Negotiation Matters

We all negotiate every day with colleagues, bosses, partners, friends, clients, and many others. This workshop is a dynamic mix of theory, demonstration, skills exercises, and role play practice intended to increase your confidence and effectiveness in any negotiation you undertake.

We explore critical negotiation theory, such as competitive versus collaborative approaches, and identify motivating interests to improve your approach to negotiation and the quality of your outcomes.  We continue with the essentials of thorough preparation for a negotiation, including setting specific targets, identifying sources of influence, and defining the point of walk away with reference to a methodical alternatives analysis.  While building this negotiation framework, we define and practice critical communication and influencing skills.  We also outline a practical framework so that you have a clear map of an effective negotiation process. 

Participants should leave the workshop with a solid foundation for more principled, persuasive, and successful negotiation in a variety of contexts. Specifically, participants will:

• learn to be aware of and manage the tension between creating and claiming value.
• gain a better understanding of their own conflict management and negotiation style so as to elicit strengths and minimize weaknesses.
• improve their effectiveness in critical communication skills and persuasion strategies.
• understand the essential flow of a negotiation and learn how to focus their efforts in each phase.
• use pratical exercises and/or roleplay.

This series complements two related offerings: Management Matters and Communication Matters.

Negotiation Matters, Part II

Winter 2015

As noted in the description of Negotiation Matters, mastery of negotiation is a life skill in that we all negotiate every day with colleagues, bosses, domestic partners, friends, clients and many others. All classes are a dynamic mix of theory, demonstration, skills exercises and roleplay practice intended to increase your confidence and effectiveness in any negotiation you undertake. To expand on lessons learned in Negotiation Matters, Part II was devloped to examine the importance of trust and relationship, how to gather information, the art of effective inquiry and psychological sources of influence that inform strategy and tactics. We also practice how to manage difficult negotiators and problematic communication both in person and in a written email format. Finally, we explore in depth how to analyze alternatives to a negotiated agreement and how to “map” possible approaches to a negotiation involving more than one player. Prior participation in “Part I” of this series is helpful but not required.