapes of the region firsthand, and to see the region from a new perspective. The path offers an intriguing case of very challenging, long-term negotiations to establish a contiguous … Read More
Smart Money DecisionsWhy You Do What You Do With Money (And How to Change for the Better)
In Smart Money Decisions, a renowed expert in the field of decision-making and negotiation shows how and why we make the decisions we do. Professor Bazerman offers an intriguing audit of people’s psychological relationship with money, providing essential understanding that will help readers identify their own approaches to finances, recognize any inherent problems, and determine … Read More
10 Popular Business Negotiation Articles
Here are ten popular business negotiation articles on the Program on Negotiation website. Drawn from a variety of negotiation case studies as well as negotiation research, the following articles offer strategies for engaging in integrative negotiations aimed at creating win-win scenarios for each party at the negotiation table.
1. What is the Right of First Refusal?
Rights … Read More
Resolving Environmental Regulatory Disputes
Rules and regulations set by government agencies are meant to protect the environment, but they often impose hardships on the very companies and communities they are designed to protect. These groups then seek to minimize the losses through long and costly litigation.
In this volume, professors Susskind, Bacow and Wheeler offer an alternative to expensive and … Read More
Reservation Point in Negotiation: Reach Negotiated Agreements by Asking the Right Questions
A reservation point negotiation is a bargaining scenario in which each side is trying to reconcile the other’s highest offer and the other’s lowest price. This negotiation example can apply to many other bargaining situations and demonstrates the value of open communication with your counterpart at the negotiation table.
… Read More
Renegotiating Health Care Resolving Conflict to Build Collaboration
The working assumptions that guided health care for years are being renegotiated. Clinical practice, organizational policy, and professional relationships are shifting. How do we negotiate to manage these changes?
Renegotiating Health Care offers a valuable bridge between the growing field of negotiation and conflict resolution and the many changes facing health care. Four health care leaders-representing … Read More
Negotiation Advice for Buying a Car: Tips for Improving Your Negotiating Position
How can you negotiate the best possible price for a new car? This is a common negotiation question, and naturally so. A car is one of the most significant purchases you’ll ever make—and the price is almost always negotiable. Here are a few tips to improve your performance:
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Real College The Essential Guide to Student Life
A book of communication, difficult conversations, negotiation and life advice for college students
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For Professional Negotiators, Three Is a Magic Number
Everything good comes in threes, they say. For storytellers, this means understanding that readers and listeners find a sequence of three things to be memorable, satisfying, and compelling—whether it’s three bears, three little pigs, or three kings. For professional negotiators, sequences of three can be rewarding as well. The following examples of good negotiation skills … Read More
Rational Games A Philosophy of Business Negotiation from Practical Reason
When two rational players face off in a business negotiation, why do they settle for less than each of them could and should get? Each pursues his or her interests as theory dictates, but often the result is less than optimal. Young proposes that the root of the problem lies in the philosophical assumptions underlying … Read More
Advanced Negotiation Strategies and Concepts: Hostage Negotiation Tips for Business Negotiators
Upset by a delay in the delivery of one of your products, a longtime buyer threatens to turn to the media unless you meet his extreme demands. Not only is the relationship in jeopardy, but your company’s reputation seems to be as well. What should you do? Turn to some tried and true hostage negotiation … Read More
Point of the Deal (The) How to Negotiate When Yes Is Not Enough
A practical explanation of how to transition from a deal-maker mentality (focusing on making the agreement) to an implementation mindset (ensuring the deal generates value for your company after the ink on the contract has dried)
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Crisis Negotiation Skills: The Hostage Negotiator’s Drill
Here are some negotiating skills from the world of crisis negotiations: Hostage negotiators stress the importance of discussing the “drill”—goals, ground rules, and operating principles—with their team before beginning talks with a hostage taker.
… Read More
Dealmaking The New Strategy of Negotiauctions
Bringing together auction theory and negotiation theory in a practical and accessible way, Negotiauctions is an authoritative guide to negotiating deals
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What Is an Umbrella Agreement?
Business negotiators tend to want the best of both worlds. When reaching an agreement, they want to pin down parties’ respective rights and responsibilities, but they also want to retain the flexibility they need to deal with ever-changing business conditions. One solution to this apparent dilemma is to craft an umbrella agreement.
