Whether we notice them or not, social norms—the rules of behavior deemed acceptable in society—strongly influence our behavior. We automatically lower our voices when we enter a library and raise them at football games. We arrive at work on time but show up to dinner parties half an hour late. We stop at red lights rather than green lights. Norms keep society running smoothly, help us fit in, and give us a sense of belonging. Social norms are a powerful force—so powerful, in fact, that you can harness them as influence tactics to improve your negotiated outcomes. Claim your FREE copy: Negot ..read more

In February 2022, Women’s National Basketball Association (WNBA) star Brittney Griner was arrested in Russia, where she plays for a professional basketball team during the WNBA offseason, after being accused of bringing vape cartridges with cannabis oil into the country. She faces 10 years imprisonment in a Russian penal colony. Given the extreme tensions between the United States and Russia over the war in Ukraine, Griner’s chances for a speedy release appear slim. As the United States faces government negotiations with Russia regarding Griner’s release, we take a closer look at the complexi ..read more

NEW ONLINE PROGRAM! BEYOND THE BACK TABLE: WORKING WITH PEOPLE AND ORGANIZATIONS TO GET TO YES February 24–25, 2025 | 9:00 a.m. – 5:00 p.m. ET Go Beyond the Back Table In this two-day online course, you will step back to look beyond the negotiating table and discover how to understand and manage the individuals and groups who are not at the table, but who have a significant impact on the outcome of your negotiation, on your side and the other side. When you think of negotiation, you may picture two parties across the table from one another. But the truth is far more complex. Most negotiations ..read more

NEW ONLINE PROGRAM! BEYOND THE BACK TABLE: WORKING WITH PEOPLE AND ORGANIZATIONS TO GET TO YES September 18–19, 2024 | 9:00 a.m. – 5:00 p.m. ET Go Beyond the Back Table In this two-day online course, you will step back to look beyond the negotiating table and discover how to understand and manage the individuals and groups who are not at the table, but who have a significant impact on the outcome of your negotiation, on your side and the other side. When you think of negotiation, you may picture two parties across the table from one another. But the truth is far more complex. Most negotiation ..read more

Why do so many of the people we enthusiastically hire turn out to be disappointing on the job? Why do the complex projects we negotiate often end up with frustrating delays and cost overruns? More generally, why do our negotiations often fail to pan out as we’d hoped? Answers to these and many other negotiation-related questions can be found in the work of Nobel-prize-winning psychologist Daniel Kahneman, who died at age 90 on March 27. With his longtime research collaborator, Amos Tversky (who died in 1996), Princeton professor Kahneman identified many systematic errors in human cognition th ..read more

What’s your first reaction to the concept of paternalistic leadership? If you’re new to the concept and from an individualistic culture, such as the United States, Canada, Australia, or many European nations, you might dismiss the idea out of hand. After all, paternalism connotes top-down leadership, an outdated and exclusionary male-centered viewpoint, and strict authoritarianism. None of these qualities seems compatible with the type of participative leadership, inclusion, and employee autonomy that so many organizations and leaders strive for today. Yet a closer look at paternalistic leade ..read more

We are often counseled to engage in perspective taking and empathetic understanding to achieve better results in business negotiations, both for ourselves and for our counterparts. Yet perspective taking and empathy are two different skills. Perspective taking is a cognitive ability that involves considering how other people think. Empathy, by contrast, involves emotionally connecting with others and experiencing sympathy and concern for them. Moreover, people who naturally take others’ perspectives may not be especially empathetic, and vice versa. Are the two skills always useful in business ..read more

Retired US Senator George Mitchell played a critical role in negotiating the Good Friday Agreement in Northern Ireland. In an interview with Susan Hackley, former Managing Director of the Program on Negotiation at Harvard Law School, back in the February 2004 Negotiation newsletter, we learn how he was able to facilitate an agreement between these long-warring parties. Claim your FREE copy: Negotiation Skills Build powerful negotiation skills and become a better dealmaker and leader. Download our FREE special report, Negotiation Skills: Negotiation Strategies and Negotiation Techniques to H ..read more

The MIT Press is proud to announce it is the new publisher of Negotiation Journal, and that the journal will become a diamond open access publication in 2024. Founded in 1984 and copublished with the Program on Negotiation (PON), which is a consortium of Harvard, MIT, and Tufts housed at Harvard Law School, Negotiation Journal is an international, multidisciplinary journal devoted to the publication of works that advance the theory, analysis, practice, and instruction of negotiation, mediation, and conflict resolution. Negotiation Journal will continue to offer a wide range of scholarship, in ..read more

Hard bargaining in negotiation is often touted as the best way to get what you want when all else fails. But as recent news stories illustrate, hard bargaining often backfires unless used in tandem with more collaborative strategies. Hard bargaining in negotiation—including “take it or leave it” offers, threats, and ultimatums—remains widespread. Hard-bargaining tactics often backfire and harm relationships, however. Two recent negotiations in the news illustrate different approaches to hard-bargaining tactics—and what you can learn from them. Claim your FREE copy: Negotiation Skills Build ..read more