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Negotiation skills and leadership techniques often go hand-in-hand in creating win-win deals for negotiators and their counterparts. In trying to fund the US' first-ever high-speed rail line in California, Democrat Jerry Brown has employed a variety of different negotiation strategies and leadership styles to bring the parties to the table to work towards an agreement.
Best Alternative to a Negotiated Agreement. The true measure by which you should judge any proposed agreement. It is the only standard which can protect you both from accepting terms that are too unfavorable and from rejecting terms it would be in your interest to accept. (Roger Fisher and William Ury, Getting to Yes [Penguin Books, 1991], 100-01). See Also: Free Report: BATNA Basics, Negotiating for Continuous Improvement: Monitor and Assess Your Negotiation Skills, Dealmaking: Relationship Rules and Business Negotiations.
Discover step-by-step techniques for avoiding common business negotiation pitfalls when you download a FREE copy of our BATNA Basics: Boost Your Power at the Bargaining Table special report from Harvard Law School.
The following items are tagged BATNA.
Courses and Training
Negotiation and Leadership: Dealing with Difficult People and Problems
It's often said that great leaders are great negotiators. But how does one become an effective negotiator? On-the-job experience certainly plays a role, but for most executives, taking their negotiation skills to the next level requires outside training. Designed to accelerate your negotiation capabilities, Negotiation and Leadership examines core decision-making challenges, analyzes complex negotiation scenarios, and provides a range of competitive and cooperative negotiation strategies. Whether you're an experienced executive or and up-and-coming manager – working in the private or public sector – this program will help you shape important deals, negotiate in uncertain environments, improve working relationships, claim (and create) more value, and resolve seemingly intractable disputes. In short, this three-day executive education program will prepare you to achieve better outcomes at the table, every single time.
Free Report
BATNA Basics: Boost Your Power at the Bargaining Table
Perfect your negotiation skills in this free special report, BATNA Basics: Boost Your Power at the Bargaining Table from Harvard Law School.
Dealing with Gender Discrimination
As you know, gender stereotypes often enter the negotiation process. Women and men are perceived to, and often do, act differently in negotiations. Furthermore, gender-based discrimination—such as less pay, unequal treatment, and sexual harassment—is often a source of conflict. With the resources available through the Teaching Negotiation Resource Center (TNRC), professionals can learn how to fairly and effectively negotiate gender discrimination issues.
Free Report
Sally Soprano: Role-Play Simulation
Sally Soprano is a distinguished soprano who is now somewhat past her prime. She has not had a lead role in two years but would like to revive her career. The Lyric Opera has a production scheduled to open in three weeks, but its lead soprano has become unavailable. Lyric's representative has requested a meeting with Sally's agent to discuss the possibility of hiring Sally for the production. Neither knows much about the other's interests or alternatives. There is a wide-range of possible outcomes.
Negotiation Simulations With Global Impact
International law and diplomacy is a rapidly evolving field that depends on the brokering of agreements between nations and other stakeholders. Whether there are language barriers, cultural differences, or both, some of the most challenging negotiations involve parties from different nations. Because of the relative lack of clear legal precedents and the difficulties of enforcement, most decisions are reached via global agreements rather than decided by courts.
Free Report
Harborco: Role-Play Simulation
Harborco is a consortium of development, industrial, and shipping concerns that are eager to proceed with the building of a new port, but face hurdles and potential opposition as they advance through the licensing process. The Federal Licensing Agency would like to see them work with other stakeholders to develop a project that is acceptable to all, or at least most parties. The project proponents must employ their negotiation skills to craft proposals that win the support of others in order to proceed.
Medical Negotiations: Dealing With Life, Death, and Consequences
Healthcare is one of the largest industries globally, with billions of dollars spent on treatments and research. While healthcare is definitely a "big business," medical disputes can deeply affect people's personal lives. The fact that life and death are actual issues in many medical negotiations means the stakes are even higher.
To enable participants to gain experience exploring complex and emotionally fraught issues in an educational environment, the TNRC offers a variety of role-plays focused on health-care related disputes such as medical malpractice.
BATNA and Dealmaking Negotiations: Defending Yourself Against Influence Negotiation Strategies
How can a negotiator protect herself from bias and influence negotiation strategies at the bargaining table? Knowing one's best alternative to a negotiated agreement as well as the zone of possible agreement for the deal at hand help prevent bias from leaving value unclaimed.
VIDEO: William Ury on "Getting to Yes with Yourself"
Dealmaking: Dealing With an Irrational Home Seller
In this article we explore the dreaded but very common scenario of a buyer's dream home in the hands of an unreasonable, irrational, or even contentious seller. How do you generate integrative bargaining solutions in this kind of situation?
What Can An Opera Singer Teach You About 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 reason.
Sally Soprano boils very complex dynamics down to essential structures. As Daniel Shapiro, Associate Director of the Harvard Negotiation Project, puts it, "Sally Soprano has an elegant structure that more clearly than any other case raises the critical elements of interest-based negotiation."
BATNA: Bringing a Deal Out of the Gutter
What should a business negotiator do when she feels that her BATNA is weak or that the only issues on the bargaining table involve issues of price, or "haggling" scenarios? In this article, the Program on Negotiation offers business negotiation tips for negotiators grappling with a "weak BATNA."
Deal Negotiation and Dealmaking: What to Do On Your Own
Six negotiation skills tips for negotiators seeking to creative value during their next round at the bargaining table. Business negotiators are often faced with the complex task of coordinating multiple parties – here are some tips for the individual business negotiator on how to achieve success in her next deal negotiation.
Star Wars Stories: George Lucas and a Strong BATNA, Passed Over
In negotiation, your best source of power is typically your best alternative to a negotiated agreement, or BATNA. When you are aware that you have an appealing alternative deal to the one you're working on, you will be less tempted to accept an agreement that doesn't meet your minimum requirements. A strong BATNA gives you the freedom to walk away from the table with no (or few) regrets. Interestingly, by strengthening your BATNA, you can sometimes improve the deal on the table. Filmmaker George Lucas likely did just that during his 2012 negotiations to sell Lucasfilm—the film-production company behind the spectacularly successful Star Wars film franchise—to the Walt Disney Company.
Tough Negotiation Tips from Jennifer Aniston?
Crossed Wires? Negotiation Games To Help Your Business Deal Sidestep Legal, Technical And Emotional Glitches
What's faster than the pace of technological development? The pace of lawsuits being filed about the adoption of new technologies, patent infringement, and intellectual property rights. In our modern world, professionals must be able to resolve highly challenging technology-related disputes – often before they reach the courtroom. That's where the Program on Negotiation's Teaching Negotiation Resource Center (TNRC) comes in.
What's faster than the pace of technological development? The pace of lawsuits being filed about the adoption of new technologies, patent infringement, and intellectual property rights. In our modern world, professionals must be able to resolve highly challenging technology-related disputes – often before they reach the courtroom. That's where the Program on Negotiation's Teaching Negotiation Resource Center (TNRC) comes in.
Drawing on a wide-range of disciplines including microeconomics, social psychology, behavioral economics, and management science, the TNRC has developed a wide range of role-play negotiation games designed to help participants work through the complexities of technology-related business negotiations.
Check Your Emotional Temperature
Do you ever feel ambushed by strong emotions?
To guard against acting irrationally or in ways that can harm you, authors of Beyond Reason: Using Emotions As You Negotiate Roger Fisher and Daniel Shapiro advise you to take your emotional temperature during a negotiation. Specifically, try to gauge whether your emotions are manageable, starting to heat up, or threatening to boil over.
Negotiation Skills: Turn Your Adversary Into Your Advocate – The Benefits of Seeking Advice
Advice seeking inherently employs multiple self-presentation tactics (including ingratiation, self-promotion, and supplication), it allows us to improve both our competence and our likability. Think about the last time someone asked you for advice. How did you respond? You probably had at least one of these reactions:
Preparing for Multiparty Negotiation
When you're getting ready to meet with more than one party, the usual steps of two-party negotiation apply.
How Power Affects Negotiators
According to Dacher Keltner of the University of California at Berkeley and his colleagues , power affects two primary neurological regulators of behavior: the behavioral approach system and the behavioral inhibition system. Powerful individuals demonstrate "approach related" behaviors such as expressing positive moods and searching for rewards in their environment.
How Negotiation Examples Can Help You Become A Better Mediator
When opposing parties cannot come to a satisfactory resolution, a strong mediator can make all the difference. By effectively examining the issues at hand and helping parties identify creative solutions, a well-trained mediator builds consensus where there once was none.
To help professionals learn the art of mediation, the Program on Negotiation's Teaching Negotiation Resource Center (TNRC) offers a wide range of role-play negotiation exercises.
For Modern Farmer Magazine, a Bad BATNA
In business negotiations, our mistakes sometimes end up affecting not only the current deal, but our best alternative to a negotiated agreement, or BATNA, in deals that lie down the road. That's a lesson that Ann Marie Gardner, the founder and editor of the hip new magazine Modern Farmer, has learned the hard way. After settling in New York's Hudson Valley, Gardner got the idea of starting Modern Farmer in 2010, Alec Wilkinson writes in a New Yorker profile. The quarterly magazine's aesthetic – artistic cover shots of animals and articles on topics like growing plants for cocktails – attracts the type of urban dwellers who aspire to raise their own chickens rather than actual working farmers. Gardner calls it a "farming magazine for media professionals."
Best-In-Class Negotiation Case Studies
What's one of the best ways to teach the art and science of negotiation? Case studies and articles that spark lively discussion or facilitate self-reflection. Based on real-world examples, these teaching resources are designed to help students envision how to apply what they've learned in the classroom and beyond.
The Teaching Negotiation Resource Center (TNRC) at the Program on Negotiation offers negotiation case studies from renowned authors who've negotiated trade agreements, aided peace treaties, and handled many other high-stakes deals. By drawing on their own experiences, they've crafted negotiation case studies that are authentic, compelling, and enlightening.
Dealmaking Negotiations: From Handshake to Contract – Draft the Right Agreement
Some negotiations end with a plan of action rather than a signed contract – for example, a plumber agrees to fix the tile damage caused by his work. Other negotiations wouldn't be appropriate to commemorate in writing, such as how you and your spouse decide to discipline your young child. But in virtually all significant business negotiations, parties should put pen to paper after negotiating the terms of their deal. In fact, contract law requires certain types of deals to be in writing for them to be enforceable.
