June 2009 - Welcome to MWI's Negotiation Newsletter, providing you with negotiation news you can use. Our goal is to bring you helpful tips and advice, along with up-to-date information about MWI's work in the world of negotiation.

In this issue:

> COMMUNICATION 2.0 – The Perils of Communicating Through Technology

> Meet a MWI Negotiation Instructor: Monica Parker

> Procurement Success: Establishing A Systematic Approach To Negotiating Sourcing Agreements

> Program Developments at MWI

> About MWI's Negotiation Programs and Services
 

COMMUNICATION 2.0 – The Perils of Communicating Through Technology

This article was published in the Harvard Negotiation Law Review (HNLR) Online on April 5, 2009

Think of all the ways our lives have been made easier and more efficient with technology. With just the click of a button (or a mouse), we have the world at our fingertips. Communication alone has changed drastically over the past decade (for the better, right?). Besides face-to-face meetings and phone calls, we have email, instant messaging (IM), text messaging, eNewsletters, blogs, list-serves, online forums and threads, virtual reality, webcasts and webinars (and more that I’m not aware of, I’m sure!) that enable us to keep in touch. Just a short time ago our primitive ancestors communicated via fax, courier and (gasp!) snail mail. Life really has gotten easier.

Or has it?

While most of us tend to focus on the benefits of the instant communication world we live in, few take into account the downsides of these new modes of communication. Have you or someone you know ever: hit the “send” button, only to regret it later? Misinterpreted someone’s email or post because you didn’t fully understand their intentions or the background? Received an email in all caps and wondered why you were being yelled at?

These are only a few of the new perils of communication we all face in the age of technology. But fear not (or fear less), with some understanding of why these perils exist and what you can do to address them, you may be able to limit the downsides.

First, studies have shown that a substantial amount of communication is non-verbal. When you communicate through technology, you may be considerably limiting the amount of information you send or receive. Sarcasm, intonation and other nuance fall by the wayside when words are communicated on the screen.

Take, for example, the following sentence and think for just a moment of all the various ways this message can be interpreted, depending on where the emphasis is placed.

“I didn’t tell Sarah you were being difficult”

Did someone else tell Sarah you were being difficult? Did I tell someone else but not Sarah? Did I tell Sarah something, but not that you were being difficult? My guess is that you came up with additional variations. It’s amazing how many ways we can interpret one simple sentence. Imagine the possibilities in a more complex message.

The next time an email comes across your desk that makes you react emotionally, consider that you may be misinterpreting the message or may not have all the relevant information. Equally important, the next time you send a message, consider that it may be interpreted in multiple ways. The fact that you know how you intend for your message to be received biases you even more to believe that’s the way your message will be read.

Second, in my work as a negotiation consultant and trainer, I’m made aware only too often of the false assumptions people make in both simple and complex conversations. These false assumptions affect how we look at and react to various circumstances. As human beings, we’re hardwired to make these assumptions, which serve as shortcuts for social interaction; otherwise, we’d have to start from scratch in every scenario. But these assumptions can also get in the way of effective communication. We have to be aware that we’re making them, especially when information and communication are limited, as in email or other electronic modes of communication. It’s important to take some extra time to confirm that your assumptions are correct before responding. Doing so will enable you to move forward with confidence or correct your false assumptions prior to taking an action you’ll later regret.

Finally, consider the lasting permanence of having your words captured forever in writing. Granted, you might be able to debate whether the message the reader received was what you intended (to my point above), but your words will exist in permanence. In addition, not only can they be misinterpreted by the individual the message was intended for, emails can also be forwarded to a much wider audience. This impact is exacerbated when we respond in public forums. Remember - the words you write are often directly linked to your name, website, social networking page, etc. These words often lay the foundation for your reputation long before you can shape it yourself.