… Read More
Negotiations and Change From the Workplace to Society
Managing change involves negotiation. Recognition of the interdependence between negotiations and change in the workplace and society has led to an explosion of research, writing and teaching on these topics. In 1965, Richard Walton and Robert McKersie laid the analytical foundation for much of this activity and innovation in negotiation practice with their landmark study, … Read More
Women and Negotiation: Narrowing the Gender Gap in Negotiation
Men tend to achieve better economic results in negotiation than women, negotiation research studies have found overall. Such gender differences are generally small, but evidence from the business world suggests that they can add up over time.
… Read More
Negotiation Theory and Practice
The past several years have witnessed a dramatic increase in the study and practice of negotiation. Through our association with Negotiation Journal and the Program on Negotiation at Harvard Law School, we have been privileged to witness, and be part of, this growth process. The collection of edited articles presented here, though by no means … Read More
Dealing with Difficult People: Coping with an Insulting Offer in Contract Negotiations
The following “Ask the Negotiation Coach” question was posed to Dwight Golann, Suffolk University Law School professor and negotiation expert: Question: I deal with legal disputes and would like to find reasonable solutions without wasting years in court.
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Negotiation Eclectics Essays in Memory of Jeffrey Z. Rubin
In memory of one of the founders of the Program on Negotiation, this collection of essays covers a variety of negotiation topics: culture and negotiation, power dynamics within negotiation, psychological traps, mediation, psychoanalysis and negotiation, and negotiation pedagogy. The distinguished authors, members of many academic disciplines and professional institutions, came together in a conference held … Read More
Value Creation in Negotiation
Many people say they dread negotiating and avoid it whenever they can. Why? Typically, because they view negotiation as a competition in which one party’s gains come at the expense of the other party.
… Read More
Negotiation Analysis The Science and Art of Collaborative Decision Making
Winner of the 2003 CPR Award for Excellence in ADR (Outstanding Book Category)
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For NFL Players, a Win-Win Negotiation Contract Only in Retrospect?
How did the NFL Players association and team owners come to an eventual win-win negotiated agreement? In this article we explore the strategies each side used to get to an integrative solution even if that was not the ultimate goal.
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Negotiation Strategies for Mutual Gain
This volume is a collection of essays which present key concepts and strategies intended to promote effective negotiation and mutually beneficial dispute resolution. This book is for people in all fields who need to deal with conflict and resolve issues on a continual basis. The book assumes that conflicts, managed well, can provide the impetus … Read More
Labor Negotiation Strategies
No one likes strikes. They can be financially devastating to employers and employees alike. And because strikes inconvenience the public, whatever popular support striking workers gain may fade when a strike drags on over time.
… Read More
Negotiating Rationally
On the basis of their studies of the negotiation behavior of more than 10,000 executives and students over the past five years, Bazerman and Neale conclude that most managers tend to behave irrationally in negotiations. In this book they explore many of the common mistakes that negotiators often make, explaining how such irrational errors can … Read More
Intercultural Negotiation: Does the BATNA Concept Translate?
When should you walk away in negotiation? That’s a common question that negotiation experts pose of professional negotiators. We are typically advised to walk away from the bargaining table when we haven’t been able to get a better deal than we can get elsewhere. But in intercultural negotiation, particularly in international negotiation in certain countries … Read More
Negotiating on Behalf of Others
Robert Mnookin and Lawrence Susskind
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How to Overcome Cultural Barriers in Communication – Cultural Approximations of Time and the Impact on Negotiations
Some of the most fundamental international negotiation skills to develop are negotiation strategies on how to overcome cultural barriers in communication.
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Negotiating Environmental Agreements
Lawrence Susskind, Paul Levy & Jennifer Thomas-Larmer
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Identify Your Negotiation Style: Advanced Negotiation Strategies and Concepts
Have you ever wondered if your negotiation style is too tough or too accommodating? Too cooperative or too selfish? You might strive for an ideal balance, but, chances are, your innate and learned tendencies will have a strong impact on how you negotiate.