How Negotiation Games Can Help You Develop Skills to Resolve Business and Commercial Disputes
Private sector or commercial negotiations can range from relatively straightforward, high-stakes contract negotiations between suppliers and distributors to complex, multiparty negotiations between government, industry, and other interest groups. To help teach these key negotiation skills the Teaching Negotiation Resource Center (TNRC) has developed a wide range of role-play exercises that reflect the full breadth and depth of business and commercial negotiations.
Negotiation Skills: Three Sources of Power at the Bargaining Table
Negotiating power generally comes from one of three sources, according to Adam D. Galinsky and New York University's Joe C. Magee. Here are three sources of negotiation power that negotiators can use in negotiations.
How to Negotiate When You're Literally Far Apart
Imagine that you're the CEO of a sports clothing manufacturer based in Chicago. You recently traveled to Amsterdam, the Netherlands, to meet with a distributor who has a rich and diverse network in the European sports market.
During the business trip, you both express enthusiasm about the possibility of a joint venture and agree to give the potential alliance more thought.
Back home, you learn that one of your competitors has discussed similar plans with the same distributor.
Dispute Resolution with Spotify? Taylor Swift Shakes It Off
In negotiation, our success often hinges on our bargaining power—which in turn can depend on forces beyond our control. That truism was highlighted in two recent disputes arising from business negotiations over the pricing of copyrighted material in the digital era, one from the music world, the other from publishing. First, country-music star Taylor Swift injected new life into the stagnating music industry with the October release of her first pop album, "1989." The album sold 1.287 million copies in the United States in its first week, instantly becoming 2014's bestseller to date. Amid the win-win-win news for Swift, her fans, and the music industry, there was one clear loser, however: Spotify, the world's most popular music-streaming service.
Negotiation Skills and the Hidden Hazards of BATNA Development
The following question was posed to Program on Negotiation faculty member and associate professor of business administration at Harvard Business School in the Negotiations, Organizations & Markets Unit, Francesca Gino.
Business Negotiations: Using Bias to Your Advantage
Articles in Negotiation have highlighted many of the cognitive biases likely to confront negotiators. Work by researchers Russell B. Korobkin of UCLA and Chris P. Guthrie of Vanderbilt University suggests how to turn knowledge of four specific biases into tools of persuasion.
Teaching Negotiation: The Art of Case Study Writing
Jim Sebenius, the Gordon Donaldson Professor of Business Administration at Harvard Business School, and Director of the Harvard Negotiation Project, addressed these questions in his presentation at the NP@PON Faculty Dinner Seminar on October 7, 2010. His article, "Developing Negotiation Case Studies," began as a memo to a novice case writer about how to write an effective negotiation case. Now it is a full-length article that will appear in a forthcoming issue of Negotiation Journal.
Conflict Management and Negotiation Skills: Why We Succumb to Deception in Negotiation
Negotiators succumb to these forces for two main reasons:
They don't realize that their behavior is unethical, and even when they do, they justify their behavior as ethical in this particular case.
BATNA: Negotiators – How you Can Avoid Striking Out (And Create Mutual Gains) in Your Next Business Negotiation
Strikes and lockouts have sprung up among groups as diverse as Chicago Public Schools (CPS) teachers, National Hockey League (NHL) players, and National Football League referees, not to mention American Airlines pilots, who staged an unofficial work slowdown as part of their dispute with management.
Negotiating for Continuous Improvement: Monitor and Assess Your Negotiation Skills
Many organizations subject their executives to rigorous performance reviews, yet few companies include negotiation effectiveness as one of the core competencies they track. Instead, negotiation is usually subsumed under categories such as "emotional intelligence," or "persuasiveness." The negotiator-related questions posed in most "36-degree assessments" don't measure the right skills and abilities, such as preparation. When evaluators do assess negotiations, they typically rely only on post hoc accounts and overlook the details of the bargaining experience.
Dealmaking: Relationship Rules and Business Negotiations
Here are some concrete guidelines for fostering a strong relationship between negotiating partners drawn from The Global Negotiator: Making, Managing, and Mending Deals Around the World in the 21st Century.
BATNA: The Danger of Take It or Leave It
The dangers of 'take-it-or-leave-it' deal proposals and your BATNA – Negotiation Coach Ian Larkin, Harvard Business School professor, explains why.
To Close an International Negotiation, Obama Tries a Domestic "Work-Around"
As he entered his second term in office, President Obama set a goal of taking concrete steps to address global climate change. A global agreement on the issue is in sight, but a key obstacle stands in the way: the U.S. Senate. According to the Constitution, a president needs approval from a two-thirds majority of the Senate to enter into any legally binding treaty. Obama is eager to avoid what happened in 1997, when the Senate refused to ratify the Kyoto Protocol, a legally binding U.N. climate change treaty. Indeed, the odds of the Senate passing a similar treaty 17 years later are nil, reports Coral Davenport in the New York Times. In 2012, Republican senators blocked ratification of a U.N. treaty on equal rights that had been modeled on an American law and negotiated by Republican president George W. Bush. With the Senate unable to reach agreement on that treaty, Obama is trying a new strategy on the much more controversial issue of climate change: a workaround.
For Bank of America, Dealmaking to Turn the Page
Conflict Management: When Do "Sacred" Issues Keep Negotiators Apart?
At some point or another, most negotiators claim that a certain issue is a deal breaker.If you're trying to sell your business, for instance, you might walk away from talks with a potential buyer who you believe would lay off many of your longtime employees. Or if someone asks you to go in on a venture that violates your moral principles, you might refuse to even consider the prospect.
A desire to safeguard your personal integrity, health, or safety, or that of those close to you, may cause you to declare certain issues sacred in your negotiations—completely nonnegotiable under all conditions. Yet a refusal to compromise on key issues can lead to impasse in an otherwise beneficial deal.
Moreover, researchers have long theorized that many of the issues we claim are sacred are actually "pseudo-sacred"—that is, they're off-limits under some but not all conditions. According to this view, our resolve regarding sacred issues can waver, whether or not we realize it. When do negotiators stand firm on sacred issues? In a recent experiment, a research team led by professor Ann E. Tenbrunsel of Notre Dame University explored this question. In particular, they looked at whether the strength of one's best alternative to a negotiated agreement (BATNA)—an important source of power in negotiation—affects whether negotiators bend or stand firm on the issues they hold sacred.
Is Negotiation Without a BATNA Possible?
A Negotiation reader asked if negotiation without a BATNA is possible. David Lax, Managing Partner at Lax Sebenius and Program on Negotiation faculty member responds in this January 2008 article of "Dear Negotiation Coach." I am looking for tips on negotiating with sole suppliers who know I don't have any real outside alternative and who take advantage of this. Without the power of a realistic BATNA, can you really negotiate?
Win Win Negotiations: Can't Beat Them? Join a Coalition
In 2006, representatives of wind-energy developers started knocking on the doors of Wyoming ranchers.
They were seeking to persuade the ranchers to sell the rights to build wind turbines on their land, reporter Addie Goss recounted on National Public Radio. Typically, the developers build wind farms by leasing large blocks of land from many different landowners in western states. In Wyoming, ranchers began signing leases without knowing the true value of the wind sweeping across their land.
U.S. Department of Agriculture program coordinator Grant Stumbough heard about the wind developers crisscrossing Wyoming and had a brainstorm: by working together, the ranchers might be able to get better deals.
Dealmaking: Are You Overly Committed to the Deal?
When you're more tightly bound to an agreement than your counterpart is, trouble could follow. Manage your escalation of commitment—and level the playing field.
Read the following three examples and notice the differing levels of commitment between the two negotiating parties.
Consider these three real-life negotiating scenarios.
Bullard Houses Role-Play Simulation Helps Researchers Explore Gender Inequality
Blessing or Curse: The Right of Refusal
When transferring property, sellers sometimes insist on rights of first refusal – the chance to be first in line to repurchase the property if their buyer later decides to sell. Rights of first refusal can be obvious advantages if your financial circumstances later change. If you're keeping adjoining land, you may wish to protect yourself against the risk of something unattractive being built next door.
Exercising Its BATNA, American Apparel Ousts Dov Charney
On June 18, the board of retailer American Apparel informed the company's controversial founder, Dov Charney, that it was ousting him from his roles as chairman and CEO. For years, Charney had fended off sexual-harrassment lawsuits and rumors of inappropriate behavior. But only when the company's creditors grew anxious about its long-term liability did the board decide to take action, citing new and damning revelations, as reported by Elizabeth A. Harris in the New York Times.
As the saga continues to unfold, it has highlighted several dimensions of negotiation that managers and executives would be wise to heed—including the importance of continually assessing your BATNA, or best alternative to a negotiated agreement.
Dealmaking and Business Negotiations: 6 Tips for Novice Hagglers
Whether you're purchasing a new home or car, or negotiating a discount on an inventory purchase for your firm, the art of haggling enables negotiators to make a strong claim for their share of the pie. Here are six tips from the Negotiation Briefings newsletter to help you start becoming a better at haggling in business negotiations.
Reciprocation and Creating Value or Claiming Value Through Haggling
At this point, you have entered the realm of haggling: the dance of concessions that follows each party's first offer. (In our TV negotiation, the $1,100 list price was the store's first offer.)
For some, this is where the real fun begins; for others, it's time of great anxiety. To manage your stress, keep your BATNA at the forefront of your mind. Knowing that you have a good alternative if the negotiation fails will help you stay calm and rational. Suppose the salesperson tells you there's no way he can go as low as $900.
"I could come down $75 to $1,025, though."
Note that this offers $50 above your $975 reservation price—the maximum you're willing to pay to get a deal.
Creating Value Through Haggling – Setting the Stage for Negotiation Success
Suppose your research reveals that the TV you want is fairly new on the market.
Further research about your local store leads you to believe it may be willing to go as low as Amazon.com's price of $900. Now you have a general sense of the ZOPA, or zone of possible agreement: between $900 (your estimate of the store's reservation price) and $975 (your reservation price).
Creating and Claiming Value Through Haggling – Assess Their BATNA in Dealmaking Negotiations
Now it's time to assess the best deal you might get. Figuring out the other party's reservation price is the key to knowing how far you will be able to push him, write Deepak Malhotra and Max H. Bazerman in their book Negotiation Genius: How to Overcome Obstacles and Achieve Brilliant Results at the Bargaining Table and Beyond (Bantam, 2007).
Start by considering the other party's BATNA: What will he do if he can't close the sale with you?
