Download the FREE special report from the Program on Negotiation at Harvard Law School, Mediation Secrets for Better Business Negotiations: Top Techniques from Mediation Training Experts, and you will discover mediation techniques for selecting the right mediator, understand the mediation process and learn how to engage the mediator to ensure a good outcome.

negotiation and mediation

What is Negotiation and Mediation?

Negotiation and mediation are complementary tools in the dealmaking process. But you need to use them strategically for the best outcomes.

Veteran mediators believe that establishing rapport is more important to effective mediation than employing specific mediation techniques and tactics. Negotiation and mediation are similar in this respect.

To gain parties’ trust and confidence, rapport must be genuine. You can’t fake it. Before people are willing to settle, they must feel that their interests are truly understood. Only then can you achieve a true win-win outcome in both negotiation and mediation.

The importance of relationship building, especially in contentious situations, cannot be overstated. Some measure of trust is required before people will open up and reveal their true interests.

We tend to think negotiation and mediation processes are all alike, but in fact, negotiators and mediators follow different approaches depending on the type of situation they are dealing with. There are many different kinds of negotiation and mediation you can employ to reach successful agreements.

Many negotiation and mediation professionals draw from other disciplines for a range of purposes. Insights from social psychology, for instance, can help us understand, explain, or predict certain interpersonal and inter-group dynamics. Ideas from economics and game theory can shed light on various value-creation principles. The performing arts, including improvisational theater, can help us develop real-time listening and adapting skills.

Just as in negotiation, it’s not enough just to get the right people to the table in mediation. How communication is balanced carries important symbolic messages about respect. More powerful parties need to be especially careful not to inadvertently dominate conversations and put others in a position where they feel they must save face.

Discover how you can select the right mediator, understand the mediation process, and engage a mediator to ensure a good outcome. Get this free special report, Mediation Secrets for Better Business Negotiations: Top Techniques from Mediation Training Experts, from the Program on Negotiation at Harvard Law School right now.

 

The following items are tagged negotiation and mediation:

NEW! Harvard Mediation Intensive

Posted by & filed under Harvard Mediation Intensive.

Led by mediation experts Audrey Lee and Alain Lempereur, the Harvard Mediation Intensive delves into mediation principles and processes through interactive presentations and hands-on exercises. From employment and business disagreements to public and international conflicts, you will discover effective ways to enable parties to settle their differences across a variety of contexts. … Read NEW! Harvard Mediation Intensive

Strategies to Resolve Conflict: Learning from Star Wars

Posted by & filed under Conflict Resolution.

When we think of conflict-management experts, we tend to think of mediators, lawyers, professors, and hostage negotiators. But what about Jedis, Wookiees, droids, and Sith? After all, “conflict is everywhere in Star Wars,” as Noam Ebner and Jen Reynolds write in the introduction to Star Wars and Conflict Resolution: There Are Alternatives to Fighting. From … Read More

Planning Your Syllabus for Next Semester? Check Out the Brief Course Outlines from the TNRC

Posted by & filed under Teaching Negotiation.

Planning a new course for next semester or looking to reinvent a current one? Check out our brief course outlines to get started planning your syllabus. The Teaching Negotiation Resource Center (TNRC) now offers brief outlines for eleven different course types which include recommended simulations and books and highlight key teaching points. While all teaching materials … Read More

VIDEO: William Ury on “Getting to Yes with Yourself”

Posted by & filed under Negotiation Skills, Videos.

At the Program on Negotiation at Harvard Law School, William Ury, a founding member of the Program on Negotiation and co-author of the seminal book Getting to Yes, spoke about his latest book, Getting to Yes with Yourself (and Other Worthy Opponents). Over 250 community members, students, and faculty members filled Austin Hall to hear Ury … Read More

Negotiation Research You Can Use: Moving from In-Person to Online Mediation

Posted by & filed under Mediation.

Laptops, smartphones, databases, and project-management software have become common tools of the negotiation trade. Meanwhile, even as online dispute resolution has risen in popularity, online mediation remains elusive, with mediation being a largely technology-free zone, with smartphones often turned off and tucked away. “The field of mediation has proved surprisingly resistant to technological influence, an island … Read More

The Value of Using Scorable Simulations in Negotiation Training

Posted by & filed under Teaching Negotiation.