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Must We Fight? From the Battlefield to the Schoolyard – A New Perspective on Violent Conflict and Its Prevention
In this book, William Ury (director of the Global Negotiations Initiative at the Program on Negotiation at Harvard Law School) and a panel of experts from several scientific disciplines challenge the commonly held notion that violence is “human nature.” Must We Fight? presents new research and insights into human nature which demonstrate that humankind is … Read More
Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) Techniques: Negotiating Conditions
A married couple was debating whether their four-year-old daughter should attend public or private elementary school. It was a difficult issue, and Mike had a tendency to walk out when the conversation got heated. Frustrated, Lisa turned to negotiating terms and conditions just as a negotiator would in a business deal.
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Manager as Negotiator (The)Bargaining for Cooperation and Competitive Gain
This fine blend of Harvard scholarship and seasoned judgment is really two books in one. The first develops a sophisticated approach to negotiation for executives, attorneys, diplomats – indeed, for anyone who bargains or studies its challenges. The second offers a new and compelling vision of the successful manager: as a strong, often subtle negotiator, … Read More
Test Your Negotiation Decision-Making Ability
A negotiation research study using distributive negotiation examples sheds interesting light on decision-making capabilities, intelligence, and “intuition.”
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Leading Leaders How to Manage Smart, Talented, Rich and Powerful People
Selected by the Toronto Globe & Mail as one of the Top Ten Business Books of 2006
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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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Imagine Coexistence Restoring Humanity After Violent Ethnic Conflict
In the last decade, the world has witnessed a dramatic increase in the number of violent ethnic conflicts worldwide. Imagine Coexistence seeks to explore answers to the questions: What do nations that have been in bloody conflicts do when the shooting stops? How can people who have been engaged in terrorist genocidal wars ever … Read More
Difficult Situations at Work – Negotiation Skills for Dealing with Difficult People
Here are a few examples of difficult situations at work and some negotiation skills for dealing with difficult people we encounter in every area of life. First, negotiators should ask themselves: Why do some people get under our skin?
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Human Side of Enterprise (The)Annotated Edition
Newly annotated edition of the management classic that proposed Theory Y – that individuals are self-motivated – as an alternative to Theory X – that employees must be commanded and controlled
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The Mediation Process and Dispute Resolution
As compared with other forms of dispute resolution, mediation can have an informal, improvisational feel.
Mediation can include some or all of the following six steps
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Getting to YES
Roger Fisher, William Ury, and Bruce Patton
A straightforward, universally applicable method for negotiating personal and professional disputes without getting taken-and without getting angry.
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How to Manage Conflict at Work
Sooner or later, almost all of us will find ourselves trying to cope with how to manage conflict at work. At the office, we may struggle to work through high-pressure situations with people with whom we have little in common. We need a special set of strategies to calm tempers, restore order, and meet each … Read More
Getting Ready to Negotiate The Getting to YES Workbook
The companion volume to Getting to Yes — an essential, easy-to-use workbook on effective negotiating. Getting Ready to Negotiate
The first workbook to illustrate the process described in the extraordinary bestseller, Getting to Yes.
Designed to help the beginner as well as the seasoned pro prepare for every type of negotiation.
Use the book as a refresher course on … Read More
What is the Multi-Door Courthouse Concept
As a collaboration between UST School of Law and the Program on Negotiation at Harvard Law School, the following is the transcript of a conversation between the creator of the multi-door courthouse, Harvard Law Professor Frank E.A. Sander, and the executive director and founder of the University of St. Thomas (UST) International ADR [Alternative Dispute … Read More
Everyday Negotiation Navigating the Hidden Agendas in Bargaining
Originally titled The Shadow Negotiation — and named by Harvard Business Review as one of the Ten Best Books of the Year — this best-selling book illustrates effective ways to master the hidden agendas that determine bargaining success.
Everyday Negotiation provides insight into ways of recognizing the shadow negotiation — where unspoken attitudes, hidden assumptions, and … Read More
Famous Negotiators: Tony Blair’s 10 Principles to Guide Diplomats in International Conflict Resolution
In his memoir, the former world leader highlights lessons from the peace process in Northern Ireland. One of the world’s most famous negotiators, Tony Blair, offers 10 principles to guide diplomats in international conflict resolution.