Given this insight to the dangers of communication through technology, what are we to do? Abandon them? That would be impossible. Instead, consider the following points of advice:

First and foremost, don’t default to one mode over another, but strategically choose your medium based on the situation. Convening a meeting or relaying numbers and “facts”? Email may be appropriate. Trying to resolve a dispute or misunderstanding? Increase the level of communication through more interaction – pick up the phone or request a meeting in person.

Second, train yourself to pause or even sleep on an emotionally charged email that you’ve written prior to sending. Consider that you may not have all the information or that you may be misinterpreting the message they intended to send. Consider also that what you’ve written may reach a wider audience than intended. When writing, assume you have no control over who sees your words. Once you’ve taken some time between reacting and sending, you may be able to revisit your email or post and alter it accordingly.

In the face of new tools and technology, we must often reevaluate how we operate to account for the benefits as well as the dangers. Navigating new means of business and social interaction can take time and experience. Fortunately, there are others blazing a path forward for the rest of us. It’s important to learn from them and to recall that these tools at our disposal are relatively new – like all new tools and inventions, it’ll take us some time to understand all of the long-term implications and to find ways to effectively work within or around them.


Stephen Frenkel is the Director of Negotiation Programs at MWI, a negotiation training and consulting firm based in Boston, Massachusetts. Stephen can be reached at sfrenkel@mwi.org  or at 800-348-4888 x24. More information about MWI can be found at www.mwi.org/negotiation.
 

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Outside the Classroom - Meet an MWI Negotiation Instructor

Featuring: Monica Parker

Monica Parker is a trainer and consultant in the areas of negotiation, communication, and conflict resolution and a former practicing attorney at Alston & Bird, LLP and Mazursky & Dunaway, LLP. She has served as a Lecturer on Law at Harvard Law School teaching the negotiation course for law students and as a member of the teaching team for the executive version of the course at the Program of Instruction for Lawyers at Harvard Law. As a trainer, Monica has conducted negotiation and communication workshops for Goldman Sachs, IBM, Deloitte & Touche, the Environmental Protection Agency, and the Rockefeller Foundation, among others. As a part of her consulting practice, Monica has facilitated dialogue amongst a college faculty embroiled in a dispute, coached an internet start-up on how to improve strained relationships with investors, and helped to develop and deliver a sexual harassment training program at The Citadel, a military college in South Carolina. Monica is also the founder of LeavingTheLaw.com, an organization that provides career coaching for dissatisfied lawyers. Monica earned a B.A. cum laude in English and American Literature from Harvard College and a J.D. from Harvard Law School. Prior to law school, Monica developed film scripts for Spike Lee at 40 Acres and A Mule Filmworks and worked as an assistant manager for Winn Dixie, a Southeastern grocery chain.

Interview conducted by Stephen Frenkel, MWI’s Director of Negotiation Programs, on December 18, 2008.

SF: Thanks for speaking with me today Monica.

MP: My pleasure Stephen.

SF: As you know, our goal for this column is to introduce our readers to our training team – you know, give them a sense of our trainers’ background and skills as well as just a general sense of who you are.

MP: Makes sense to me...

SF: So, my first question is: how long have you worked in the field of ADR?

MP: Gosh. It’s been over a decade at this point. I actually started while I was in law school.

SF: And how did that happen for you?

MP: It was a wonderful fortuitous opportunity. As a first-year student at Harvard Law, I got into the negotiation workshop. That’s a big deal because it’s a very popular course - there’s even a lottery, so it’s not like you can just sign up for it at registration. It was a course I’d heard a lot of wonderful things about, so I felt very fortunate to get in.

And I loved it. It was so different from the rest of my law school classes, very nontraditional. No Socratic method for starters, it was very interactive. We had actual case simulations to negotiate. There were small group discussions, a small section of students as well as a large lecture, so there was lots of variety. And it was just a great experiential opportunity to learn about negotiation as well as to practice it. So I fell in love with the class, I also fell in love with my instructors. And with the way it went, my instructor asked if I would be a teaching assistant for him my 2L year.

SF: Oh great. And was Roger Fisher teaching that course at the time?

