Negotiation Skills

Adapted from “Taking an Outside View,” first published in the Negotiation newsletter.

Cognitive biases such as overconfidence affect even smart and highly educated negotiators. Unfortunately, awareness of our biases is not enough to prevent their having a negative impact on our next negotiation.

Why is it so hard to keep our biases in check? Researchers Dan Lovallo … Read Consult Your “Inner Outsider”

Jeswald W. Salacuse (Henry J. Baker Professor of Law; former Dean, Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, Tufts University; author of The Global Negotiator and Seven Secrets for Negotiating with Government

Most of us see negotiation as a one-on-one encounter, but bringing in outside help can make your negotiations more effective. In this article, Jeswald Salacuse … Learn More About This Program

Adapted from “Learning to Learn,” first published in the Negotiation newsletter.

Learning about a concept or technique is one thing. Actually putting new knowledge to work is quite another. The gap between “knowing” and “doing” is a challenge for managers who want to hone their effectiveness, whether through formal training or private reflection on their experience.

Recent … Read Learn More From Your Deals

The Clearinghouse now offers three, multi-party role play simulations focused on helping cities manage climate change risks. These were prepared by the Science Impact Collaborative at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology under the direction of Professor Larry Susskind. The purpose of these exercises is to engage the public in a mixture of political and technical … Learn More About This Program

Adapted from “Negotiators: Guard Against Ethical Lapses,” first published in the Negotiation newsletter.

During the past couple of years, a number of scandalous stories involving unethical behavior made headlines: Countrywide’s and AIG’s risky business practices, trader Bernard Madoff’s Ponzi scheme, and former Illinois governor Rod Blagojevich’s alleged attempt to sell a U.S. Senate seat. As instances … Read Honor Your Fellow Negotiator

Adapted from “Do the Numbers Get in Your Way?” by Brian J. Hall (professor, Harvard Business School) and P. Trent Staats (vice president, Verenium Corp.), first published in the Negotiation newsletter.

Consider the customer support center that sought to increase the number of calls it could process per hour without increasing its capacity. When the call … Read Don’t Just Do the Math

Adapted from “When You Assume Too Much,” first published in the Negotiation newsletter.

Decision makers often overlook others’ viewpoints. When we do take others’ thinking into account, we tend to assume that they know as much as we do. For this reason, marketing experts are generally worse than nonexpert consumers at predicting the beliefs, values, and … Read The Curse of Knowledge

Adapted from “Negotiate Better Relationships with Your Children,” first published in the Negotiation newsletter.

Getting a good night’s sleep and eating a healthy dinner might seem like obvious goals for parents to have for their young children, but kids won’t always agree. When faced with back talk, tantrums, and tears, most parents vacillate between laying down … Read Negotiate with Your Kids?

Adapted from “The View from the Other Side of the Table,” by Adam D. Galinsky (Northwestern University), William W. Maddux (professor, INSEAD), and Gillian Ku (professor, London Business School)first published in the Negotiation newsletter.

Believe it or not, you can become a better negotiator simply by learning how to effectively mirror your opponent. Psychologist Tanya Chartrand … Read Mirror, Mirror

Adapted from “When More Is Less,” first published in the Negotiation newsletter.

It’s an article of faith in negotiation that expanding the pie of value enhances parties’ welfare. When there’s only one issue on the bargaining table, the size of the pie is fixed. If one party gets more, the other party must get less. But … Read Are Your Talks too Complex?