Here are some negotiating skills and negotiation tactics from 3-D negotiation by James Sebenius and David Lax. … Read 3-D Negotiation Strategy
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deal design
What is Deal Design?
When negotiators engage in thoughtful deal design, they position themselves to capitalize on the upsides of group negotiations and minimize the potential costs.
Without realizing it, we leave many of our most important decisions in negotiation up to chance. We make tacit assumptions about whether we’ll negotiate in person, what we’ll discuss, how long the negotiation will last, and so on.
This type of automatic decision making may lead to good deals, but it can prevent us from reaching great ones. By taking time to ask ourselves deliberate questions about deal design before and during our negotiation, we can set ourselves up for a more productive and rewarding agreement.
Consider the following real-world dispute where poor deal design created costly barriers. Environmentalists and farmers opposed a power company’s plans to build a dam in the Midwest. On the surface, the parties appeared to have deep, irreconcilable positions. Yet a superior deal could be designed if the parties looked past their bargaining positions to their underlying interests.
As it turned out, the farmers were worried about reduced water flow below the dam, the environmentalists were focused on the downstream habitat of the endangered whooping crane, and the power company needed new capacity and a greener image. After a costly legal stalemate, the three groups designed a better deal that included a smaller dam built on a fast track, water-flow guarantees, downstream habitat protection, and a trust fund to enhance whooping crane habitats elsewhere.
Creative deal design can help you build a foundation of trust and cooperation—and avoid conflict and chaos—in negotiations involving multiple parties and contentious issues.
To learn more about deal design, and discover how to boost your power at the bargaining table, download your FREE copy of Dealmaking: Secrets of Successful Dealmaking in Business Negotiations, from the Program on Negotiation at Harvard Law School, today.
The following items are tagged deal design:
Practical Lessons from Great Negotiators
Bonus day for December Negotiation and Leadership program. Gain the strategies, tools, and frameworks you need to manage difficult conversations effectively in this program led by negotiation experts Sheila Heen and Douglas Stone. … Read Practical Lessons from Great Negotiators
How to Negotiate a Business Deal
In late 2016 and early 2017, news stories abounded of companies that were having second thoughts about planned mega-mergers. Abbott Laboratories began looking for ways to exit its acquisition of Alere, citing investigations of the medical test maker, for example. And Verizon started rethinking its acquisition of Yahoo! following a data breach at the tech … Read How to Negotiate a Business Deal
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. … 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. … Read More
Dispute Resolution: Building Momentum through Small Wins
Sometimes disputes are left to fester for years, even decades, until parties decide there is something to be gained from reaching agreement. In 2015, the nations of Bangladesh and India seized on an opportunity to push the “restart” button on a contentious border disagreement through dispute resolution. Such international conflict resolution examples can illustrate how … Read More
The Deal-Making Process: Playing the Long Game
Do you have regrets about the deals that got away? If so, you might be newly motivated by the deal-making process of famed Hollywood movie and television producer Albert S. Ruddy. For 50 years he pursued two pet film projects—each of which finally led to a negotiated agreement and is coming to fruition. … Read The Deal-Making Process: Playing the Long Game
Are You Ready to Negotiate?
“Winging it” is a fine approach to life’s minor decisions, but when you negotiate, it can be disastrous. Follow these three preparation steps and improve your agreements. … Read Are You Ready to Negotiate?
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. … Read More
Closing the Deal in Negotiations: A Gun-Safety Law Clears Congress
Against long odds, the U.S. Senate passed a bipartisan gun-safety bill that President Joe Biden signed into law on June 25, 2022. In the aftermath of mass shootings in Buffalo, New York; and Uvalde, Texas, 15 Republican senators were willing to make some concessions on their party’s steadfast resistance to gun-control measures. The behind-the-scenes maneuvering … Read More
Tough Negotiator: Insights on Vladimir Putin from Former U.S. Secretaries of State
How should you prepare to negotiate effectively with an exceptionally tough negotiator? That’s the question the United States and its allies have faced since Russian president Vladimir Putin sent his troops to wage war on Ukraine on February 24. The experiences and insights of five former U.S. secretaries of state who negotiated directly with Putin … Read More
Dear Negotiation Coach: Assessing Good Negotiation Skills
One way to improve your negotiation outcomes is to review your past negotiations. Even if you already have good negotiation skills, there are always areas where you might improve. That could be said of even the best negotiators. But how can you objectively assess your own performance? Hal Movius, coauthor (with Lawrence E. Susskind) of … 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
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
Deal Design: Strategies for Complex Dealmaking
As experienced negotiators well know, the more parties involved in a negotiation, the more difficult it often is to come to agreement, due in part to the logistical challenge of making sure each voice is heard. Yet multiparty negotiation offers considerable benefits. Most notably more opportunities for making tradeoffs and creating value in negotiation than … Read Deal Design: Strategies for Complex Dealmaking
An Exclusivity Period: A Useful Tool for Eliminating the Competition
Imagine you’re competing with multiple parties to secure a coveted resource, such as your dream house, a cool invention, or a talented new hire. How might you stand out from the pack and win the prize? While negotiating its $13.4 billion acquisition of upscale grocer Whole Foods in 2017, online retailer Amazon did so in … 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
Great Negotiators vs. Great Negotiations: The Program on Negotiation’s Great Negotiator Teaching Series
Teaching negotiation using case studies focused on the efforts of great negotiators can help achieve several pedagogical goals at the same time. Developed by Professor James Sebenius of Harvard Business School, the Program on Negotiation’s Great Negotiator case study series, available from the PON Clearinghouse, highlights the lessons learned by each recipient of PON’s Great … Read More
What’s Keeping You from Closing the Deal?