Like most retailers, he'll simply have to wait for someone else to walk through the door.
Dealmaking: Six Strategies for Creating Value or Claiming Value Through Haggling
In today's market, consumers are often the more powerful parties in negotiations with sellers.
To claim the most value in your next haggling experience, use the following six strategies.
Dealing with Difficult People? Lessons from Ronald Reagan
In recent months, U.S. President Barack Obama and other world leaders have struggled to find a winning strategy to convince Russian President Vladimir Putin to back away from his aggressions toward Ukraine. In a Wall Street Journal editorial, Ken Adelman, U.S. President Ronald Reagan's ambassador to the United Nations and arms-control director, writes that recently declassified accounts of negotiations between Reagan and Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev offer lessons that could help Western leaders approach their Russian counterpart more effectively.
According to Adelman, on his way to accept the 1980 Republican nomination, Reagan told an adviser that the primary reason he wanted to be president was "To win the Cold War." Having set this overarching goal, Reagan tenaciously pursued it throughout his two terms in the White House.
10 Hard Bargaining Tactics
Don't be caught unprepared by hard bargainers, warn Mnookin, Peppet, and Tulumello in Beyond Winning. Here is their Top 10 list of common tactics.
With No Good BATNA, Police Negotiators Accept Texts
In their training, police and professional hostage negotiators are taught skills that will help them defuse tense situations over the course of long phone calls, such as engaging in active listening, determining the person's emotions from his or her inflection, and trust building.
These crisis negotiators are being put to the test by young criminal suspects and others in crisis, whose first instinct increasingly seems to be texting rather than talking, according to an Associated Press article.
Red Bank, Tennessee, police chief Tim Christol tells the Associated Press that the usual negotiation skills he teaches don't translate to texting, such as emotional labeling in the form of a statement such as "You sound angry." Without verbal cues, Christol says, it becomes much more difficult to understand the emotional state of the person in crisis, and misunderstandings are common. "Words are only 7 percent of communication," he says.
Business Negotiators: Find the Right Fit
When approached by a partner whispering sweet nothings about untold riches and power, it can be tempting to rush through the negotiation process. But if you do, you could find out too late that your Prince Charming is nothing but a frog—and that those glass slippers on your feet pinch. That's how famed shoe designers Kari Sigerson and Miranda Morrison felt not long after inking their seemingly sweetheart deal with Marc Fisher, the scion of the 9 West shoe fortune, as reported by Jessica Lustig in the August 1 New York Times.
The Paradox of Positions
It's not difficult for negotiators haggling over seemingly finite resources to become entrenched in their positions. Sometimes the only way to get unstuck is to think appreciatively and creatively about the other side. Rather than trying to determine why a person has taken a particular position, consider what she wants, appreciate it, and try to deliver it.
For Detroit Pensioners, Dispute Resolution Pays Off
On April 15, Detroit city employees and retirees breathed a huge sigh of relief after the city's emergency manager and its pension fund managers reached a deal that would significantly reduce proposed cuts to pension benefits, CNNMoney reports. Some civilian workers will face a 4.5% reduction in pensions and lose cost-of-living adjustments. Retired public-safety workers were spared from cuts and promised almost half of their expected annual pension increases.
Status Anxiety in Business Negotiations
Sometimes in negotiation we are forced to deal not only with the issues on the table but also with concerns about status.
One famous instance took place in the late 1980s, when Robert Campeau, head of the Campeau Corporation and then one of Fortune magazine's "50 Most Fascinating Business People," tried to acquire Federated Department tores, the parent company of the prestigious department store Bloomingdale's.
A bidding war over Bloomingdale's escalated between Campeau and R.H. Macy. Campeau won with an irrationally high offer – but had to declare bankruptcy shortly thereafter.
Negotiation Skills: Are You Really Ready to Negotiate?
You set up the contract renegotiation with a key client months ago. You had every intention of gathering a range of information to establish realistic goals and assess the client's needs, but short-term projects got in the way. Suddenly it's the day before the first meeting. Aside from making a few phone calls and calculations, you'll have to wing it—but that's OK. You've always worked well under pressure. Right?
We all know we're supposed to prepare to negotiate, yet we often fail to follow through on these best intentions. That's a problem because research overwhelmingly shows that underprepared negotiators make unnecessary concessions, overlook sources of value, and walk away from beneficial agreements.
Deal Making: When You Hold All the Cards
Consider the following hypothetical negotiation scenarios, in which you seem to hold all the cards:
- One of your customers has just landed a lucrative new contract, and you're the only supplier who can add a critical component to that customer's production process.
- You own a controlling interest in a publicly traded company and are seeking to buy out the minority shareholders and take the company private [LINK to Michael Dell's Negotiations with Shareholders article].
- You sell umbrellas, and a man in a well-tailored suit rushes into your shop at the start of a downpour.
What's the problem, you might reasonably ask?
International Negotiations: A Game of Chess…or Marbles?
Many observers view Russian president Vladimir Putin's decision to send Russian troops into Crimea in the wake of violence between protesters and police in Kiev and Ukrainian president Viktor Yanukovich's abrupt departure as the first gambit in a carefully reasoned strategy.
"Putin is playing chess and I think we are playing marbles, and I don't think it's even close," said Representative Mike Rogers, chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, in criticism of President Barack Obama and his administration. Arguing that Putin's advance into Ukraine is part of a plan to strengthen Russia's "buffer zones," Rogers accused the Obama administration for making too many concessions to Russia and failing to respond decisively to the crisis.
Dealing with Difficult People—Such As Putin?
In negotiation, we are often confronted with the task of dealing with difficult people—those who seem to prefer to set up roadblocks rather than break down walls, or who choose to take hardline stances rather than seeking common ground.
How can you deal with such difficult people?
One tactic you might consider is avoiding the conversation altogether by finding more collaborative negotiating partners, but this is not always an option.
When avoidance is impossible, strengthening your best alternative to a negotiated agreement (BATNA) can help give you the confidence you need to deal with obstinacy among negotiating partners.
Frustrated by an Uninformed Negotiator? Consider Your BATNA
As the lead negotiator in 18 months of top-secret talks with Iran over its nuclear program, U.S. State Department Under Secretary for Political Affairs Wendy Sherman found herself negotiating as if through a dark screen. Rather than dealing directly with Iran's supreme leader, Ali Khamenei, the United States delegation led by Sherman was assigned to interact with Iran's American-educated foreign minister, Mohammad Javad Zarif, the New York Times reports.
During the course of the discussions, it remained unclear exactly how much negotiating authority Zarif possessed, if any. "We are only going to find out by testing him," Sherman said. She found the drawn-out process of "signal-sending" with Iran frustrating, the Times reports.
Most of us have had the experience of doubting a counterpart's ability to make decisions on behalf of his organization. Fortunately, business negotiators typically have more options than Sherman did to improve the situation. Here are three guidelines
Top 10 Negotiation Failures of 2013
Here's a list of some of the most notable negotiation flops of the past year – from deals that were over before they started, to those that were botched at the table, to those that proved disastrous well after the ink had dried.
Dealmaking: Top Ten Business Deals of 2013
2013 witnessed a series of colorful mergers, acquisitions, and other deals. Here are 10 negotiations and negotiation trends from which business dealmakers can learn.
Top Ten Business Deals of 2013: US Housing Market Recovery
With home sales heating up in some U.S. regions in 2013, homebuyers faced competition they haven't seen since before the real-estate bubble burst, and it showed up in the form of packed open houses, multiple bids above the asking price, and all-cash offers.
Negotiating in Three Dimensions: Setting the Wrong Table
Consider the saga of a company that developed a hot new technology just as it was going public.
The device could detect underground leaks in gas storage tanks much more cheaply and accurately than any other products on the market.
The timing seemed perfect: The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) was persuading Congress to mandate that gas storage tanks be continuously tested for leaks. Not surprisingly, the company's board of directors pushed the CEO to get the device on the market, and fast.
The CBS – Time Warner Cable Dispute: Making a Bad BATNA Even Worse
The Deal is Done – Now What?
At last, the deal is done. After 18 months of negotiation, eight trips across the country, and countless meetings, you've finally signed a contract creating a joint venture with a Silicon Valley firm to manufacture imaging devices using your technology and their engineering.
The contract is clear and precise. It covers all the contingencies and has strong enforcement mechanisms. You've given your company a solid foundation for a profitable new business. As you file the contract, a question dawns on you: Now what?
Program on Negotiation Faculty On How To End the US Government Shutdown
The Washington Post's "On Leadership" column by Jenna McGregor asked renowned negotiation experts on how the government shutdown in Washington, DC could be ended at the bargaining table.
Among the experts interviewed were Robert Mnookin, Chair of the Program on Negotiation at Harvard Law School (PON) and author of Bargaining With The Devil: When To Negotiate, When To Fight, Robert Bordone, PON Executive Committee member and co-author with mediation pioneer Frank E.A. Sander of "Designing Systems and Processes for Managing Disputes," and William Ury, co-founder of PON and co-author of "Getting to Yes," a foundational work in the field of negotiation written in collaboration with PON co-founders Bruce Patton and Roger Fisher.
Program on Negotiation Faculty Discuss the Government Shutdown Negotiations
Scott Horsley, writer for National Public Radio's "It's All Politics," recently interviewed Program on Negotiation faculty to discuss the negotiation strategies, and their pitfalls, currently being used by congressional Republicans and US President Barack Obama in the government shutdown negotiations.
Author of Bargaining With The Devil: When To Negotiate, When To Fight, Robert Mnookin advocates for Barack Obama to take a strong position at the bargaining table, but notes the risks: "Perhaps if he simply hangs tough, a week and a half from now, the Republicans will cave and he won't have to do anything. But if it doesn't happen, the consequences for all of us, for the American economy, are very, very serious."
The Forces Behind Deception in Negotiations
Despite your best intentions, one or more of these four forces might lead you to behave unethically during a negotiation. Here are four ways in which you may be tempted to behave unethically while at the bargaining table.
Searching for a Debt Ceiling: Boehner's Uncertain BATNA
As the U.S. government approaches a potentially catastrophic default on its debt in October, President Obama remains determined to avoid negotiations with Republican leaders on the issue, the New York Times reports, a situation that leaves House of Representatives Speaker John Boehner with an uncertain BATNA, or best alternative to a negotiated agreement.