MP: Mr. Fisher was teaching! It was very exciting to learn from Roger since he wrote Getting to Yes, our negotiation bible. Bruce Patton was also teaching at the time, and my instructor for the course was John Richardson.

SF: Wonderful.

MP: That’s how I ended up being a TA. I was surrounded by incredible people. Sheila Heen, Doug Stone and Scott Peppet were all teaching at the time. I was very fortunate. I came in at a terrific time. I’m sure I’m missing some great people to add to this list, but…

SF: So you took the class, then you TA-ed, and then how did you transition into a full-blown teacher and practitioner?

MP: That was also an interesting process. I TA’d the course for both my 2L year and 3L year. I worked with a number of highly talented people and, while I got to work with Roger Fisher, I was also there for the changing of the guard, when Bob Mnookin came. And I got to TA for him a couple of times too.

SF: Wow, you really were in the right place at the right time.

MP: I really was. I had awesome experiences working with just about everybody you’d want to work with. I was obviously very involved in [PON], since I was TA-ing for both the spring workshops as well as winter term and the Program of Instruction for Lawyers (PIL) and I got to work with a lot of really great people in the program. That was really the highlight of my law school experience.

I actually considered moving into the field right after graduation and had conversations with several folks in the field in the Cambridge area. I ultimately decided to try to practice law first – I thought it might be an easier transition since that’s why I was at law school in the first place. Of course, law practice also comes attached with a big paycheck, which seemed helpful for all my law school loans.

My final consideration was that I wanted to move back to the South, where I was from. I knew if I dove right in, I’d probably need to stay in the area for a year or two, so people could really get to know me. But I really did want to head back home, to the South. So I moved back to Atlanta, though I’m from Savannah originally, and I worked for one of the large firms in Atlanta for about a year.

Maybe mid-way through that first year, I got a call from Robert Bordone at Harvard Law, asking if I’d be interested in being a lecturer for the course. You don’t really pass that up, so I quit my law firm job and got appointed as a lecturer in law, thinking not only would I lecture for a semester, but that that would a great time to jump into the field. Of course, the credential of teaching at Harvard is always helpful and I figured I’d be surrounded by folks in the field and they’d think of me as opportunities arose.

So I came back to Cambridge for winter term. I taught my own class and did my lectures, and then began doing corporate training work full-time. I worked with a few different companies in the area that were forming around that time, one of them being MWI.

SF: That’s a great story. I love hearing how people got their start. Thanks for sharing.

MP: My pleasure, it’s fun reliving that stuff.

SF: And…besides teaching at Harvard and privately, what other ways do you practice in the field?

MP: Here’s what I found very valuable and I think this is something that the law school course emphasizes as well – you can think about negotiations through a theoretical framework – you can look at all the literature and you can learn everything out there about negotiation – you know, effective communication, conflict resolution, all that good stuff. There’s that and then there’s practice. Because I was so steeped in the negotiation framework when I came out of law school, I used it pretty naturally while I was practicing law. First, in litigation, then transactional – it’s all inherently negotiation and more often than not, conflict resolution. That’s a lot of what law’s about. It was a terrific opportunity to take our framework and apply it in the real world. I wasn’t necessarily teaching at the time, but I was certainly using the skills and developing my comfort as well.

I also had some other fun opportunities that came about in my law practice. I worked with a company that needed some conflict resolved with a potential vendor, thinking better ways of looking at the conflict and creative ways to resolve it. I became a coach or consultant in these skills. I worked with a college that had conflict engrained within a department.

I also got to work with [other colleagues] at the Citadel Military College in South Carolina in Charleston. That was fun because it wasn’t just straight negotiation or communication training. It was truly stepping into helping a community learn how to resolve and manage conflict more effectively. As you may recall they ended up in a bit of a court battle over co-education and, per court order, they were required to implement this program, among others I’m sure. And so we went into the schools to help with leadership training, race relations, and primarily helping them to develop a sexual harassment training. They wanted to teach incoming cadets about sexual harassment - what it is, how to avoid it and how to manage those kinds of conflicts in general

That was an amazing project, both because of the work and also because of just how amazing the cadets were. They were the most warm and welcoming and hard-working students, I’d ever seen. I was very impressed with the amount of effort that their students, as well as the administration, put into the program.
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SF: And just to flip how all the teaching benefited your practice, how does all the practice help and influence your work as an instructor?

