We negotiate every day. We negotiate with potential employers, investors, coworkers, landlords, merchants, clients, suppliers, roommates, and many others. How much we get paid, what price we pay, how group tasks are divided and credit allocated, whether a new plan will be adopted, how change is implemented . . . all are negotiations! Yet, while we all negotiate often, most of us know very little about why we are sometimes successful and other times not, and even fewer of us know what it takes to be consistently effective.
Some of the critical questions this course addresses include: How does one best measure success in negotiation? How should we prepare for different kinds of negotiations? What strategies make the most sense under different circumstances? Tough tactics? Multiple stakeholders? How can we best learn from our own negotiation experiences?
Negotiation is the art and science of securing agreements between two or more interdependent parties. This course focuses on the theory and processes of negotiation as it is practiced in a variety of settings. It is designed to complement the technical and diagnostic skills learned in other Tuck courses. A basic premise of the course is that while wise, decisive leaders need strong analytical skills to better the world through business, negotiation skills are essential for today’s business leader to ensure adoption and implementation of proposals.
This course highlights the components of an effective negotiation and teach you to analyze your own behavior in negotiations. The course is largely experiential, providing you with an opportunity to develop your skills by participating in role-play simulations and integrating your experiences with the principles presented in the lectures, course discussions, and assigned readings.
As much as I hope this course helps you to be more effective in your personal life, my primary objective is to ensure that you feel confident in using negotiation as a wise, decisive leader in the business context – to influence others, solve complex problems, resolve conflicts, align key parties, and generally have an impact. My aim is to ensure that you are able to clearly see the array of choices you can make in any given negotiation, develop a set of theories for what choices you might make when and why, and are able to actively shape an effective negotiation process. There is no formula or “correct answer” for negotiation success, however, there are many disciplines, tools, and techniques that will help you adapt to the myriad challenges that await you.