When talks stall, it’s tempting to jump to conclusions: “It’s purely a price gap.” “They’re being unreasonable.” “We’re not communicating well.” “We’re in a weak position.” … Read What’s Keeping You from Closing the Deal?
Learning from the Debates About the Debates
There is “nothing worse than a debate about debates,” John Podesta, the chairman of Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign, recently said in the midst of his candidate’s heated negotiations with Democratic rival Bernie Sanders about the terms of their debates. Many who participated in these negotiations would likely agree. But the debates about debates—both on the … Read Learning from the Debates About the Debates
Conflict Management Techniques: Should You Take Your Dispute Public?
To turn up the heat on opponents, negotiators sometimes advertise their grievances. Here’s negotiation skills advice on when it’s a good idea to be vocal—and when to keep talks private. The decision seemed nonsensical. Early on the morning of March 7, 2010, with the Academy Awards telecast just hours away, the Walt Disney Company pulled the signal on … Read More
Hong Kong Lawyer Benny Tai Inspired by Harvard Negotiation Project Authors
The Harvard Negotiation Project was recently mentioned in the Wall Street Journal by David Feith in his interview with Benny Tai, “China’s New Freedom Fighters.” Benny Tai, a 49 year old lawyer who has been branded an “enemy of the state,” founded Occupy Central with Love and Peace, a group that promotes civil disobedience in order … Read More
Capitalize on negotiator differences
Adapted from “What Divides You May Unite You,” by James K. Sebenius (professor, Harvard Business School), first published in the Negotiation newsletter, July 2005. Some years ago, an English property development firm had assembled most of the land outside London that it needed to build a large regional hospital. Yet a key parcel remained, and its … Read Capitalize on negotiator differences
Negotiating in three-dimensions
James Sebenius and David Lax, co-authors of 3D Negotiation, share their thoughts on why negotiation is a core skill for all managers in this interview with Martha Lagace, senior editor of Harvard Business School’s Working Knowledge. Offering examples of common mistakes made by negotiators, they explain how negotiators can improve their results by negotiating … Read Negotiating in three-dimensions
Gain greater leverage with sole suppliers
Adapted from “Negotiating with Sole Suppliers,” by David Lax (managing principal, Lax Sebenius LLC), first published in the Negotiation newsletter. Negotiators often wonder how to do business with sole suppliers who know they don’t have any real outside alternative and who take advantage of this. Without the power of a realistic best alternative to a negotiated … Read Gain greater leverage with sole suppliers
Prof. Guhan Subramanian featured in Forbes India
Professor Guhan Subramanian was featured in Forbes India in April 2010. Professor Subramanian discusses his latest book Negotiauctions: New Dealmaking Strategies for a Competitive Marketplace, which was published in February 2010. Click here to read the full article. Professor Subramanian will be teaching Advanced Negotiation: Deal Design and Implementation at the Harvard Negotiation Institute June 14-18. For … Read Prof. Guhan Subramanian featured in Forbes India
Harvard Negotiation Institute Begins!
On the morning of June 8, 2009, hundreds of participants from around the world began their week-long intensive Basic Negotiation Workshop and Mediation Workshop. Participants will engage with instructors Bruce Patton and Frank Sander for five days of interactive study. There are still seats available in our 2-Day Intensive Basic Negotiation course, which begins Thursday, … Read Harvard Negotiation Institute Begins!