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Environmental Diplomacy
Lawrence Susskind & Saleem Ali
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Famous Negotiators: Angela Merkel and Vladimir Putin
At a January press conference last year, German chancellor Angela Merkel dangled a carrot in front of Russian president Vladimir Putin: the possibility of a summit in Kazakhstan aimed at easing the Ukraine crisis, to be attended by her and the leaders of France and Ukraine. That carrot, however, was dangling from a significant string.
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Difficult Conversations
Douglas Stone, Bruce Patton, and Sheila Heen
This 10th-anniversary edition bestseller provides a step-by-step approach to having those tough conversations with less stress and more success. Updated to include a fascinating chapter: “Answers to Ten Questions People Ask”.
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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
Dealing with an Angry Public
Lawrence Susskind & Patrick Field
Winner of the 1996 CPR Award for Excellence in ADR (Outstanding Book Category)
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Tough Topics in Negotiation: Negotiating a Non-Compete Agreement with Employers
In integrative negotiation, each side seeks to create and claim value with an eye towards the future of the negotiating relationship. One way of securing this relationship is a noncompete agreement: Employers sometimes ask potential employees to agree not to work for their competitors in the future but don’t assume such requests are nonnegotiable.
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Cure for Our Broken Political Process (The) How We Can Get Our Politicians to Resolve the Issues Tearing Our Country Apart
ABOUT THE BOOK:
Record numbers of Americans fear that our political process is broken — for good reason. Our nation faces unprecedented challenges, yet our politicians spend most of their energy attacking one another. All the while, no one in public life has offered a practical way to neutralize the bitter partisanship that paralyzes Washington.
Firmly grounded … Read More
Creating Value in Integrative Negotiations: Myth of the Fixed-Pie of Resources
Creating value is the name of the game in integrative negotiations but these principles can also apply to the highly competitive realm of business negotiations. In the business world, why is competition so often the norm, while cooperation seems like an impossible goal?
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Breakthrough Business Negotiation A Toolbox for Managers
Winner of the 2002 CPR Award for Excellence in ADR (Outstanding Book Category)
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In Employment Contract Negotiation, “No Haggling” Isn’t the Answer
Back in spring 2015, Ellen Pao, the former CEO of social networking and news website Reddit, revealed in an interview with the Wall Street Journal that her company had taken a bold move in its efforts to create an “equal opportunity environment for everyone” at the company. Specifically, Reddit no longer negotiates salary with job … Read More
Beyond Winning Negotiating to Create Value in Deals and Disputes
Winner of the 2000 CPR Award for Excellence in ADR (Outstanding Book Category)
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When Family Business Disputes Require Conflict Resolution
Unfortunately, business disputes—and the need for conflict resolution—can be common when family members do business together.
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Built to Win Creating a World-Class Negotiating Organization
Hal Movius and Lawrence Susskind
A prescriptive, tools-driven model for aligning organizational structures, processes and culture with negotiation goals, in order to transform organizational negotiation capabilities into a competitive advantage
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When Lose-Lose is the Best Alternative to a Negotiated Agreement (BATNA)
As the famous tale “The Gift of the Magi” illustrates, sometimes the best outcomes in negotiated agreements is a lose-lose situation for both parties.
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Bargaining with the Devil
Robert Mnookin offers practical advice for the most challenging conflicts — when you are facing an adversary you don’t trust, who may harm you, or who you may even feel is evil.
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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):
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Barriers to Conflict Resolution
When does it pay for parties to a dispute to cooperate, and when to compete? How can third-party negotiators further resolutions and avoid the pitfalls that deepen the division between antagonists? Offering answers to these and related questions, this book is a comprehensive guide to the latest understanding of ways to resolve human conflict.
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Professional Negotiators: Give Texts a Chance
Do you negotiate via text? If you’re a young person early in your career, your answer may be an emphatic yes. If you’re a little older, maybe you answered no. Even so, if you took a closer look at the saved text messages on your smartphone, you might find you’ve recently negotiated the division of … Read More
Culture and Negotiation
Culture-along with many other variables-often affects international negotiations. Culture and Negotiation offers a unique contribution by focusing on the distinctive impact of culture, both in creating unexpected opportunities for dispute settlement and in imposing obstacle to agreement. Part I presents expert views on the nature and limits of culture’s influence on negotiation. Part II comprises … Read More
Win Win Negotiation: Managing Your Counterpart’s Satisfaction
As the following points of win-win negotiation will demonstrate, ensuring that your counterpart is satisfied with a particular deal requires you to manage several aspects of the negotiation process, including his outcome expectations, his perceptions of your outcome, the comparisons he makes with others, and his overall negotiation experience itself.
