Imagine that you’re buying a used car from its original owner. Of course, you want to get the best deal you can for your money, while your counterpart wants to maximize the value of his asset. After haggling with one another, each side finally arrives at a price point acceptable to both parties. But how … 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.
the art of negotiation
What is the Art of Negotiation?
The art of negotiation helps us adapt to the sometimes chaotic nature of negotiations by supplementing our careful plans with creativity and flexibility.
Harvard Business School Professor Michael Wheeler literally wrote the book on the art of negotiation. Effective conflict management and adept improvisational negotiation skills are an asset to any business negotiator in the global economy and The Art of Negotiation: How to Improvise Agreement in a Chaotic World distills the negotiation research into techniques and skills businesses can implement immediately.
Even when armed with sound negotiation advice, we may still find ourselves struggling to cope with the surprises that pop up at the bargaining table. But the fact is, adaptability to ever-changing circumstances is essential for the “dynamic” negotiations one encounters in everyday life.
Because negotiation is an essential skill for your life and your career, the art of negotiation approach helps us view negotiation not only from the perspective of something that can be learned but also as something that can be honed through experience. Just as the greatest jazz musicians have mastered their ability to riff off of one another, so too must a negotiator master her ability to lead laterally while at the bargaining table.
This is a key lesson for anyone engaged in negotiation. Jazz musicians need to be great listeners. Yet there’s a widely held assumption in the business world that negotiation is mostly about talking and that the best negotiators are often the best conversationalists. That view overlooks perhaps the most crucial aspect of the negotiation process: listening.
You can learn more about the art of negotiation in this free special report, Business Negotiation Strategies: How to Negotiate Better Business Deals, from Harvard Law School.
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 on how to improve your dealmaking skills to our website.
The following items are tagged the art of negotiation:
Harvard Negotiation Master Class: Advanced Strategies for Experienced Negotiators – November 13-15, 2023
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 Harvard Kennedy School—all of whom are committed to delivering a transformational learning experience.
… Read More
Best Negotiation Books: A Negotiation Reading List
Whether you are facing negotiations with Congress, colleagues, customers, or family members, the following negotiation books, published in recent years by experts from the Program on Negotiation, offer new perspectives on common negotiating dilemmas.
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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
The Art of Negotiation: Anger Management at the Bargaining Table
Displays of anger can pay off for negotiators, at least when it comes to claiming value in negotiation, research shows. Viewing angry negotiators as formidable opponents, we respond to their demands by making concessions, professor Gerben A. van Kleef of the University of Amsterdam and his colleagues found in research from 2004.
… Read More
Change Management: Negotiating Organizational Change in the 21st Century
Change is vital to organizational growth, health, and survival. It is also incredibly difficult to execute well—often resulting in diminished morale and feelings of anxiety and mistrust. In fact, researchers estimate that less than half of major corporate change projects at Fortune 1000 firms have been successful.
… Read More
Negotiation Skills from the World of Improv for Conflict Management
A Q&A with Michael Wheeler, author of The Art of Negotiation: How to Improvise Agreement in a Chaotic World.
… 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
Lessons for Business Negotiators: Negotiation Techniques from International Diplomacy
Executives rarely view themselves as diplomats engaged in international diplomacy but business negotiators often find the two fields share negotiation skills and negotiation techniques. Rightly or wrongly, diplomacy evokes images of frivolity – days spent wandering exotic capitals, nights spent cruising embassy cocktail parties.
… Read More
Prepare for the Semester: Negotiation Pedagogy Articles from the Negotiation Journal
Whether you are going to be teaching negotiation next semester for the first time, or are a seasoned negotiation instructor, insightful research in negotiation pedagogy can help you approach your course in more effective and innovative ways. The Negotiation Journal, from the Program on Negotiation (PON), has a collection of articles on negotiation pedagogy that … Read More
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:
… Read Must-Read Negotiation Books for 2019
Kissinger the Negotiator: New Book on Dealmaking and Diplomacy
Lessons from Dealmaking at the Highest Level
In this groundbreaking, definitive guide to the art of negotiation, PON faculty James Sebenius (Harvard Business School) and Robert Mnookin (Harvard Law School), along with R. Nicholas Burns of the Harvard Kennedy School, offer a comprehensive examination of one of the most successful dealmakers of all time: Henry Kissinger.
Politicians, … Read More
Deal Design Guidelines: Set Yourself Up for a Better Deal
Without realizing it, we leave many of our most important decisions in negotiation up to chance. When talking to a potential negotiating partner, we may assume that we have met the best person possible to do this particular deal. We make tacit assumptions about whether we’ll negotiate in person, what we’ll discuss, how long the … Read More
Managing Cultural Differences: Negotiation Strategy and Diplomacy
Diplomats deal with difficult people when engaging in international negotiations in ways integrative negotiators may find useful for developing their negotiation skills.
… Read More
Adaptability at the Bargaining Table: How Improvisation and Jazz Music Inform Negotiation Strategy
Aggressive tactics and hard-bargaining strategies may, at face value, provide a roadmap to success at the bargaining table but, as the Washington Post’s Kelly Johnson discovered in her interview with Program on Negotiation faculty member Michael Wheeler, adaptability to ever-changing circumstances is essential for the “dynamic” negotiations one encounters in everyday life.
… Read More
Negotiation Tactics: How Improvisation Can Improve Your Negotiation
When managing cultural differences in international negotiations, improvisation is a key negotiation skills, one that mimics the quick-thinking and improvisational quality of the art of jazz music.
… Read More
Dispute Resolution: Warren Christopher – A Negotiator That Flew Under the Radar
If negotiation is often stereotyped as a war of egos, then the death of presidential adviser
Warren Christopher in March offers an opportunity to reflect on the role modesty and reserve can play in even the most contentious talks.
… Read More
Complexity Personified: International Standards Negotiations from a Microsoft Manager’s Perspective
Complexity Personified: International Standards Negotiations from a Microsoft Manager’s Perspective
On April 3, 2013, the Program on Negotiation hosted Jason Matusow, General Manager of International Standards at Microsoft, for a lunch seminar. His talk, titled “Complexity Personified: International Standards Negotiations from a Microsoft Manager’s Perspective,” covered the myriad of challenges that can arise when managing both … Read More
Robert Mnookin Joins Panel to Discuss the Fiscal Cliff Negotiations on NPR’s Forum
Program on Negotiation at Harvard Law School Chair Robert Mnookin was recently invited to a panel discussion on San Francisco radio station KQED’s ‘Forum’ to discuss the fiscal cliff negotiations.
… Read More
The Art of Negotiation
The Art of Negotiation
Moved to Pound Hall 101 on the HLS Campus
October 18, 2011
7:30 pm
Free and open to the public
Please join world-renowned artist Romero Britto as he unveils a series of paintings produced in collaboration with Professor Daniel Shapiro and Harvard College students. Each painting illustrates a key aspect to address the emotional dimension of … Read The Art of Negotiation