In Business Negotiations, Talks With Competitors Carry Risks
They say it pays to keep your friends close and your enemies closer, but in negotiation, keeping your enemies—or competitors—close could end you up in court, as Apple's recent encounter with the U.S. Department of Justice suggests.
The story begins back in 2007 when, unhappy with Amazon's low, flat price of $9.99 for e-books, five major U.S. pub¬lishers negotiated a new business model for e-book pricing with Apple, which was getting ready to launch the iPad.
Under the prevailing wholesaling model, publishers sold their books and e-books to retailers like Amazon, which could then set whatever price they liked. Apple and the five publishers agreed to switch to a so-called agency model, which would allow the publishers to set their own prices for e-books in exchange for giv¬ing Apple a 30% sales commission. At least one of the publishers then upped the ante by threatening to delay the release of its digital editions to Amazon unless it switched to an agency model. Amazon reluctantly agreed, and e-book prices rose across the industry to about $14.99.
The publishers and Apple claimed that their goal was to increase competition in the e-book market by opening up alternatives to Amazon's Kindle reader. But the U.S. Department of Justice didn't see it that way and accused the parties of colluding to artificially raise e-book prices. The five publishers reached a settle¬ment with the government; Apple did not.
The Winner's Curse
Ever win something you wanted, then realize too late you got a raw deal? Here's how to recognize when backing away is your best bet in a negotiation.
Imagine that while exploring an outdoor bazaar in a foreign country, you see a beautiful rug that would look perfect in your home. While you've purchased a rug or two in your life, you're far from an expert. Thinking on your feet, you guess the rug is worth about $5,000. You decide to make a bid, but a low one. You engage the merchant in some pleasantries and then make an offer of $1,000. She quickly accepts, and the transaction is complete.
How do you feel as you walk away? Pleased with your purchase – which was, after all, far cheaper than you expected – or uneasy about it?
South Korea Shows Off Savvy Negotiation Skills
In negotiation, a combination of several negotiation skills and tactics may be needed to break past a difficult impasse. A recent protracted negotiation between North Korea and South Korea provides a case study.
In April, North Korea abruptly removed its workforce from the Kaesong Industrial Complex, a joint venture it launched within its borders nine years ago with South Korea. The complex shut down, and the two nations engaged in seven rounds of negotiations over the course of 133 days to try to reach agreement to reopen it.
In Sales Negotiations, Learn from a Seller's Market
With home sales heating up in some parts of the United States, homebuyers are facing competition they haven't seen since before the real-estate bubble burst, and it's showing up in the form of packed open houses, multiple bids above the asking price, and all-cash offers.
To take an extreme case, in New York City, low condominium inventory combined with low mortgage rates have driven prices up 12% over the past year, from $829,000 to $930,000, writes Michelle Higgins in the New York Times. Real-estate agents are capitalizing on the frenzy with tactics like one-day-only showings and tight deadlines for bidders to submit their best-and-final offers.
In such an environment, negotiation might seem futile. After all, if a seller has 20 offers, how could you possibly stand out – other than, perhaps, by overbidding? In fact, there are other ways to separate yourself from the pack, while also ensuring that you make smart financial decisions for yourself.
The Dell Buyout: Michael Dell Weighs His BATNA
In negotiation, your best source of power typically is your "best alternative to a negotiated agreement," or BATNA. By cultivating appealing options away from the table, you free yourself up to walk away in the event of a disappointing deal.
In all likelihood, Dell Inc. founder Michael Dell found himself facing such a BATNA analysis in recent days. Back in February, Dell and private-equity firm Silver Lake Partners announced a deal to buy the company for $13.65 a share. Since then, the deal has faced one obstacle after another, including the threat of a Dell shareholder revolt, the threat of a higher offer from another private-equity firm, and efforts by billionaire activist Carl Icahn to convince Dell to pony up a higher bid. The overarching question: whether Dell would be getting a steal deal, and whether there was any way to stop him.
Better Predict Your Negotiation Behavior
Although forecasting errors are extremely common, you can minimize their impact on your negotiations by following these three guidelines.
Types of Power in Negotiation
Social psychologists have described types of power that exist in society, and these types of power emerge in negotiation as well.
Two types of power spring from objective features of the bargaining process.
Translate Your BATNA to the Current Deal
If your current negotiation reaches an impasse, what's your best outside option?
Most seasoned negotiators understand the value of evaluating their BATNA, or best alternative to a negotiated agreement, a concept that Roger Fisher, William Ury, and Bruce Patton introduced in their seminal book Getting to Yes: Negotiating Agreement Without Giving In.
Choosing When to Choose
When it comes to negotiation, the more choices on the table, the better your outcomes will be – right? Not necessarily. An excess of options can stand in the way off efficient agreements and, moreover, prevent you from being satisfied with the final result.
Exclusive Negotiation Periods
The clearest method for achieving exclusivity is an exclusive negotiating period, during which both sides agree not to talk to third parties, even if approached unexpectedly by others. In some arenas, these terms are called no-talk periods.
Why You Should Limit Your Options
An excess of choices can not only impair your effectiveness at the bargaining table but also reduce your quality of life. In The Paradox of Choice, Barry Schwartz offers these strategies for limiting choice – and improving overall satisfaction:
Deal Making Without a Net: Yahoo's Tumblr Acquisition
On May 19, Internet company Yahoo announced that it was purchasing the blogging service Tumblr for about $1.1 billion in cash. The acquisition could put a fresh face on the aging Internet company and provide it with a profitable revenue source—or it could turn out to be another instance of the Web pioneer overpaying for a start-up and failing to nurture it, as was the case after Yahoo bought Flickr and GeoCities.
How to DEAL with Threats
Our DEAL approach allows you to respond to threats without conveying weakness or escalating the conflict, redirecting talks toward a focus on each other's interests.
Protecting Yourself from Competitive Expectations
Like other cognitive biases, competitive expectations can be insidious. Fortunately, there are several steps you can take to forestall their negative consequences.
When Negotiation is Your BATNA: The US Engages on Syria
The United States and Russia have announced plans to hold a peace conference aimed at ending the civil war in Syria, which has killed more than 70,000 people.
In an op-ed in the New York Times this May, Christopher R. Hill, the dean of the Korbel School of International Studies at the University of Denver and a former U.S. ambassador, argues that the Obama administration's decision to engage Russia on the Syrian conflict is both long overdue and insufficient.
Tips for Navigating Negotiations in China
With its booming economy and growing international consumer influence, negotiation skills appropriate for China is in high-demand. Here are a few tips to help you successfully navigate your next round of negotiations in China.
Negotiating in China: The Gold Rush Mentality
If Chinese culture favors insiders, it stands to reason that outsiders face an uphill battle.
In One Billion Customers: Lessons from the Front Lines of Doing Business in China (Free Press, 2005), business executive and Wall Street Journal bureau chief James McGregor writes of the 1996 attempt by Xinhua, the official Chinese news agency, to declare that only it had the right to publish financial data in China, thereby locking out Dow Jones and Reuters. It was a bold move based on brute power. Xinhua backed down only after Dow Jones and Reuters appealed to the U.S. government, which threatened to abandon a trade agreement with China.
Negotiate Conditions – And Bring Value to the Deal
Like a contingency, a condition to a deal is a related though far less common deal-structuring technique. A condition is an 'if' statement like a contingency, but, whereas a contingency depends on unknown future events, a condition is entirely within the control of the parties involved.
Negotiation Design Dimensions: A Checklist
Here the Program on Negotiation offers a checklist of negotiation design categories. Whether your overall negotiation design is decide-announce-defend (DAD) or full-consensus (FC), or a hybrid of both, raising these issues is usually preferable to falling into a set of important decisions by default.
We Have a Deal, Now What Do We Do: Three Negotiation Tips on Implementing Your Negotiated Agreement
A recent article in Tufts Magazine by Program on Negotiation faculty member Jeswald Salacuse discusses an oft neglected aspect of negotiation: putting into action what negotiators agree to at the bargaining table.
Normally negotiators focus on the deal-at-hand as well as those present at the negotiation, neglecting other aspects of the negotiated agreement that would not only impact others outside of the room but also require their cooperation for its success.
Professor Salacuse calls this process of putting a negotiated agreement into action "the toughest challenge" in negotiation.
Wheelers and Dealers?
Car salespeople truly understand how to use modest concessions to extract much larger ones.
First, they spend a long time legitimating the sticker price and suggesting that it's not only fair, but nonnegotiable.
Prospering in a Multiparty Trade Zone
With thorough preparation, the help of a trained mediator, and useful reports from subgroups, participants in a multiparty negotiation should be able to find their way to the trading zone. Once they've arrived, the next step is to work together to ensure that everyone's interests are met.
Prepare to Create Value in Business Negotiations
When preparing to negotiate, always take time to consider these important questions:
What's my BATNA – my walkaway option if the deal fails?
What are my most important interests, in ranked order?
What is the other side's BATNA, and what are his interests?
Finding the Right Process in India
In 1995, a new government came into power in the Indian state of Maharashtra and canceled a 20-year power purchase agreement with the Dabhol Power Company, a joint-venture formed by Enron, General Electric, and Bechtel. Claiming that the deal was improper and even illegal, the government declared publicly that it would not renegotiate.
Negotiation Skills: Identifying the Winner's Curse in Negotiation
There are two main reasons the winner's curse is a common and dangerous trap in negotiations.
A Cash-Out Transaction: Cox Communications
On August 2, 2004, Barbara Cox Anthony and Ann Cox Chambers, two sisters who together owned 73% of Cox Communications, announced that they wanted to cash out the minority shareholders of their company. Their initial offer was $32 per share, or a 14% premium to the preannouncement trading price of approximately $28 per share.
Negotiation in China: The Importance of Guanxi
Although most Americans treat those they know differently than they treat strangers, Chinese behavior towards insiders and outsiders tends to be more extreme than in the United States – and therefore more important in negotiations in China than many Americans understand.
Away from the Podium and Off to the Balcony: William Ury Discusses the Debt Ceiling Negotiations Facing Obama and US Congressional Republicans
Stewart recently interviewed negotiation expert and Program on Negotiation co-founder William Ury to discuss the aftermath of avoiding the fiscal cliff and the rounds of tough negotiations between Democrats and Republicans still to come.
Keeping the Game Out of Court
Sometimes those on opposite sides of a bitter dispute can achieve great gains – if only they can spot the ways in which they are similar.