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World Trade Center Redevelopment Negotiation
Lawrence Susskind, Katherine Harvey, David Kovick, F. Peter Phillips, Marc Wolinsky, Cathy Cronin Harris, and Simeon Baum
Six-person facilitated negotiation among representatives of the city, state, developer, insurer, and victims’ families regarding the redevelopment of the World Trade Center site following the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks
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The Negotiation Process in China
With its booming economy and growing international consumer influence, the role of negotiation in international business is more important than ever and negotiation skills appropriate for China are in high-demand. Here are a few negotiation tips to help you successfully navigate your next round of business negotiations in China.
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Work Rules Strategy
Kathleen Valley
Two-team iterated scoreable prisoner’s dilemma exercise set in a labor/management context
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Negotiation Skills Training: Define Your Negotiation Style
How would you characterize your negotiation style: Are you collaborative, competitive, or compromising? During any professional negotiation skills training, you’re likely to find out your negotiating style when setting goals and revealing your negotiating personality.
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Woodstove New Source Performance Standard A negotiated rule-making exercise
Steven Maser
Five- or six-person, multi-issue, facilitated negotiation among federal agency, state government, environmental, and industry representatives over the regulation of woodstove emissions; optional sixth role for industry association counsel
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Mediation Training: What Can You Expect?
Organizations have long recognized the value of hiring professional mediators to help resolve disputes. More and more, managers have begun to also see value in securing mediation training for themselves and their employees. Although there are times when the services of an unbiased, professional mediator are needed, there may also be instances in which employees … Read More
Wintertime in Winterville
Jonathan Raab, Sarah McKearnan, Jan Martinez, and Michele Ferenz
Four-party negotiation among a federal building manager, the building contracting officer, a local employment agency, and a nonprofit organization regarding the renewal of a janitorial services contract in the context of past service problems
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Power Asymmetry and the Principal Agent Problem
Downloadable Video Simulation from the Teaching Negotiation Resource Center
This video simulation on power asymmetry and principal agent dynamics by Professor Lawrence Susskind and Robert Wilkinson was designed to give students insights into the challenges surrounding difficult conversations, both with people across the table, as well as with people on their own side.
The Power Asymmetry and … Read More
Williams v. Northville
Kate Harvey and David Kovick, under the supervision of Lawrence Susskind and Jennifer Brown
5-person, non-scorable mediation between a school principal and a parent (with attorneys) regarding a values-based dispute over classroom discussions and materials addressing same-sex couples and their families
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How to Deal with Threats: 4 Negotiation Tips for Managing Conflict at the Bargaining Table
Sooner or later, every negotiator faces threats at the bargaining table. How should you respond when the other side threatens to walk away, file a lawsuit, or damage your reputation? These negotiation tips will help.
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Williams Medical Center
Eileen Babbitt and Lawrence Susskind
Five-party negotiation among representatives of pharmacists, physicians, nurses, and administrators to develop recommended changes to the drug prescription policy of a large metropolitan teaching hospital
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Negotiation Examples in Real Life – Buying a Home and Dealing with Difficult People
While many of our articles discuss negotiation theory and the latest research, sometimes it helps to discuss negotiation examples in real life when offering negotiation tips and advice. The following negotiation example is based on bargaining in real estate, a negotiation scenario many of us may face in our lifetime.
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Westville
John Forester and David Stitzel
Three-person, three-issue, integrative, scoreable mediation among representatives of a homelessness task force and a neighborhood group, mediated by a planning department representative, over the terms of a proposed homeless shelter in their suburban town
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Managing a Multiparty Negotiation
Multiparty negotiations can be incredibly challenging. Just ask the negotiators from over 170 countries who managed to reach agreement on October 15 on a legally binding accord to combat climate change.
