Advanced Negotiations

This course builds on the "Principles and Processes of Negotiation in Conflict Resolution" course from the fall semester and provides an exposure to advanced analytical tools, frameworks, and a series of complex simulations with the purpose of providing class participants the opportunity to analyze, understand and develop advanced negotiation skills and tactics. In this course, participants will learn to identify their own assumptions and behaviors and the skills required to overcome difficult tactics or individuals. Moreover, a key focus is on effectively responding to emotions — your own and others’ — with the aim of building and maintaining productive relationships even in complex situations or with challenging counterparts. In addition, the course will expose participants to valuable strategies for dealing with powerful (and/or unethical) individuals as well as tools for negotiating from a weakness.

The basic premise of the course is that negotiation skills are best learned through practice grounded in deep analysis and self-reflection. Although theoretical concepts and principles will be presented in class lectures and in readings, the course will focus primarily on improving practical skills in dyadic and group situations through a series of in-class simulations developed by the department. Each simulation has been carefully chosen to address a diverse set of complex negotiation problems that are faced by conflict resolution and mediation experts in a diverse set of organizational and global settings (including multi-issue, multi-party, multi-cultural negotiations). The simulations aim to build on each other and raise issues that complement diagnostic and technical skills taught in other courses in the conflict resolution program. A key focus is not only teaching participants a diverse set of skills, but learning to select the most effective strategy and how to apply the learned skills in a given situation/context.

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