Conflict Resolution

Michael D. Watkins and Max H. Bazerman (Jesse Isidor Straus Professor of Business Administration, Harvard Business School)

Leaders who don’t prepare for predictable surprises make their companies vulnerable unnecessarily. In this article, the authors outline a three-step process for recognizing, prioritizing and mobilizing for disasters that can be foreseen.

Read More … Read Three Steps for Crisis Prevention

Professor Daniel Shapiro, Associate Director of the Harvard Mediation Project, has been selected as one of four 2011 Burke Global Health Fellows by the Harvard Global Health Institute. During his fellowship, Professor Shapiro will develop materials for a new Harvard course designed to train leaders on how to mediate conflicts with a strong emotional or … Read Shapiro named 2011 Burke Global Health Fellow

Adapted from “When You Hold All the Cards,” by Guhan Subramanian (professor, Harvard Business School and Harvard Law School), first published in the Negotiation newsletter.

Being the more powerful party in a negotiation doesn’t guarantee a free ride. Specifically, legal rules may constrain your actions. In particular, the courts might read additional terms into the deal … Read Could Your Power Trip Backfire?

Max H. Bazerman (Jesse Isidor Straus Professor of Business Administration, Harvard Business School) and Deepak Malhotra (Associate Professor of Business Administration, Harvard Business School)

Negotiations can hit a brick wall because one party wrongly assumes they understand the other side’s motivations and therefore don’t explore them further. In this article, the authors discuss five principles underlying … Read Investigative Negotiation

Max H. Bazerman (Jesse Isidor Straus Professor of Business Administration, Harvard Business School) and Deepak Malhotra (Associate Professor of Business Administration, Harvard Business School)

You don’t have to let a recalcitrant negotiator derail your progress. In this article, the authors describe strategies and tactics to overcome another party’s counterproductive behavior and keep the deal on track.

Read … Read Dealing with the ‘Irrational’ Negotiator

Adapted from “Learn to Negotiate with an Open Mind,” first published in the Negotiation newsletter.

After wrapping up a difficult negotiation, it’s tempting to forget about it and move on. The regret triggered by counterfactual thinking, or reflections on “what might have been,” can be so painful that many people will do whatever they can to … Read Should You Dwell on Past Negotiation Outcomes?

Adapted from “Negotiating with the Green-eyed Monster,” first published in the Negotiation newsletter.

Envy can cause us to engage in deception at the bargaining table. That’s the cautionary finding of research by Simone Moran of Ben-Gurion University in Israel and Maurice E. Schweitzer of the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania.

Why might negotiators be more … Read Avoid the Green-eyed Monster

Adapted from “Speaking the Same Language,” first published in the Negotiation newsletter.

Negotiators can find themselves talking past each other for hours, even days. Then suddenly something happens–a breakthrough. The parties begin conversing on a different plane, one that reveals solutions to problems that had seemed intractable.

Professor Linda Putnam, a communications scholar at Texas A&M University, … Read Looking for a Breakthrough

The Conflict Prevention and Resolution Institute (CPR) selected the Harvard Negotiation and Mediation Clinical Program (HNMCP) to be the recipient of its 2010 Problem Solving in the Law School Curriculum Award at its annual awards banquet on January 11, 2011 at the New York offices of Fulbright & Jaworski LLP.  The clinic’s director and founder, … Learn More About This Program

Adapted from “The Surprising Benefits of Conflict in Negotiating Teams,” first published in the Negotiation newsletter.

In December 2008, incoming U.S. president Barack Obama created a stir by appointing Senator Hillary Clinton, his bitter opponent for the Democratic nomination, to be his secretary of state. Could Obama expect loyalty from someone he had traded barbs with … Read When Teams Work