In 2001, the Metropolitan Intercollegiate Basketball Association (MIBA), an organization of five New York-area colleges best known for staging college basketball's National Invitation Tournament, filed a lawsuit against the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA). MIBA allege that certain NCAA rules governing team participation in preseason and postseason tournaments restricted school's participation in MIBA tournaments, in violation of various antitrust laws. After four years of litigation, the two parties announced not only that they would settle a lawsuit but also that the NCAA would purchase the rights to the MIBA preseason and postseason tournaments.
The Fiscal Cliff and the Debt Ceiling: Program on Negotiation Chair Robert Mnookin Discusses Recent and Future Negotiations Between Congressional Republicans and the White House
Though Congress and the President were able to reach a deal and avoid the dreaded fiscal cliff, both sides engaged in some tough negotiating which has both bewildered and captivated the United States for months. Given all of the posturing and tough talk, some may ask: Is there a method to this madness?
A Value-Creating Condition Thwarted
In late 1999, with its stock in free fall, NCS HealthCare, a provider of pharmacy services to long-term care facilities, began "exploring strategic alternatives" – code in the mergers and acquisitions world that NCS's board wanted to put the company up for sale.
In 2001, Omnicare, a larger provider in the same general industry, offered to buy NCS for $270 million, a number lower than the value of the company's debt. The deal would have left the company's stockholders with nothing, and talks broke down when NCS demanded a higher price. In June 2002, Omnicare's fierce rival Genesis HealthCare came to the table with an offer for NCS. Fearful of having its deal stolen away by Omnicare, which had just beaten Genesis in a bidding contest for another company, Genesis proposed a condition on the deal. It would make an offer only if NCS's chairman and president, who together held a majority of the voting shares, committed to the Genesis deal and rejected any competing offer from Omnicare. NCS accepted this condition, and the merger was announced on July 28, 2002.
The Story of Goldman Sachs: Negotiating a Vision
In 1986, the investment bank Goldman Sachs was a $38 billion business owned by more than 100 active and retired partners.
While the partnership structure had insulated the company from the vicissitudes of the stock market and given the company a strong culture of teamwork, it had some significant disadvantages, particularly an unstable capital base and an inability to grow by making acquisitions with stock.
In New York, Fast-Food Workers Test Their Negotiation Skills
On November 28, dozens of employees at several fast-food restaurants in New York City walked off their jobs and demanded better pay and unionization. In doing so, they launched what is believed to be the largest coordinated campaign in the United States to unionize fast-food workers from different restaurants, reports Steven Greenhouse in the New York Times.
Finding More Value at the Bargaining Table
How can you uncover additional value, make useful trades, and put together a package that exceeds your party's expectations? Here are four value-creating moves that all negotiators should add to their toolkit.
Famous negotiators feature in top negotiations of 2012
These stories offer a clinical definition of negotiation success and failure
Negotiating the Fiscal Crisis
How can we avert a full-throttle drive over the fiscal cliff? Despite some promising signs of movement on both sides of the aisle, the current negotiation approach – positional bargaining – is bound to bring us dangerously close to the edge.
BATNA for the Holidays? Program on Negotiation Co-Founders Bruce Patton and William Ury Discuss the 'Fiscal Cliff' with NPR
The standoff between recently re-elected Democrat President Barack Obama and congressional Republicans has focused attention on the negotiation styles employed by the two parties as they seek to secure their interests while also working toward the resolution of the current budgetary battle.
Are You an Overconfident Negotiator?
In 1901, J.P. Morgan wanted to buy the Carnegie Steel Company from its founder, Andrew Carnegie.
Carnegie was 65 years old and considering retirement. As Harold C. Livesay recounts in his book Andrew Carnegie and the Rise of Big Business (Little, Brown, 1975), when Carnegie finally decided he was ready to sell, he jotted down his estimate of his company's worth in pencil: $480 million. Carnegie had the sheet of paper delivered to Morgan, who took one look and said, "I accept this price."
Use Time Delays to Advantage
For decades, General Electric and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) sparred over who would pay for the removal of PCBs, or polychlorinated biphenyls, that GE had discharged into New York's Hudson River, a cleanup project that is expected to cost hundreds of millions of dollars. The two sides finally came to an agreement in October 2005.
Simulating International Negotiations: The U.S.-Iran Crisis
When tensions rise between parties, the temptation to escalate commitment to a specified position can be overwhelming—and the likelihood that negotiations will resolve the dispute becomes increasingly slim.
When Time Isn't Money
Due to deeply ingrained gender stereotypes, women may find it easier to negotiate their time instead of their financial compensation.
Consider that men and women are likely to rely on gender-stereotypic arguments to support their demands in negotiation. For women, the gender-stereotypic notion of being caregivers is readily available and likely to be well received. By contrast, men, who generally are expected to be the primary family breadwinner, have less difficulty negotiating financial issues than women do.
Penguin Sues Its Own Writers: When Business Negotiations Become Bad PR
In this business world, it's typically smart practice to keep disputes with key partners private, at least until doing so becomes unfeasible for financial or other reasons. That's why the book publisher Penguin's decision to file lawsuits against 12 of its authors for breach of contract is being widely judged as a public relations misstep.
Setting and Articulating the Goal: Great Negotiator Charlene Barshefsky Shares Her Negotiation Strategy with HLS Students
Great Negotiator Award winner and former United States trade representative (1997-2001) to Japan and China, Ambassador Charlene Barshefsky visited Harvard Law School to speak with students in HLS Clinical Professor Robert Bordone's Advanced Negotiations Workshop course on October 3.
Water Diplomacy: Using a Creative Approach
The case of Jordan and Israel shows how even countries at war can negotiate a water agreement if it is framed in non-zero sum terms and trust continues to be built over time. And that is not the only case of a treaty that has succeeded against all odds to bridge conflicting water interests; the Indus Waters Treaty between India and Pakistan and the Ganges Water Treaty between Bangladesh and India are other examples.
Water Diplomacy: Value Creating Approachs to Water Negotiation
Zero-sum thinking emerges when people conceive of water as a fixed resource – one provided by nature in a given quantity that is either static or diminishing. Based on these assumptions, diplomats often focus on what share of the existing water will be given to each entity. Negotiations of this type typically involve decision makers who are political leaders focused on preserving sovereignty and maintaining state security. They are often unprepared to think about improving the overall efficiency of water use, which, in effect, can "create" more water.
Water Diplomacy: The Role of Science in Water Diplomacy
Scientific and technical knowledge is important in water negotiations, but not in the ways it has often been used. It is counterproductive to use scientific information to justify arbitrary (political) decisions. For example, scientific information about water has increased dramatically over the last several decades, but our ability to manage water resources has not improved proportionately.
In Dispute Resolution, Try Going to the Top
When two parties are attempting to resolve a contentious dispute, the most effective peacemakers may be those at the highest levels. That's the lesson from recent productive talks between President Obama and Afghan leader Hamid Karzai on the issue of rules for detaining terrorism suspects.
Water Diplomacy: Understanding Uncertainty, Risk, and Opportunity in Water Management
When countries face contending water claims, one of the biggest obstacles to reaching an agreement is uncertainty. Specifically, there are three types of uncertainty: uncertainty of information, uncertainty of action, and uncertainty of perception. In part 2 of this 5 part series, Program on Negotiation faculty member Lawrence Susskind explains the uncertainties facing negotiators trying to make agreements.
Mediation, Arbitration, and the Promise of Privacy
Negotiators often choose to resolve their conflicts through mediation, arbitration, and other alternative dispute resolution methods because of the privacy these methods promise. Unlike the public nature of litigation, mediation and arbitration typically give parties the freedom to hash out sensitive issues without the fear that their discussions and agreement will become public knowledge. Two new cases in the news, however, show that privacy is a nuanced issue in some alternative dispute resolution contexts.
Business Negotiations: Cooperate to Claim Value
What happens in negotiations between two individuals who care little about each other's outcomes? Suppose an engineer and an industrial designer are arguing over the design of a car bumper. The designer only cares about whether the bumper matches the style of the vehicle; the engineer is concerned only about how the bumper connects to the front. After describing the trouble he's having with the existing design, the engineer presents a solution that the designer deems "ugly." The designer threatens to involve her boss if the engineer doesn't revert back to the prior design.
Google Searches for a More Diverse Team
Recently, executives at the Silicon Valley-based internet giant Google noticed a disturbing trend: the company was having difficulty hiring and retaining female employees, from engineers to senior executives, Claire Cain Miller writes in the August 22 issue of the New York Times. Women were dropping out during the job interview process and were not being promoted at the same rate as men. In addition, women have lost ground in top leadership positions since Larry Page took over as the company's CEO in 2011. The issue at Google reflects a larger trend, as the percentage of women working in professional computing jobs fell from 25% in 2011 to 16% in 2010. In many cases, women have been leaving large computer companies for jobs in the public sector or with start-ups.
Bring Back Your Deal from the Brink: Weigh the Benefits of a Concession
Another option for dealing with difficult negotiations is to craft what Harvard Law School professor Robert C. Bordone calls a "workaround" – a strategy for meeting your current goals without the involvement or support of your adversary. You might be able to induce a yes with a tempting concession on a key issue, according to Bordone. Offering a concession can be a risky strategy, as it may only encourage someone to push for more. But if a concession would allow you to move beyond that person once and for all, it may be your best option.
Bring Your Deal Back from the Brink: Probe the Other Side's Point of View
How can you figure out the motives behind someone's seemingly stubborn position? Begin by questioning her about the problem she is trying to solve. Deal blockers may be held back by financial, legal, personal, or other constraints you don't know about, according to Harvard Business School professor Deepak Malhotra. A tough stance could also communicate a psychological need that isn't being satisfied.
Bring Back Your Deal from the Brink
What can you do when a difficult person is the main obstacle to a promising deal? There are a number of strategies you can use to bring the deal back from the brink of failure. In a series of posts, the Program on Negotiation will offer ten suggestions.
Becoming a More Balanced Negotiator
How can you avoid being pulled in opposite directions by contradictory imperatives? These three concrete steps can guide you through your next important negotiation.
When an Apology is Most Effective
Some researchers have found that the most effective type of apology depends on the nature of the mistake made.
