Course Dates: Wednesdays, beginning February 26, 2025 and ending on May 21, 2025 from 6 to 8 p.m. ET
(Note: There will be no class the week of April 23, 2025)

Faculty: Toby Berkman and Betsy Fierman

Enrollment: Register Now – Spring 2025!

Learning Objectives

In this highly interactive, semester-length online course, you’ll explore the theory and practice of negotiation and dispute resolution through in-depth discussions, lectures, and simulated negotiations. Designed to improve your understanding of negotiation theory and hone your practical negotiation skills, the curriculum integrates negotiation research from several academic fields with experiential learning exercises—allowing you to apply your learnings in real time.

Participate in Role-Plays

Recognizing that negotiation is best learned by doing, you’ll engage in a series of hands-on negotiation simulations aimed at helping you grasp key concepts and experiment with a range of negotiation techniques.

From simple, two party encounters to introducing complex, multi-party scenarios, these exercises emphasize a wide variety of timely topics in both domestic and international contexts, including the psychological aspects of bargaining, value creation and distribution, coalition dynamics, and intra-team negotiation—with a particular focus on organized preparation and process analysis.

 
Upon successful completion of this course, you’ll be equipped with the theoretical knowledge and actionable, research-based strategies you need to become a more effective and reflective negotiator.

Hear From Past Participants

“This course provided me with tools and techniques that apply to my daily life. I learned how to turn conversations into agreements in which all stakeholders feel satisified.”

— Account Executive, Salesforce

“When I joined the class, I was set in my ways of negotiation. I did not think the class would provide any new insights as I have been an attorney for nearly 25 years. From the first class, I was thoroughly impressed with the content and instructors. I was curious and engaged and eagerly anticipated the weekly classes. In 12 short weeks, I learned more than I had in my previous 25 years as a lawyer. PON can teach an old dog new tricks.”

— Thomas A. Behe, Senior Attorney, U.S. Customs and Border Protection

“This course changed my life and how I deal with conflicts, both professionally and personally. It made me realize how personal negotiations can be, and how turning them into mutual gains can be a matter of both honest self-awareness and genuine empathy towards all parties involved.”

— Luke Hespanhol, Senior Lecturer in Design, The University of Sydney, Australia

Our Faculty

Toby Berkman

Toby Berkman is a facilitator, mediator, teacher, trainer, and author on public dispute resolution and multi-stakeholder collaboration. As a Senior Mediator at the Consensus Building Institute, he uses innovative and inclusive process design and facilitation to help groups collaborate across differences, identify creative solutions to (seemingly) intractable problems, advance equity and social justice, and reimagine relationships of power and shared responsibility. His mediation and dialogue work addresses a wide range of issues including environmental justice, participatory governance, climate change mitigation and adaptation, international development, and human rights, with clients ranging from the World Bank and the United Nations to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and state and municipal governments. He also supports corporate and non-profit clients in building their negotiation and collaboration capacity both internally and with outside stakeholders, and teaches courses on dispute resolution to law students, executives, and professionals from around the world as Affiliated Faculty at the Harvard Program on Negotiation. Toby's writing on conflict and dialogue has appeared in the Harvard Law Review, the LA Times, and the Journal of Dispute Resolution, among other publications.

Elizabeth (Betsy) Fierman

Elizabeth (Betsy) Fierman is a mediator, facilitator, trainer, and researcher with 10 years of experience in the field of conflict management and collaborative problem solving. She has worked with government agencies, NGOs, multilateral organizations, private companies and communities to address socio-environmental conflicts, design and implement multi-stakeholder engagement processes, and improve dialogue and negotiation skills. Based in Chile, Betsy is the director of CBI’s Chile office. She has also worked with a variety of Chilean institutions, such as Casa de la Paz Foundation and the Agency for Sustainability and Climate Change. She has taught courses on alternative dispute resolution at the Universidad de Chile and the Pontifica Universidad Católica de Valparaíso to both undergraduates and executive education students. Betsy holds a Master’s Degree from the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University and a Bachelor’s Degree from Haverford College. She is a certified mediator by the State of Massachusetts, and is a certified facilitator for the United Nations Alliance of Civilizations. A native of Boston, USA, she is bilingual in both English and Spanish.