Overview

Class Central Tips

We start making negotiations as soon as our day begins, through all our interactions, either work, social, or family-related. But have you ever wondered how efficiently you negotiate, and whether you could be better at it? This is a straightforward opportunity to put into practice all the knowledge you have acquired, and to confirm that the negotiation process is dynamic and can always be improved. The course integrates the most recent advances in the development of negotiation skills, based on modern life complexities, in a simple and direct way. We start out with the structure of effective communication in a negotiation, with the intention of identifying our opportunity areas, and improving them through active learning mechanisms. And what can we say about the role emotions play in a negotiation process? It is necessary to acknowledge , manage, and take advantage of them by using emotional intelligence mechanisms. Negotiation, by definition, implies the relationship between two or more parties who eventually express opposing interests and demand skills for problem-solving. In this course you will learn to identify and manage its irreversible consequences in advance.

Syllabus

Topic 1. Structure of a Negotiation

Welcome to the first topic of the course: Negotiation Skills and Effective Communication. Check out the introduction and objectives of the course below. Throughout this course, you’ll learn the principles that govern the negotiation process and the specific nomenclature of the negotiation argot, including the BATNA (alternative to a negotiation), the ZOPA (negotiation range) and the anchoring technique which is the detonator of the dynamics known as the negotiation dance.

Topic 2. Effective Communication in Negotiation

Welcome to the second topic of our course: Negotiation Skills and Effective Communication In this topic we are going to venture into the fascinating world of emotions and their impact on the negotiation processes, exploring the ancient dilemma of the emotional and the rational. We’ll do this by first considering emotions in the context of human communication and the three pillars that support it: perceptions, cognition, and emotions.

Topic 3. Interests and Positions

Welcome to Topic 3. Interests and Positions. In this topic, we are going to extend the concept of negotiating beyond the characteristic positions of a transaction, consisting of physical elements like value that we complain (bargain) about. We are going to venture into the underlying interests that make up the foundation of value creation, in which the parties involved in the negotiation process mutually benefit, and at the same time promote long term relationships. This paradigm is known in specialized literature as negotiation based on interests.

Topic 4. Conflict Resolution

Welcome to Topic 4: conflict resolutions. We will analyze the structure of a conflict, using the architecture of the conflict spiral to try to resolve it before it escalates and becomes a confrontation. In order to do so, we enter a counter-intuitive model with a very powerful skill known as changing the frame of reference. This a very effective method to achieve successful negotiations without damaging the relationships of the parties involved.