In a study by Peter Kim of the University of Southern California, Cecily Cooper of the University of Miami, Kurt Dirks of Washington University, and Donald Ferrin of Singapore Management University, participants assumed the role of a manager responsible for hiring a senior level tax accountant. The participants watched one of four videotaped interviews of a hypothetical job candidate. During each video, the interviewer mentioned that the candidate's previous employer had accused her of filing a tax return that understated the client's capital-gains income. In one version of the video, the interviewer suggested that the candidate incorrectly filed the tax return because she is incompetent – she didn't understand the mistake she made. In another version, he accused her of deliberately underreporting the earnings.
Resolving Conflicts on the High Seas
In negotiation over a limited pool of resources, conflicts often spring up over what constitutes a fair agreement. If two business partners are going their separate ways, they might have different ideas about how their shared assets should be divided, for example. Currently, such a dispute is playing out between China and four of its Southeast Asian neighbors over claims to the South China Sea. According to a report issued by the research organization International Crisis Group (ICG), recapped by Jane Perlez in the New York Times in late July, the disputes have reached an impasse that could lead to an open conflict.
Do You Need a Broker?
According to conventional wisdom, you should always hire a real estate agent when you're trying to buy a house. The broker's market expertise will help you decide what moves to make and what price to pay. Because the seller usually has his own broker, the motto "fight fire with fire" applies as well. Perhaps most important, home buyers don't even have to pay their brokers; the seller's broker splits the commission with your agent. Hiring a buy-side broker splits the commission with your agent.
Is the Devil in the Details?
You're close to a deal, but concerns linger. Some of the contract seems less than precise. What in the world does "reasonable best efforts" mean, for example, or "good faith"? Negotiators in this commonplace situation face a choice: push for more precision now or sign the deal and hope the ambiguities won't cause trouble down the road.
Turn Your Adversary Into Your Advocate: How to Ask for Advice
Advice seeking is a versatile negotiation tool, as long as you project the right image and tone. Here are three guidelines:
Negotiating for Continuous Improvement: Use a Negotiation Preparation Worksheet
Negotiation preparation is as much an organizational task as an individual one. For example, when determining their best alternative to a negotiated agreement or BATNA (the point at which the negotiators ought to walk away from the table), executives should check in with key organizational leaders. If senior managers are unwilling to invest time in such a conversation – or if they offer less-than-helpful advice such as, "Whatever you do, don't lose that account!" – an executive can't be held responsible for poor negotiation preparation.
Negotiating for Continuous Improvement: Report Negotiation Results Internally
To further improve negotiations, a company could publish an internal negotiation newsletter that can be distributed through a secure company intranet. Each month, the person overseeing the newsletter could choose a negotiation involving someone within the company.
Negotiation Skills: Your Good Mood May Work Against You
Just before a meeting with her boss, Cindy peeks into his secretary's office and whispers, "How's his mood today?" When the secretary gives a thumbs-up, Cindy decides the time is right to ask for a big raise.
Roger Fisher Papers Open at Harvard Law School Library
Roger Fisher, one of the cofounders of the Program on Negotiation at Harvard Law School and Samuel Williston Professor of Law, Emeritus, was honored on the 8th of April with a celebration of his career, research, and contributions to both the HLS community and the field of negotiation.
Negotiation, Envy, and Lies in Conflict Management
In previous posts, the widespread belief that some people are honest negotiators and others are not has been shown to be inapplicable to real-world negotiations. Rather, because people respond strongly to their environment, ethical standards often vary depending on the context.
Why You Should Question Your Agent's "Objective" Advice in Business Negotiations
You've found a beautiful condo that you'd like to call your own. You conduct a thorough assessment of its value and identify several other appealing properties in the same neighborhood and price range. Believing you've found the magic bid, you phone your real-estate agent.
Bargaining at a Fever Pitch: A Bold Bid
Have you ever won an auction only to realize later that you overbid for the prize? In competitive bidding situations, it's easy to get carried away in the heat of the moment and overpay.
Crisis Negotiations in Europe
On June 5, another casualty in the European debt crisis emerged, as Spain announced that it soon would be unable to borrow in the bond market without assistance from other European Union nations. Emilio Botin, the chairman of Banco Santander, said about 40 billion euros, or $50 billion, in European funds would be needed to repair Spain's banking sector, according to Bloomberg News.
The Darker Side of Perspective Taking
Many negotiation experts recommend that you try to take the other party's perspective, particularly when attempting to resolve disputes.
Recent research by Nicholas Epley of the University of Chicago and Eugene Caruso and Max Bazerman of Harvard University suggests a dark side to this generally sound negotiation advice. The researchers ran a series of experiments in which they asked participants to determine the fair division of a scarce resource. Half of the subjects (the "self-focused condition") were asked how much would be fair for them to take. The other subjects (the "other-focused" condition) were asked to think about what would be fair for others to take and then write down how much would be fair for each party (not just themselves) to take.
Do Attitudes Influence Results?
Many people consider negotiations to be stressful and threatening. Others view them as challenges to be overcome. Do these different attitudes influence the outcomes that people reach? New research by professors Kathleen M. O'Connor of Cornell University and Josh A. Arnold of California State University sheds light on this important question.
Anchor Trials or Balloons in Conflict Resolution
The power of anchors in negotiation has been demonstrated time and again. Sellers who demand more tend to get more. Indeed, the initial asking price is usually the best predictor of the final agreement.
A trio of researchers may have found an important exception to this rule, however; lower starting numbers set by the seller in an auction can lead to higher ultimate prices. Professors Gillian Ku of the London Business School and Adam D. Galinsky and J. Keith Murnighan of Northwestern's Kellogg School of Management found this result both in laboratory experiments and from data taken from online eBay auctions.
The Enduring Power of Anchors
In past issues of Negotiation, we've reviewed the anchoring effect – the tendency for negotiators to be overly influenced by the other side's opening bid, however arbitrary. When your opponent makes an inappropriate bid on your house, you're nonetheless likely to begin searching for data that confirms the anchor's viability. This testing is likely to affect your judgment – to the other party's advantage.
Psychologists Amos Tversky and Daniel Kahneman identified the anchoring effect in 1974. Participants watched a roulette wheel that, unknown to them, was rigged to stop at either 10 or 65, the estimated the number of African countries belonging to the United Nations. For half of the participants, the roulette wheel stopped on 10. They gave a median estimate of 25 countries. For the other half, the wheel stopped on 65. Their median estimate was 45 countries. The random anchors dramatically affected judgment.
When Umbrella Agreements Spring Leaks in Dispute Resolution
Negotiators tend to want the best of both worlds. When reaching an agreement, they want to nail down parties' respective rights and responsibilities, but they also want to retain the flexibility to deal with ever-changing business conditions.
One solution to this apparent dilemma is to craft umbrella, or framework, agreements. (The term umbrella is more commonly used in the business world, while framework is more widely used in legal and diplomatic circles.) Such agreements set out general principals that will apply to more specific give-and-take contracts in the future. An umbrella agreement between a soft-drink company and a grocery chain, for example, would typically cover issues such as exclusivity, invoicing, confidentiality, and termination. Subsequent short-term contracts would set prices and promotional allowances for specific products.
Crisis Negotiations – Rolling the Dice in Court
Going to trial, it's said, is like rolling the dice. That proved true when an exasperated federal judge, the Honorable Gregory A. Presnell, ordered litigants to play a game of Rock Paper Scissors if they could not privately resolve their differences over a procedural issue. The lawyers were stalemated on where to depose a witness in the case, despite the fact that their offices were located just four floors apart in the same building. The judge didn't want to waste public resources resolving such a trivial matter.
Many took the order as yet another exhibit in the case against shortsighted lawyers – and an attempt to shame them and their clients into more constructive behavior. Judge Presnell's ruling also established a new best alternative to a negotiated agreement, or BATNA, for the parties: The matter would be decided by chance rather than on its merits, an unsettling prospect if each side was convinced of the righteousness of its position.
Conflict Management – Evenhanded Decision Making
As discussed in past articles, anchoring and framing can bias important decisions in negotiation. A buyer may make a more generous offer than she intended, for example, after a seller drops anchor on a bold demand. A litigant who focuses on his chances of winning in court – a positive frame – may be less likely to settle than if he concentrated on a negative frame: his corresponding chances of losing.
Many researchers have studied how such biases are amplified or moderated by mood, expertise, and personality. Groundbreaking work by professors John D. Jasper and Stephen D. Christman of University of Toledo now suggests that our susceptibility to decision biases is hardwired.
Great Negotiator Award 2012
The Program on Negotiation at Harvard Law School, in conjunction with the Future of Diplomacy Project at Harvard Kennedy School, honored distinguished statesman and former Secretary of State James A. Baker III as the recipient of their Great Negotiator Award for 2012. Secretary Baker served under President George H.W. Bush from 1989 to 1992.
A panel discussion was held on the afternoon of March 29 and included Program on Negotiation faculty members James Sebenius and Robert Mnookin, as well as Harvard Kennedy School faculty member Nicholas Burns. The Great Negotiator Award was created twelve years ago by the Program on Negotiation to recognize an individual whose lifetime achievements in the field of negotiation and dispute resolution have had a lasting impact.
Specific versus Abstract Negotiation Skills Training
Researchers have argued that negotiators learn more from cases and real-world experiences when they can take away an abstract version of the lesson. Such abstractions come from analogies developed across two or more different negotiation contexts, say Leigh Thompson and Dedre Gentner of Northwestern University and Jeffrey Loewenstein of the University of Texas, who propose that such analogical reasoning be incorporated into negotiation training.
But researchers Simone Moran and Yoella Bereby-Meyer of Ben Gurion University and Max H. Bazerman of Harvard Business School argue that teaching people more general negotiation principles – such as "value can be created" – enables a more successful transfer to a broader range of new negotiation tasks than focused analogies.
Fostering Cultural Intelligence in International Negotiations
In a Harvard Business Review article, P. Christopher Earley and Elaine Mosakowski describe the value of improving your cultural intelligence, or the ability to make sense of unfamiliar contexts and adapt to them. Some people are naturally skilled at determining whether a person's behavior is unique to him or determined by his culture. For others, this process requires more effort. Regardless, this ability is important for successful international negotiations.
Earley and Mosakowski illustrate this point through a domestic and an international example. Peter, a Los Angeles-based sales manager for Eli Lilly pharmaceuticals, was transferred to the company's Indianopolis headquarters. In L.A., Peter's confrontational, high-pressure style was the norm and effectively motivated his sales staff. In Indianopolis, his new team disliked his hard charging ways and avoided the challenges he set for them.