At a Teaching Negotiation Resource Center (TNRC) faculty pedagogy seminar, members of the PON faculty and negotiation community gathered to hear Gordon Kaufman (MIT Morris A. Adelman Professor of Management, Emeritus) speak about how he uses quantifiable data to plot student-learning trajectories. The conversation focused on the ongoing debate within the negotiation pedagogy community regarding the way … Read More

Plan Your Curriculum for Next Semester

Posted by & filed under Teaching Negotiation.

How do we utilize lessons learned from teaching online when returning to the classroom and planning a curriculum? After more than a year of remote learning, students and teachers alike are eager to return to classrooms in the fall. During the pandemic, however, many instructors made significant investments in online teaching resources, lesson plans, and … Read Plan Your Curriculum for Next Semester

Methods of Dispute Resolution: Building Trust in Online Mediation

Posted by & filed under Dispute Resolution.

Before the Covid-19 pandemic, mediators and other negotiation practitioners often insisted on meeting in person, convinced that online methods of dispute resolution lack “the human touch”—the warmth, energy, body language, and other subtle factors that build essential ingredients in conflict resolution, including trust, empathy, and rapport. But when lockdowns and social-distancing restrictions took hold in the … Read More

2019 Negotiation Pedagogy Conference

Posted by & filed under Pedagogy at PON, Teaching Negotiation.

Join us in Cambridge on Friday, November 15th, 2019 for a conference on excellence and innovation in teaching negotiation. The Teaching Negotiation Resource Center (TNRC) at the inter-university Program on Negotiation at Harvard Law School is pleased to announce that the 2019 Negotiation Pedagogy Conference will take place on Friday, November 15th, 2019 at Harvard Law … Read 2019 Negotiation Pedagogy Conference

What an Operatic Role-Play Simulation Can Teach You About Negotiation

Posted by & filed under Teaching Negotiation.

A distinguished older soprano, Sally has not had a lead role in two years. However, when another soprano falls ill, the Lyric Opera is eager to hire Sally…but at what price? Sally Soprano is one of the best-known role-play simulations from the Program on Negotiation’s Teaching Negotiation Resource Center (TNRC). And it’s a classic for good … Read More

Dealmaking: Dealing with the Other Side’s Constituents

Posted by & filed under Dealmaking.

During a meeting with a potential customer, a new salesperson leaves the room several times to make phone calls. Each time when she returns, she tells the customer she can’t accept the terms they just negotiated. Exasperated by her apparent lack of authority, the customer ends the meeting abruptly. … Read More

New Findings in the Field of Negotiation: Session Two

Posted by & filed under Daily, Events.

The Program on Negotiation at Harvard Law School is pleased to present: New Findings in the Field of Negotiation: Research from the PON Graduate Research Fellows with

Arvid Bell PhD Candidate in political science at Goethe University Frankfurt and

Dana Wolf PhD candidate in public international law at American University Washington College of Law and

Todd Schenk PhD candidate in environmental policy and planning at Massachusetts Institute of Technology   Tuesday, … Read More

New Findings in the Field of Negotiation: Session One

Posted by & filed under Daily, Events.

The Program on Negotiation at Harvard Law School is pleased to present: New Findings in the Field of Negotiation: Research from the PON Graduate Research Fellows with

Vera Mironova PhD candidate in political science at the University of Maryland and

Abbie Wazlawek PhD candidate in management at Columbia Business School and

Boshko Stankovski PhD candidate in politics and international studies at University of Cambridge   Tuesday, April 21 12:00 – 1:30 … Read More

Reflections of a Mediator: Preventive Diplomacy in an Age of Conflict

Posted by & filed under Daily, Events.