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Water on the West Bank
Susan Podziba and Lawrence Susskind
Seven-person, four-issue mediation among three Israeli water authority and regional representatives and three Palestinian water authority and political representatives over plans to drill a new well on the West Bank
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The Power of a Simple Thank You in Negotiation
Expressions of gratitude have a number of positive effects, such as helping us savor pleasurable experiences, manage stress, and strengthen relationships, researchers have found. In negotiation and other contexts, showing gratitude also motivates those we thank to keep on giving.
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United States v. Dunlop
Dan Vogel, under the supervision of Robert Bordone
Four-person, three-issue, two-round between U.S. prosecutors, an executive charged with securities fraud, and defense counsel over the terms of a possible plea bargain; attorney-client interviews are followed by a plea bargain negotiation
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Dealing with Difficult People and Negotiation: When Should You Give Up the Fight?
Negotiators often fail to recognize when it’s time to walk away from a negotiation dispute – a trap that can squander time, money, and reputations. Receive tens of millions of dollars in a mediated settlement, and you might rightly think you scored a victory.
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Trask Divorce
Two-party, multi-issue negotiation between lawyers representing a divorcing couple regarding alimony and financial support for a special-needs child; involves ethical issues
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Negotiation Techniques To Get New Business Partnerships Off on the Right Foot
“A huge mistake.” “A shot in the dark.” “An audacious move.” Those are a few of the media’s characterizations of wireless carrier AT&T’s acquisition of media and entertainment firm Time Warner, announced on October 22, 2016, for $85.4 billion.
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Trademore Personnel
Lawrence Susskind and Bruce Patton
Three-person, integrative, facilitated negotiation with two department heads and a Human Resources observer/facilitator regarding the possible transfer of an employee from one department to the other
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Mediation Techniques – Resolve Disputes and Manage Conflict with These Mediation Skills
If you manage people, disputes will show up at your door. The marketing VP protests that the budget cap you and your new finance VP proposed is hindering a research initiative you supported.
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TownCenter.com
Eric Gould and Michelle Easter
Two-party negotiation between a start-up company owner and a marketing firm over the potential sale of an internet domain name
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Case Study of Conflict Management: To Resolve Disputes and Manage Conflicts, Assume a Neutral 3rd Party Role
In their book Difficult Conversations: How to Discuss What Matters Most (Penguin Putnam, 2000), authors Douglas Stone, Bruce Patton, and Sheila Heen tell us how to engage in the conversations in our professional or personal lives that make us uncomfortable by examining a case study of conflict management. Tough, honest conversations are critical for managers, … Read More
Three-Party Coalition Exercise
Lawrence Susskind
Short three-party scoreable negotiation among representatives of three organizations over the integrative and distributive aspects of a possible 2- or 3-party coalition
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The Benefits of Coalitions at the Bargaining Table
Labor unions may be the most obvious example of a negotiating coalitions. When a company negotiates with an employee individually, it could threaten to hire someone else in the face of the employee’s demands. By contrast, when employees bargain collectively through a union, they avoid the need to compete against one another (at least on … Read More
Theotis Wiley
Jake Erhard, under the supervision of Robert Bordone
Two-party integrative negotiation between agents for a basketball player and a shoe manufacturer over a possible sneaker endorsement deal
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Winner’s Curse: Negotiation Mistakes to Avoid
Imagine that at the beginning of class, a professor produces a jar full of coins and announces that he is auctioning it off. Students can write down a bid, he explains, and the highest bidder wins the contents of the jar in exchange for his or her bid.
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Tendley Contract
Two-party integrative contract negotiation between a computer consultant and a school district representative at an apparent impasse over different expectations over cost of services
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Negotiation Role-Plays for Building Critical Skills
Here is a brief story about about a teenager named Chris Jensen.
On his way home from basketball practice, he walked into a grocery store and shoplifted some candy bars and a soda. The storeowner saw him, chased after him, and, as luck would have it, they ran right into a police officer.
But instead … Read More
Telemachus Technology
Ellen Waxman and George Maxe
Three-party intra-organizational negotiation among mentor, mentee, and mentee’s manager regarding an upcoming meeting that touches on diversity, communication, and mentorship issues
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Business Negotiation Strategies When Your Boss Is the Problem
Many of us know the feeling of being frustrated by a superior’s involvement in our business negotiation strategies, whether because she hovers too closely over the talks, contradicts our carefully crafted strategy, or doesn’t give us the authority we need to sign off.