Taking ADR Too Far
More and more companies are inserting alternative dispute resolution (ADR) clauses in their contracts with customers and vendors, and even in agreements with their own employees. ADR processes such as mediation and arbitration can be beneficial for all concerned if they help avoid the cost, delay, and uncertainty of going to court. Mediation, in particular, may offer creative solutions, protection of confidentiality, and preservation of important relationships.
Why You Should Make More Than One Offer
Effective negotiators seek opportunities to create value. By making tradeoffs across issues, parties can obtain greater value on the issues that are most important to them. But how can you be sure you're making the right offer?
Victoria Husted Medvec and Adam D. Galinsky of Northwestern University argued that, in negotiations involving many issues, you can create a great deal of value by making multiple equivalent simultaneous offers or MESOs. This strategy entails identifying several proposals that you value equally and presenting them to the other side.By making multiple offers, the theory goes, you appear more flexible, collect information about the other side's preferences based on which offer she likes best, and increase the odds of reaching agreement.
Fifteen Things We Know About Environmental Dispute Resolution
I was recently asked by my Harvard Law School class to summarize what we know (from actual experience) about environmental dispute resolution. I offered the following list. I'm eager to hear reactions from other scholars and practitioners.
What have I left out? What have I misstated?
Negotiation Skills: Team Building and Your Negotiations
During his years as George H.W. Bush's Secretary of State, one of James A. Baker, III's, goals was to encourage the free-market reforms that Communist Party of the Soviet Union General Secretary Mikhail Gorbachev had launched in the late 1980s. One day during his tenure, a high-level Bush Administration commented in the press that Gorbachev's efforts were sure to fail. Baker called Bush to complain.
"I said, you can't have other people pontificating about these major foreign policy matters when this is one of our goals, and it's totally contrary to our policy," he said. "So they cut the knees off of this particular individual, and we didn't hear that anymore."
Team Building and Your Negotiations
During his years as George H.W. Bush's Secretary of State, one of James A. Baker, III's, goals was to encourage the free-market reforms that Communist Party of the Soviet Union General Secretary Mikhail Gorbachev had launched in the late 1980s. One day during his tenure, a high-level Bush administration official commented in the press that Gorbachev's efforts were sure to fail. Baker called Bush to complain. "I said, you can't have other people pontificating about these major foreign policy matters when this is one of our goals, and it's totally contrary to our policy," he said. "So they cut the knees off of this particular individual, and we didn't hear that anymore."
Baker shared this story on March 29 while receiving the 2012 Great Negotiator Award from the Program on Negotiation at Harvard Law School and the Future of Diplomacy Project at Harvard Kennedy School. In discussion with Harvard faculty at the Great Negotiator event, Baker elaborated on his greatest challenges as Secretary of State and shared negotiation lessons learned over the course of his long, successful career as a lawyer, campaign manager, and diplomat.
Cultural Notes
As members of organizations and families, we all know from experience that even people with identical backgrounds can have vastly different negotiating styles and values. Nonetheless, we continue to be intrigued by the idea that distinct patterns emerge between negotiators from different cultures.
Researchers do confirm a relationship between national culture and negotiation style and success. An ongoing research project sponsored by Northwestern University's Dispute Resolution Research Center is exploring the link between process and outcomes – specifically, how cultural tendencies lead to certain process choices, which, in turn, can lead to better or worse negotiation results.
Your Own Worst Enemy
Why do some people get under our skin? Something they do or say pushes our hot buttons. Annoyance doesn't foster productive negotiation, of course, but it's not our fault that they're getting on our nerves. Or is it?
Psychologists caution that when we have strong visceral reactions to other people, we should examine our own feelings and attitudes, not just theirs. If we're honest with ourselves, we may recognize in other people's behavior the dark side of our own nature.
Barbara Gray, professor of management and organization at Pennsylvania State University, calls this internal demon our nemesis. It's always lurking inside us, ready to pounce.
Sacred Issues in Negotiation
In a classic New Yorker cartoon, a dinner guest shows up for the party, hands the host a $20 bill, and announce that this was the amount he had planned to spend on a bottle of win before he ran out of time. Negotiation buffs might admire the guest for making an efficient tradeoff that saved him the effort of shopping and gave the host $20 to spend as he wished. But most people would view the guest's behavior as highly inappropriate. Why?
The Pulitzer Board Stands in Judgment
On April 16, the Pulitzer Prize board announced its annual writing prizes, with two notable omissions: the board chose not to award Pulitzers in the categories of fiction and editorial writing. The reaction from the publishing industry to the Pulitzer's fiction snub, in particular, was swift and hostile. "If I feel disappointment as a writer and indignation as a reader, I manage to get all the way to rage as a bookseller," writes Ann Patchett, a fiction writer and bookstore owner, in a New York Times editorial.
The Pulitzer Board's decision comes at a difficult time for the publishing industry, which has faced steadily declining book sales in recent years. And just five days before the Pulitzer announcement, the Department of Justice filed a lawsuit against five of the biggest U.S. publishers for colluding to set e-book prices. Now the industry must do without the annual boost the Pulitzer gives to the winning author and publisher – and cope with the implication that it was a miserable year for literary fiction.
Speaking the Same Language
Negotiators can find themselves talking past each other for hours, even days. Then suddenly something happens – a breakthrough. The parties begin conversing on a different plane, one that reveals solutions to problems that had seemed intractable.
Being Fair and Getting What You Want
Imagine that you and your business partner agree to sell your company. You get an offer that pleases you both, so now you face the enviable task of splitting up the rewards.
Some background: Your partner put twice as many hours into the firm's start-up as you did, while you worked fulltime elsewhere to support your family. Your partner, who is independently wealthy, was compensated nominally for her extra time.
Negotiating Systems
While most negotiation research aims to sharpen individual managers' skills, there is growing scholarly and professional interest in an organizational approach to negotiation.A systemic perspective evaluates the training, authority, procedures, and resources that manager need to improve their companies' "return on negotiation," as consultant Danny Ertel puts it. Looking at negotiations broadly reveals important design questions.
Leading Horses to Water
The hardest step in negotiation is often the first. Costly lawsuits can drag on it everyone is afraid to be the first to blink. Prospective buyers and sellers can waste endless hours dancing around a possible deal. And in collective bargaining, labor and management teams sometimes paint themselves into corners by refusing to negotiate "matters of principle."
Accounting for Outsiders in Your Negotiations
If you're in the middle of talks that seem to be going well, here's a warning: consider the impact of the agreement on those who aren't at the table, or suffer the consequences. That's a lesson that Apple and some of the largest U.S. book publishers are currently learning the hard way.
On April 12, the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) sued Apple and five major U.S. publishers for colluding to raise the price of e-books during secretive, anti-competitive negotiations. Three of the publishers have settle the suit; two others and Apple have so far been unwilling to settle.
Predicting Your Response to Conflict
Imagine an upcoming negotiation. How will you respond if your opponent seems bent on provoking an argument? If you're like most people, you'll have difficulty predicting your precise response. Professor Dan Gilbert of Harvard University found that when asked how a positive or negative event will affect your happiness, people accurately predict the direction of their mood but dramatically overestimate the degree of change.
Are We in Competition?
Ford vs. GM. Coke vs. Pepsi. Oxford vs. Cambridge. These famous rivalries remind us that the top two achievers in a given realm often compete fiercely with each other.
Now Stephen M. Garcia and Richard Gonzalez of the University of Michigan and Avishalom Tor of the University of Haifa have produced a useful series of studies on when competition between entities will exist – with findings that are relevant to all negotiators.
Hurry Up and Wait
Suppose that one bargainer is impatient, gritting her teeth and thinking, "Cut to the chase, for Pete's sake!" Feeling pressured, the other person wants to say, "Easy on the coffee, pal! Let's give this the time it deserves."
According to a recent study by professor Karen J. Jansen of Pennsylvania State University's Smeal College of Business and Amy L. Kristoff-Brown of the Tippie College of Business at the University of Iowa, this different sense of pacing will lead both parties to experience psychological strain.
Are You Listening to Me?
For your next negotiation, what would you pay for a gadget that shows you how well you're engaging the other side?
It would tell you when you've been persuasive enough to close a deal.
It would also alert you when the other side has tuned you out, so you'd know how to take a different tack.
A team of researchers at MIT's Media Laboratory are developing just such a device: specifically, software for cell phones and PDAs that analyzes speech patterns and tone of voice to determine how people are relating in conversation.
Winning at "Win-Win"
Get Ready for Team Talks
Managing Expectations
Successful negotiators work hard to ensure that when they and their counterpart leave a negotiation, both sides feel satisfied with the agreement. Why should you care whether the other side is pleased with the deal or not? First, because satisfied negotiators are more likely to uphold the terms of a deal. Even a lengthy contract cannot cover every possible contingency, and the costs of enforcement are high.
Why Classic Cases?
The Curse of Knowledge
Negotiate with Your Kids?
Keep it Out of Court
Mirror, Mirror
Are Your Talks too Complex?
Negotiating for Career Satisfaction
Should You Ignore a Threat
Faultlines in Groups
Find Strength in Numbers
Getting to No
Trusting from Square One
Negotiation Games
Going to trial, it's said, is like rolling the dice. That proved true in June 2006, when an exasperated federal judge, the Honorable Gregory A. Presnell, ordered litigants to play a game of Rock Paper Scissors if they could not privately resolve their differences over a procedural issue. The lawyers were stalemated on where to depose a witness in the case, despite the fact that their offices were located just four floors apart in the same building. The judge didn't want to waste public resources resolving such a trivial matter.
Keeping Your Options Alive
When Does Personality Matter?
Questioning threats
Advertising at a charity walk
Gravel quarry or hiking grounds?
Budget turmoil inside a hospital
Dealing with pharmaceutical delays
Expanding the farm
Mediation Curriculum: Trends and Variations
When "fairness" is a distraction
Gain greater leverage with sole suppliers
Powerful Thoughts
For many people, thinking about the role of power in negotiation can be paralyzing. In fact, the same people who are anxious about negotiating in general tend to be anxious about exerting their power during negotiation. Why? Perhaps because most of us realize that power, even when not explicitly discussed, is often the precipitating and driving force of negotiation processes and outcomes. Obviously, power can generate competition and conflict. But when channeled effectively in negotiations, it can be a catalyst for win-win outcomes.
So You Want to Buy a Car?
How can you negotiate the best possible price for a new car? This is a common negotiation question, and naturally so. A car is one of the most significant purchases you'll ever make—and the price is almost always negotiable. Here are a few tips to improve your performance:
Too much commitment?