The Program on Negotiation at Harvard Law School is pleased to present: Reflections of a Mediator: Preventive Diplomacy in an Age of Conflict with

Dr. Johnston Barkat Assistant Secretary-General United Nations Ombudsman and Mediation Services  

Tuesday, April 7, 2015 12:15 – 1:30PM Pound Hall 100 Harvard Law School campus Free and open to the public.  A non-pizza lunch will be provided.   About the Speaker: Dr. Johnston Barkat is the Assistant Secretary-General heading … Read More

Boston’s St. Patrick’s Day Parade Offers an Opportunity for Dialogue

Posted by & filed under Conflict Resolution.

Writing for WBUR’s Cognoscenti with Shane Hunt, a student in the Harvard Law Negotiation Mediation Clinical Program, Program on Negotiation faculty member Robert Bordone describes the debate around the petition of LGBTQ groups to be included in Boston’s annual St. Patrick’s Day Parade as a unique chance for dialogue among groups to address their concerns … Read More

Umbrella Agreements, Consensus Building in the Arctic, and Negotiation in Social Enterprises: New Research from PON Fellows and Scholars

Posted by & filed under Awards, Grants, and Fellowships, Daily, Events, PON Graduate Research Fellowships.

Every year the Program on Negotiation sponsors fellows and visiting scholars while they research and write about topics important to the fields of negotiation and mediation. This lunch provides an opportunity for this year’s two Graduate Research Fellows, Alexandros Sarris and Sarah Woodside, and Visiting Scholar Stefanos Mouzas to share their findings with the negotiation … Read More

Critical Decisions in Negotiation: A Faculty Book Talk with Professor Robert Bordone

Posted by & filed under Daily, Events.

The Program on Negotiation invites the public to the upcoming Harvard Law School Library  event in honor of Professor Robert Bordone’s recently published DVD set. Critical Decisions in Negotiation with Professor Robert Bordone a faculty book talk followed by a panel discussion with Professor Michael Wheeler and Lecturer at Law Chad Carr

Tuesday, February 18, 2013 12:00 p.m.

Location:  Lewis … Read More

PON Faculty Member Robert Bordone Writes “What Obama Should Say About Syria” for NPR’s Cognoscenti

Posted by & filed under International Negotiation.

Program on Negotiation faculty member and Director of the Harvard Negotiation and Mediation Clinical Program at Harvard Law School, Robert Bordone, and HNMCP clinical instructor Alonzo Emery recently published an article for NPR’s Cognoscenti titled “What Obama Should Say About Syria,” in which he discusses the opportunity the crisis in Syria presents for US President … Read More

Israeli Settlement Withdrawal: Negotiation lessons from the past, and planning for the future

Posted by & filed under Events, International Negotiation, Middle East Negotiation Initiatives.

This presentation by Karen Lee Bar-Sinai and Prof. Robert Mnookin is the fourth seminar exploring the role of urban planning in negotiation, co-sponsored by the Middle East Negotiation Initiative (MENI) at the Program on Negotiation and the Harvard Graduate School of Design. … Read More

PON Film Series Event: My Neighbourhood Screening with Julia Bacha, Just Vision

Posted by & filed under International Negotiation, Middle East Negotiation Initiatives, PON Film Series.

The Program on Negotiation at Harvard Law School and the Middle East Initiative at the Harvard Kennedy School are pleased to present a screening of “My Neighborhood,” a new Just Vision documentary. A panel discussion will be held after the screening with Julia Bacha, director/producer of My Neighbourhood. … Read More

Planting the Seeds of Peace

Posted by & filed under Middle East Negotiation Initiatives, Negotiation Skills.

Tucked away in an idyllic corner of Maine is a summer camp that features many traditional American activities: singing around bonfires, flag raising ceremonies, Color Wars, and chilly dips in the lake. Less ordinary, however, are the daily dialogue sessions, where Israeli and Palestinian campers heatedly discuss their identities, homelands, politics, and pain. Meet Seeds of … Read Planting the Seeds of Peace

Opening Multiple Doors for Dispute Resolution

Posted by & filed under Dispute Resolution.