MP: Oh man. Well, to say that I was steeped in the framework in law school, then taught the course itself and then went out in the real world and tried it out, certainly gives me credibility and also gives me a grasp of how these concepts work in a professional context - it’s a little different from working with law students.

SF: Absolutely.

MP: My practice also regularly shows me the range or the depth with which you could use the material. As a lawyer you could use it in helping clients resolve conflicts, but you could also use it internally with colleagues at the firm. I think that was key for me, key to my success. When I had conflicts with colleagues, higher-ups, whoever or whatever it was, I had the skills to manage that conflict more effectively. This is all not to mention that everywhere I’ve been, I’ve been the go-to-person for other people’s conflicts. Partners would come by my office for advice communicating with their admins, looking to resolve issues as opposed to letting people go.

And I could step in and offer support there. I also helped facilitate conversations with people of different seniority at the firm, which helped reinforce just how powerful the material is. People often think about the application in more traditional terms, for when they “negotiate” in the traditional sense of the word, but in fact as you and I both know people negotiate any time they’re trying to persuade someone to do or not to do something.

SF: Absolutely. That’s a large part of our mission here, as you know – helping people influence others and broaden their whole definition of negotiation to understand the broad applicability of the skill-set. It’s exciting work.

MP: It IS very exciting. I was such a disciple of the material that I probably drove people crazy over the years with my enthusiasm. I just found so many useful applications for it.

SF: Well, you’ve already answered my next question, but I’ll ask it anyway and you can let me know if there’s anything else you want to add: what do you like most about teaching negotiation?

MP: You know, I say this a lot when I start a class – I’m not just doing this to make a living. I’m doing it because I found that [negotiation] course to be the most helpful course probably that I’ve ever taken. It has influenced my life greatly and it’s had a kind of a ripple effect on the people around me. That’s the power of it – it catches on and changes things for others too. I just love passing it on. I also find it’s great to introduce helpful tools and frameworks for conflict resolution. It’s not that it’s THE perfect way of doing things, but the more resources you have at your disposal, the better off you’re going to be. It’s just great to bring people another way of looking at issues.

There’s also just so much diversity in the work we do. You know, it’s never a class where you are just talking at people about negotiation, you know, “here’s this rigid program or structure for negotiation.” No, it’s more of a facilitation – here’s what we see about it, here’s what we’ve learned…what are your experiences? I love the interactive nature of it all. I think that’s what separates MWI’s programming from a lot of other companies that offer training on these topics. We don’t just offer lectures, watching people’s eyes glaze over as we convey information. We’re really thinking about how to transfer this material and these ideas in a way that people understand, in a way that they get it, in a way that they engage and that they are willing to practice it in the moment and actually take it with them as opposed to the typical approach that leads to sticking the binder on the shelf and letting it gather dust.

SF: I couldn’t have put it better myself. Just a couple more questions – I want to make sure our readers feel like they can get to know you better.

MP: Sure, no problem.

SF: Where are you located these days?

MP: I’m back in Atlanta – I’m a southern girl (laughs). There’s a little debate about that since I was actually born in Youngstown, Ohio, but…I grew up in Savannah.

SF: Don’t worry – I won’t tell anyone.

MP: In my mind, I’m a southern girl - my parents are from the South, both of my brothers were born in the South. I’m as Southern as it gets. But don’t get me wrong - I am NOT a Southern gal.

SF: Thanks for clarifying that! (laughs).. Do you practice out of the state? Do you travel?