Fine-Tuning Your Contract
When negotiators sign on the dotted line, they sometimes worry about the wrong concerns. "Did I overpay?" wonders the buyer as he inks the sales agreement. Across the table, the seller is thinking, "I bet if I'd pushed a little harder, I would have gotten more."
Beware Your Lawyer's Biases
Parties in litigation are often overly optimistic about their chances of winning in court. This tendency reduces the bargaining range for settlement because one or both parties perceive their walkaway alternative (namely, letting the courts decide) to be more attractive than it actually is. According to conventional wisdom, lawyers can help their clients overcome this overoptimism bias by providing an objective assessment of a case's merits and encourage acceptance of a deal.
Small Talk, Big Gains?
According to conventional wisdom, small talk builds rapport and gets both sides a better deal in the end. But in fact, the question of whether to engage in small talk can be highly context-specific. New York City investment bankers, for example, tend to be far less likely than Texas oil executives to engage in small talk at the outset of a negotiation.
Pick the Right Agent
So, you've decided to use an agent in your next negotiation. Now what?
It's important not to rush headlong into the process of choosing an agent—picking the first one you speak to, for example, and sending him off to talks the next day. You need to choose your agent carefully, then establish a clear, detailed understanding of each other's responsibilities and expectations. The following are critical steps in picking an agent and negotiating his contract.
"Are We Exclusive?"
Ron McAfee, a carpenter and roofing expert, spent considerable time working with a condominium association on the design of a new roof deck. After gaining agreement on the proposed layout, design, and materials, McAfee submitted a written bid of $12,500. One of the board members subsequently showed McAfee's plans to another roofer, who offered to do the job for $10,250. The condo association voted unanimously to go with the cheaper roofer, and McAfee was left with nothing to show for his time and effort.
Eyeing the Competition
Ford vs. GM. Coke vs. Pepsi. Oxford vs. Cambridge. These famous rivalries remind us that the top two achievers in a given realm often compete fiercely with each other. Researchers Stephen M. Garcia and Richard Gonzalez of the University of Michigan and Avishalom Tor of the University of Haifa have produced a useful series of studies on when competition between entities will exist—with findings that are relevant to all negotiators.
How to Lighten Your Burdens
For decades, General Electric (GE) and the Environmental Protection Agency sparred over who would pay for the removal of PCBs, or polychlorinated biphenyls, that GE had discharged into New York's Hudson River, a cleanup project expected to cost hundreds of millions of dollars. In October 2005, the two sides came to an agreement.
How Status Conscious are You?
Sometimes in negotiation, we're forced to deal not only with the issues on the table but also with concerns about status. One famous instance took place in the late 1980s, when Robert Campeau, head of the Campeau Corporation, tried to acquire Federated Department Stores, the parent company of the prestigious department store Bloomingdale's. A bidding war over Bloomingdale's escalated between Campeau and R.H. Macy. Campeau won with an irrationally high offer—and had to declare bankruptcy shortly thereafter.
When We Expect Too Much
How often have you heard a friend or colleague refer to a contract as being "in the bag," only to find out later that the deal didn't go through? There always turns out to be a good reason a negotiation fell apart. Yet the fact remains that most negotiators are overconfident about their chances of reaching agreement. A common cognitive bias, overconfidence causes us to have unrealistically high expectations of success, in negotiation and in many other aspects of life.
Are you afraid of commitment?
Learning from the Soda Wars
This past November, in an unusual move, Costco, the largest wholesale club in the United States, removed Coca-Cola products from its shelves and posted messages telling shoppers that Coke products would not be available until the company lowered its prices.
To Avoid Disaster, Plan Ahead
In the midst of the recent financial crisis, accusations of greed on Wall Street have sounded across the globe. Greed may be a significant factor in the collapse of credit markets, but it's not the only one. Overlooked in cries to punish the "bad apples" is the role of a mistake that virtually all negotiators make: ignoring how our short-term decisions will affect us and others in the future.
Making the First Move
Should you make the first offer? Few questions related to negotiation have yielded more attention and debate. The conventional wisdom among some: Don't make the first offer, or risk "showing your cards" and perhaps unknowingly giving away some of the bargaining zone.
Should You Go Dutch?
Most everyday auctions are English: they begin with an opening bid, continue with ascending bids, and end when the bidding stops. But for some assets, the seller opens at a very high price, then moves down rather than up if all bidders are silent.
What Makes Negotiators Happy?
The question above may seem silly. Getting more of what we care about seems the obvious answer. Yet negotiators often don't know how to accurately assess a good outcome; instead, they rely on outside indicators to determine their satisfaction, for instance by comparing their outcomes to those of others. Your negotiated annual salary of $100,000 appears quite different if you learn that others in your position are earning $110,000.
Is Your Agent Faulty?
Top executive pay attorney Joseph Bachelder was representing a client who'd just been chosen as a company's next CEO. After a first session with the board's representative to hammer out a compensation package, Bachelder took his client aside and informed him that he would get everything he wanted from the negotiation, according to the Wall Street Journal.
When Their Agent is the Problem
The benefits of hiring an agent are well known. Yet negotiation experts often overlook the ways in which you can use the other side's agent to your advantage.
Check Your Confidence
Many negotiators understand the importance of estimating the other side's reservation price—the worst deal he would accept from you. However, despite the fact that such estimates often are based on hints, clues, and speculation, negotiators are frequently overconfident that their estimates are accurate.
When It Pays to Delay
Kathy, a serial entrepreneur, was negotiating the acquisition of a boutique software-development firm when a dispute arose regarding the valuation of one of the software firm's assets. Specifically, the firm owned the rights to a technology patent of uncertain value. The firm's owner argued that this patent was worth millions. Kathy agreed that the patent had potential, but there was a problem. The technology potentially infringed on existing patents, and the holders of these patents would almost certainly challenge the firm's patent in court. If the patent could withstand these legal challenges, it would indeed be worth millions. If not, it might be worthless.
Is Your Role Not Quite Right? Negotiate a Better "Fit"
What happened the last time you faced a new leadership opportunity? Whether you were called on to head a team, a task force, a unit, a division, or a company, chances are you negotiated the compensation and perquisites of the appointment—your salary, title, vacation, and bonus. But did you look beyond these basics and negotiate for what you would need to succeed in the new role? New leaders often fail to address issues critical to their ability to perform on the job, including their fit with the role, Judith Williams, Carol Frohlinger, and I learned from interviews with more than 100 women who had taken on leadership positions.
Tough Tactics: Do 'Death Threats' Really Work?
What would you do if someone threatened you? Strike back? Run away? Beg for mercy? Try to negotiate?
Last April, The New York Times in effect held a gun to the heads of Boston Globe employees – twice. The confrontation, say experts at the Harvard Program on Negotiation, offers valuable lessons in handling high-risk, high-stakes situations.
Background: Sixteen years earlier, The Times bought The Globe for $1.1 billion, the highest price ever paid for an American newspaper. The investment paid off at first, then the newspaper business started heading south. In 2008, The Globe lost $50 million; in 2009, it was on track to lose $85 million.
So The Times threatened to shut the paper down unless employee unions agreed to $20 million in pay cuts, lower severance pay, and an end to lifetime job guarantees for certain employees. Half the concessions – $10 million – were to come from The Globe's largest labor union, the Boston Newspaper Guild.
Business Negotiation Skills: Negotiate Before the Damage is Done
Suppose you work for a specialty bicycle manufacturer and have negotiated a one-year contract to buy 500 headlamps per month from a supplier for $10 each, with payment due 30 days after receipt. The seller makes five deliveries; you promptly pay $5,000 after each shipment. The seller fails to make the sixth delivery, however, and announces it will not be able to make any of the remaining shipments because of a production glitch that has made the headlamps extremely expensive to produce. What recourse do you have?
Beware the Pressure of Sunk Costs in Business Negotiations
Think about what your house, condominium, or some other valuable asset might be worth in today's market. Did the price you paid for it affect your answer?
"Ignore sunk costs," accounting professors and economists tell us. The amount of money and effort we've invested in the past, they say, is irrelevant to our future investments.
Who Won? Art Buchwald, Paramount Pictures, or … the Lawyers?
When Art Buchwald sued Paramount Pictures over the 1988 Eddie Murphy movie Coming to America, the widely reported outcome was seen as a win for the late, beloved humorist. But Buchwald actually lost — and so did Paramount.
Instructing the negotiator
How an Indie-Pop Band Used Integrative Negotiation to Keep Their Name
When interests collide, some managers dig in their heels: You get your way or I get mine. Others go for a compromise where the plan is to give up as little as possible. Neither strategy is likely to lead to the best outcome. But businesses, nonprofits, government agencies … and even rock 'n' rollers … have discovered better ways, as we shall see.
Negotiating on Behalf of Others: Are Women Better Agents?
Under certain conditions, women may work harder than men when negotiating on behalf of others, suggests a study by Harvard professors Hannah Riley Bowles and Kathleen McGinn, and Carnegie Mellon University professor Linda Babcock.
How to Avoid the "Winner's Curse"
Imagine that at the beginning of class, a professor produces a jar full of coins and announces that he is auctioning it off. Students can write down a bid, he explains, and the highest bidder wins the contents of the jar in exchange for his or her bid.
Negotiating When Business and Family Collide
Dealing with Differences in Attitudes Towards Risk
Even when parties at the negotiating table have the same interests, they may disagree on the amount of risk they are willing to take.
Does Your Company Have to Negotiate with a Giant that Dominates Your Business Market?
Individuals in this position often feel as though they have few if any options. In his February 2006 article in Negotiation newsletter, "Negotiating with a 900-Pound Gorilla," MIT Professor Lawrence Susskind offers strategies for how negotiators in a weak position should deal with a seemingly all-powerful opponent.
The Value of Making Several Offers in Business Negotiations
What's the right number of options to put forward in financial negotiations? In their April 2005 article in the Negotiation newsletter, "Putting More on the Table: How Making Multiple Offers Can Increase the Final Value of the Deal," Northwestern professors Victoria Husted Medvec and Adam D. Galinsky write that issuing three equivalent offers simultaneously can be a good strategy in financial negotiations.
Concealed information in Business Negotiations
The Clearinghouse at PON offers hundreds of role simulations, from two-party, single-issue negotiations to complex multi-party exercises. The following role simulation explores client/attorney relationships and the complexity of information exchange.