The Harvard Law School website featured a story about the Ministry of Justice in Chile hosting Harvard Law School Mediation and Clinical Program students Leah Kang (HLS ’12), Teresa Napoli (HLS ’13), and Apoorva Patel (HLS ’13), as well as HNMCP Clinical Instructor and Lecturer on Law Jeremy McClane (HLS ’02) so that the students … Read Opening Multiple Doors for Dispute Resolution

Negotiation tactics in the spotlight as debt ceiling debate continues

Posted by & filed under Daily, Negotiation Skills.

The lack of progress on the debt ceiling negotiations has raised serious concerns that an agreement will not be reached before the August 2nd deadline.  How have the negotiations gotten so derailed? In a recent interview on Radio Boston, Professor Robert Bordone, director of the Harvard Negotiation and Mediation Clinical Program, suggested that one of the … Read More

Why Classic Cases?

Posted by & filed under Daily, Negotiation Skills, Pedagogy at PON.

Why are some negotiation exercises still used in a great many university classes even twenty years after they were written? In an effort to understand more about the enduring quality of some classic teaching materials, we asked faculty affiliated with PON to explain why they think some role play simulations remain bestsellers in the Clearinghouse … Read Why Classic Cases?

How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Camera: Video in Negotiation Pedagogy

Posted by & filed under Daily, Events, Negotiation Skills, Pedagogy at PON.

How can video be used to enhance the teaching of negotiation? This question was addressed by Michael Moffitt from the University of Oregon Law School in his presentation called “How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Camera: Video in Negotiation Pedagogy” at the NP @ PON faculty dinner seminar on April 21, 2011. … Read More

Nuclear Negotiations with Russia

Posted by & filed under Awards, Grants, and Fellowships, Daily, Events, Student Events.

The PON Brown Bag Lunch Series Presents:

Nuclear Negotiations with Russia

with Assistant Secretary of State & Chief Negotiator of the New START Treaty Rose Gottemoeller

Facilitated by: HLS Professor Robert Bordone, Director, Harvard Negotiation and Mediation Clinical Program   Date: February 25, 2011 Time: 12:00PM to 1:30PM Where: Hauser Hall, Room 105, Harvard Law School Campus Join the Program on Negotiation … Read Nuclear Negotiations with Russia

Harvard Negotiation and Mediation Clinical Program receives Conflict Prevention and Resolution Institute’s 2010 Award

Posted by & filed under Awards, Grants, and Fellowships, Conflict Resolution, Daily, Harvard Negotiation and Mediation Clinical Program, News.

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, … Read More

Dealing With Constituents

Posted by & filed under Business Negotiations, Daily.

Adapted from “Dealing with Backstage Negotiators,” first published in the Negotiation newsletter. Negotiated agreements sometimes go off the rails in the final hour because one side caves in to a constituent’s wishes despite having the authority to make a commitment. Because people tend to approach negotiations with an “us versus them” mentality, they may succumb to … Read Dealing With Constituents

Robert Bordone and HNMCP featured in the HLS Bulletin

Posted by & filed under Negotiation Skills, News.

“Uncommon Loss: Common Bond,” published in the Harvard Law School Bulletin discusses Project Common Bond, which was started by two former Harvard Negotiation and Mediation Clinical Program students working with Professor Robert Bordone and clinic associate, Toby Berkman. “For teens… from around the globe with family members killed or seriously injured in acts of violence, … Read More

Negotiation Advice for the 112th Congress

Posted by & filed under Conflict Resolution, Daily, News.

Professor Robert Bordone, director of the Harvard Negotiation and Mediation Clinical Program and Tobias Berkman, Associate of HNMCP, published an article in the Harvard Negotiation Law Review titled Negotiation Advice for the 112th Congress. To read the full article, click here. “There will be many post-mortems in the wake of the historic changes brought about … Read Negotiation Advice for the 112th Congress

Making and Using Films to Teach Negotiation

Posted by & filed under Daily, Negotiation Skills, Pedagogy at PON.

Access to multimedia content is rapidly increasing throughout the world, with videos and short clips permeating our daily life – whether in gas stations, on ATMs, cell phones, or mobile entertainment devices.   We are consuming, producing, and interacting with videos more now than ever before: YouTube is the third-most visited website on the Internet, the … Read Making and Using Films to Teach Negotiation

Winners of Harvard Law School’s 57th annual Williston Competition Announced

Posted by & filed under Daily, News.