MP: Oh, I’m all over the place. The majority of my work is out the state, both throughout the US as well as internationally. That’s not too bad of a perk by the way - the ability to travel. I love to tack on a day or two at least so I can try to explore wherever I am, especially if it’s somewhere I hadn’t been before.

SF: I like the international trips too.

MP: I know! You get the itch…I think my last trip was to Singapore. That was a long trip, and I find myself missing it oddly enough.

SF: And what do you do and enjoy doing when you are not teaching courses and practicing?

MP: Hm. So, being a former practicing lawyer, one of my loves is working with other lawyers who find themselves in the interesting situation of not wanting to practice. I started a company, called leavingthelaw.com where I help unhappy lawyers find and pursue fulfilling work outside of the law. It could be that they are just miserable and they don’t know what they want, or it could be they are just thinking that maybe practicing law isn’t quite for them, or they need to get out of there TODAY. And I am really pleased because last fall I had a book published by Sourcebooks called The Unhappy Lawyer: A Roadmap to Finding Meaningful Work Outside of the Law. So that was very exciting for me. I’m actually working on the flip side of things now, on a book for the American Bar Association about how women of color can thrive within the practice of law, which I’m enjoying as well.

Please don’t hear me saying that I am all work because I am most certainly not. I do enjoy travelling as much as I can, but when I say travelling I mean spending time with family who are located in different cities and states.

I’m also an avid mystery novel reader. I’m obsessed. My first job out of college, was exciting and exhilarating, but it was also stressful, I was working for Spike Lee at 40 Acres and A Mule Filmworks. I was reading screenplays, going to film festivals, and seeing as many films as I could. I had to come up with projects for Spike’s executive producer. So an amazing and high stakes first job out of college. At the time I lived in Brooklyn, and I would actually go to Brooklyn Heights to decompress on a Saturday. I’d have lunch and then I’d go to the bookstore and pick up a mystery novel. I’d go down by the river and sit there and read. In fact, I read so much at the time that I have the entire Agatha Christie collection from the two years I was in Brooklyn. My bookshelf is pretty much all mystery.

SF: What are you reading right now?

MP: Right now, and I hope I’m not the only one who does this, I’m re-reading my Nevada Barr collection. She’s got an awesome mystery collection that’s based on a park ranger who stumbles over all of these mysteries and solves them.

SF: I LOVE re-reading books! I find it brings me back to where I was when I read them the first time.

MP: That’s so true! I actually make a habit of keeping and reading the receipt in the back of the book. It doesn’t always work, it’s not fool proof, but plenty of times I’ll re-read something and flip to the back and there is the receipt from 1993, transporting back to where I was at the time. What a journey.

S: OK One last question for you: do you have a quote either of your own or somebody else’s that you think sums up your vision or your enthusiasm for negotiation and negotiation training?

MP: That’s a good question. I actually quoted it in my book and you can let me know if it works for you: “Tell me what else should I have done, doesn’t everything die at last and too soon, tell me what is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life!” That’s Mary Oliver, poet. I think it applies well here.

SF: I think it does too.

MP: You know, we’ve got one life. It’s over too quickly. There’s an opportunity to, I don’t know, learn, engage, grow, stretch, you know experience conflict, resolve it, all in one full sweep. I mean how exciting is that?

SF: It’s what gets me going too.

MP: It’s been funny doing this with you, Stephen. I don’t know if it’s the way you interview or if it’s just the process of talking about it, but it’s been very easy. I think sometimes in life I get caught up wondering what I’ve accomplished, what I’ve done, how much do I actually know. Just talking this out makes me realize it’s been over a decade and I am still just as much in love with conflict resolution as I was when I first “discovered” it.

SF: I’m happy to hear that Monica. It’s so important to love what you do. Those are all the questions I have for you. Thanks again Monica, I think this was a great interview.

MP: Me too! Thanks Stephen.


For more information about Monica and her professional experience, please click here. Information about MWI’s Negotiation Training and Services can be found by clicking here.
 