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Telecom Services
Beth Doherty under the supervision of Lawrence Susskind
Two-party, two-issue, integrative, scoreable negotiation over the terms of a telecommunications services contract
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What Is Distributive Negotiation?
What is distributive negotiation? Distributive negotiation involves haggling over a fixed amount of value—that is, slicing up the pie. In a distributive negotiation, there is likely only one issue at stake, typically price. When you are negotiating with a merchant in a foreign bazaar, or over a used car closer to home, you are generally … Read More
Teflex Products
Lawrence Susskind and James Lawrence
Five-party, multi-issue negotiation among representatives of a pharmaceutical company, a medical drug manufacturer, and three consumer organizations over the delayed release of a new drug
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Using Body Language in Negotiation
Negotiation experts typically advise us to meet with our counterparts in person whenever possible rather than relying on the telephone or Internet. As convenient as electronic media may be, they lack the visual cues that help convey valuable information and forge connections in face-to-face talks. Without access to gestures and facial expressions, those who negotiate … Read More
Technology Equipment Partners
Tracey Brenner, under the supervision of Lawrence Susskind
Two-team, six-party, four-issue negotiation between representatives of two corporations setting up a simultaneous high-tech joint venture and purchasing agreement
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How to Create Value at the Negotiation Table: Strategies for Creating Win-Win Negotiations
While you might choose many processes for conducting your negotiations, we recommend the following three steps of a mutual-gains approach to negotiations:
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Super Slipster
Matt Smith under the supervision of Robert C. Bordone, with revisions by Michael Moffitt
Two-party personal injury settlement negotiation between the attorney for the injured plaintiff and general counsel for the defendant toy manufacturing company
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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
Summitville Service Agreement
Patrick Field and Tracy Dyke
A two-team (four-party), co-mediated, multi-issue negotiation simulation involving a bitter property tax dispute between a small town and an Indian band living on a nearby reservation
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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
Student Paper
Bruce Patton
Simple two-party awareness-building negotiation between a student and a professor regarding an assignment submitted after the deadline
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Teach Your Students Cross-Cultural Negotiation
As our world grows increasingly interconnected, we are more likely to find ourselves negotiating in a cross-cultural context. The diverse makeup of many societies and global nature of business today make cross-cultural negotiation a regular part of life. Also, unfortunately, many major disputes in need of resolution cross ethnic and cultural lines. Furthermore, it is important … Read More
State v. Huntley
Timothy Reiser
Two-party criminal plea bargain negotiation between a prosecutor and a public defender for a man charged with aggravated rape
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A Negotiation Preparation Checklist
Without a doubt, the biggest mistake that negotiators make—and one that many make routinely—is failing to thoroughly prepare. When you haven’t done the necessary analysis and research, you are highly likely to leave value on the table and even to be taken advantage of by your counterpart. A negotiation preparation checklist can help you avoid … Read More
Stakes of Engagement, The
Nicholas Sabin
Two-party, multi-issue, scoreable negotiation regarding a prenuptial agreement, calling for a balance of substantive and relationship concerns
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Using E-Mediation and Online Mediation Techniques for Conflict Resolution
Suppose you want to hire a mediator to help you resolve a conflict that you’re having with an individual or a company, but for various reasons, meeting face-to-face would be difficult. That’s where online mediation comes in.
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St. Francis Hospital and the Managed Medical Model
Patricia Moore and Lawrence Susskind
Five-party, four-issue negotiation among representatives for a financially struggling hospital’s administrators, doctors, and nurses over budget priorities and expanded application of the managed medical model
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Negotiation Skills: How to Become a Negotiation Master
Negotiation jujitsu means breaking the vicious cycle of escalation by refusing to react. Resistance should be channeled into activities such as “exploring interests, inventing options for mutual gain, and searching for independent standards.”
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Springfield OutFest
Kate Harvey and David Kovick, under the supervision of Lawrence Susskind and Jennifer Brown
This is a six-person, non-scorable negotiation simulation focused on mediating values-based legal disputes, specifically disputes involving conflicting views and values regarding homosexuality and religious faith.
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