Winners of Harvard Law School’s 57th annual Williston Competition, Harvard’s annual contract negotiation and drafting competition for first-year law students, were announced on Monday, April 5. This year’s winners were: Best Contract Overall: Russell Herman, David Roth, Kristi Jobson and Aaron Dalnoot Best Representation of Save Our Square: Fentress Jamal Fulton and Betny Townsend Best Representation of McMillin’s: Adam … Read More

The Brazilian Experience on Dispute Systems Design (DSD): the TAM and Air France cases

Posted by & filed under Daily, International Negotiation.

“The Brazilian Experience on Dispute Systems Design (DSD): the TAM and Air France cases”

with Diego Faleck (LL.M. ’06), Chief of Staff of the Secretariat of Economic Law of the Ministry of Justice in Brazil Date: April 6, 2010

Time: 12:15PM to 1:15PM Where: Pound Hall, Room 332, Harvard Law School Campus

Click here for a campus map. Speaker Bio Diego Faleck … Read More

Alternative Dispute Resolution in the Federal Government: What’s up at the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission and elsewhere?

Posted by & filed under Daily, Dispute Resolution, Events.

The PON Dispute Resolution Forum and the Harvard Negotiation and Mediation Clinical Program Present: Alternative Dispute Resolution in the Federal Government: What’s up at the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission and elsewhere? with Deborah Osborne, Group Manager, Dispute Resolution Service, Federal Energy Regulatory Commission

Thursday, March 4, 2010 8:00AM Breakfast 8:30AM Talk Pound Hall, Room 335, Harvard Law School Campus How are ADR principles applied … Read More

Insights from a Communication and Negotiation Conference: The Benefits of Not Knowing

Posted by & filed under Daily, Negotiation Skills, Pedagogy at PON.

An Experiment: Exploring Interdisciplinary Linkages between Negotiation and Communication Studies What would negotiation pedagogy look like if we focused more on the core meanings and practices of communication? How can understanding the underpinnings of communication – the components of conversation and the exchange of meaning – help us understand and improve our negotiations? The weekend of … Read More

Boston Globe Highlights Kenneth Feinberg’s Visit to Prof. Robert Bordone’s Dispute System Design Course

Posted by & filed under Business Negotiations, Daily, Dispute Resolution, Mediation.

On Tuesday, December 8, 2009, the Front Page of the Boston Globe featured an article on Kenneth Feinberg, President Obama’s “Pay Czar.” Feinberg was a guest lecturer at Professor Robert Bordone’s Dispute Systems Design Course. To read the Boston Globe article online, click here. For more information about the Dispute Systems Design Course and Prof. Bordone’s clinical … Read More

Boston Globe highlights mediation trainings for Iraqis

Posted by & filed under Daily, International Negotiation, News.

“The Program on Negotiation at Harvard Law School is a renowned source of expertise in the field,” reported the Boston Globe today in its story, “Iraq latest crucible for Harvard mediation.” Reporting on the work done by conflict resolution professionals at Conflict Management Group in Cambridge, Massachusetts, the report notes that “The blood not spilled … Read More

Robert Bordone Appointed Clinical Professor of Law at Harvard Law School

Posted by & filed under Daily, Events.

Robert Bordone, founding Director of the HLS Negotiation and Mediation Clinical Program and the Thaddeus R. Beal Assistant Clinical Professor of Law, was promoted Thursday to full Clinical Professor of Law by unanimous vote of the HLS faculty, Acting Dean Howell Jackson has announced. Bordone will be teaching two workshops at the Harvard Negotiation Institute this … Read More

Winners of Harvard Law School’s 56th Annual Williston Competition

Posted by & filed under Awards, Grants, and Fellowships, Daily, Harvard Negotiators.

The winners of Harvard Law School’s 56th annual Williston competition were announced on Tuesday, April 28. The competition, sponsored by the Board of Student Advisers and organized and run by Harvard Negotiators, offers first-year students the opportunity to practice negotiation and contract drafting. Teams of two students participate in the competition which focuses primarily on … Read More