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Procurement Success: Establishing a Systematic Approach to Negotiating Sourcing Agreements

The following story illustrates one example of the value achieved through the skills delivered and practiced in MWI’s Negotiation Skills Workshop for one of MWI’s Drugstore/Pharmaceutical supply clients.  The company name has been made fictitious to protect confidentiality.

The Initiative:

Like many successful corporate teams, Pharmagoods’ Strategic Sourcing group is comprised of highly effective professionals with a wide range of experience and varied approaches to negotiating sourcing agreements.  While the department already has a successful track record, senior leadership consistently recognizes the need for ongoing evaluation and improvement. 

Procurement professionals are often in a tough spot – negotiating on both sides of the fence, between internal business units as well as external vendors.  Recognizing this challenge, team leaders are always looking for new skills and tools that will improve the department’s efficiency, effectiveness and success. 

In addition, based on previous experience, they recognize the necessity of fully understanding and prioritizing their needs upfront, communicating those needs effectively to their prospective vendors and negotiating thorough and durable agreements.  The impact of this approach, they realized, will lead to sustainable long-term vendor relationships and will avoid difficult contract renegotiations and relationship reparations.

In the spring of 2008, MWI delivered a customized in-house Collaborative Negotiation Training program for Pharmagoods’ Strategic Sourcing team.  Based on concepts developed at the Harvard Negotiation Project and customized exercises designed from pre-workshop diagnostics, MWI worked with this team, introducing concepts and providing opportunities to practice the skills in a way that increases retention and application.

Over the course of two days, culminating with real-world challenge application sessions, the team acquired an extensive understanding of the value of taking a collaborative approach to negotiation, as well as the value of entering into negotiations well prepared, utilizing a systematic framework designed to help the team consider their underlying needs and interests (beyond price) as well as important questions, creative options for successful agreements and sources of confidence and power that they might not have considered previously.

The Impact:

In July 2008, two members of the Strategic Sourcing team, Denise and Ralph, were paired together to negotiate a complex procurement arrangement for janitorial services at one of Pharmagoods’ mail order facilities.  Based on previous challenges and the lessons learned in the workshop, this duo took steps in advance of the negotiation to fully understand the requirements and priorities of their internal client. 

According to Denise, proper preparation was essential to their success: “The MWI worksheet helped us recognize and prioritize all of our objectives and kept them in front of us while we negotiated with the vendor, which helped us to avoid any stumbles or thinking of questions or considerations only in hindsight.”

Among those objectives was Pharmagoods’ requirement not only for the best price, but for special guidelines and timelines as well as the condition and treatment of the tools used to accomplish the job.  Further, through the open-ended inquiry techniques they learned in the workshop, they also uncovered the consequences of a vendor failing to meet those needs – a failure to perform on the part of the vendor would result in the shutting down of the facility and the failure of Pharmagoods to meet the needs of its customers – obviously, an unacceptable result.  This prompted the team to negotiate some creative clauses, including penalties for missed deadlines or failures to perform and emergency stand-by status, as well as trial runs prior to full commitment in order to ensure the services were up to par and delivered as promised.  

Of course, since cost is a high priority for procurement, it’s important to mention that Pharmagoods utilized this new framework to determine competitive rates and other sources of strength.  Empowered by information, Denise and Ralph successfully negotiated a price reduction greater than 20% for the first 18 months of service (12.4% thereafter), saving close to $30,000 in that term.  While this was not the lowest quoted price, through careful strategic analysis, Pharmagoods was able to determine that this vendor met their varied interests better than any other provider and they were pleased with the results.

Finally, Denise commented on the value of these tools for her partnership with Ralph.  “I’m a new analyst and Ralph has been doing this for years.  The use of this form helped someone with lots of experience work together with someone fairly new…We were able to work together and pull our scales.  It really helped make us feel like we were on the same platform.  Because I could contribute my own ideas to a framework we learned together, Ralph wasn’t dictating because of his experience and I wasn’t confused by what was going on – we were much more equal.”

Through the training and implementation process, it’s clear that Pharmagoods has adjusted their approach to complex negotiations.  Today, taking what we call “Total Deal Value” into account, needs beyond price are more fully considered, resulting in sourcing agreements that are more thorough, efficient and cost effective than ever before.

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Program Developments at MWI

At MWI, we are always looking for opportunities to develop new programs and improve existing ones, with the ultimate goal of offering services that meet the needs and address the challenges of our clientele. To that end, we are pleased to inform you of the following program developments and enhancements:

New Programs

VALUE MAXIMIZATION PROGRAM:

MWI’s Value Maximization Program is a service designed to help negotiators ensure they’ve developed the most valuable and creative agreements. While our training programs are designed to teach negotiation skills and our coaching programs are designed to help negotiators prepare for their upcoming challenges, our Value Maximization Program is designed to ensure negotiators have maximized and captured the creative potential of their unique opportunity, retroactively.

Click here to learn more about this program.


COMMUNICATION 2.0 - COMMUNICATING EFFECTIVELY THROUGH TECHNOLOGY:

Communicating through technology can be highly beneficial. Unfortunately, as is the case with many tools, defaulting to one approach has its hazards and drawbacks. This customized session is designed to encourage participants to choose their mode of communication strategically for each unique situation. They will learn to analyze their needs and they’re goals, while assessing the benefits and risks of each communication tool at their disposal. The result will be a selection designed to ensure that the message sent is clear, effective and efficient while minimizing miscommunication and misunderstanding.

Click here to preview an article on this subject recently published in the Harvard Negotiation law Review.

Revised Programs

DEALING WITH DIFFICULT NEGOTIATORS AND TACTICS WORKSHOP

MWI’s Dealing with Difficult Negotiators and Tactics Workshop offers participants concrete advice and hands on practice for learning how to identify, diagnose and respond to difficult negotiation tactics, behaviors and circumstances.

This course will provide participants with the skills necessary to productively handle difficult negotiations, without further escalating the problem or preventing them from getting their job done.

Participants in MWI’s Dealing with Difficult Negotiators and Tactics Workshop can expect to learn how to:

• Build a working language that will allow them to speak productively with difficult negotiators;

• Diagnose unproductive behavior;

• Lead the Interest-based process of negotiation in challenging circumstances;

• Respond to difficult negotiation situations without further escalating the problem;

• React to threats and otherwise uncooperative behavior;

• Separate the people from the problem;

• Communicate clearly and effectively in order to build and improve working relationships.


 

NEGOTIATING CONTRACT CLAUSES FOR THE NON-LEGAL PROFESSIONAL

Many non-legal professionals find themselves negotiating legal documents and contracts. Even when legal support is available, negotiators are encouraged to take the process as far as they can prior to involving Legal. This process, to the untrained eye, can be daunting and stressful.

MWI’s Instructors will work with your group to address specific contract clauses that present frequent challenges or areas of uncertainty to your team. Based on intensive diagnostics, we will design and deliver a ½-day to 2-day advanced workshop that will:

• Refresh the concepts delivered in MWI’s Negotiation Skills Workshop;

• Introduce and discuss the definitions and underlying Interests behind specific legal terminology and contract clauses that your team has identified as challenging/problematic;

• Apply the MWI Seven Element Framework to challenging legal terminology in an effort to better understand how to engage in productive negotiation about the use, non-use or alteration of those clauses;

• Provide participants with an opportunity to practice the skills learned through an interactive role play.
 

For more information about these services for you or for your organization, please click here.


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MWI offers customized negotiation training and coaching services. Our work is built on the ideas of collaborative/interest-based negotiation, generated at the Harvard Negotiation Project and captured in the bestseller Getting to Yes by Roger Fisher and Bill Ury. The underlying goal of these programs is to maximize value for all parties while improving long-term working relationships. For more information about these services for you or your organization, please click here.


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Questions and comments should be sent to negotiation@mwi.org.

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