Collaboration, Conflict, and Negotiation

Catalog description

We negotiate every day—with potential employers, coworkers, roommates, landlords, parents, bosses, merchants, romantic partners, and service providers—determining what price we will pay, the amount of our salary and compensation, what movie to watch, and who will clean the kitchen…all of these are negotiations. Although negotiations are a ubiquitous part of our everyday lives, many of us know little about the strategy and psychology of effective negotiations. Why do we sometimes get our way, while other times we walk away feeling frustrated by our inability to achieve the outcome we desire? This course will provide the opportunity to develop your negotiation skills in a series of lectures, case studies and classroom discussions where we will also share our experiences reaching good deals (or bad ones!). You will learn how to recognize, analyze, and use fundamental concepts in negotiations to reach mutually beneficial agreements. Our focus will be on both understanding the science of negotiations and applying what you learn into practice. The course will be largely experiential. Each simulation has been chosen to highlight the central concepts that underlie negotiation strategy. These exercises will provide you with an opportunity to attempt strategies and tactics in a low-risk environment, and to learn about yourself and how you respond in specific negotiation situations. If you discover a tendency that you think needs correction, this is the place to try something new. In this way, this course will allow you to build a broad array of evidence-based skills and overcome your shortcomings as a negotiator. You will get more from the course if you are willing to sit with complex ideas and problems; engage your whole self in the exercises and discussions; and learn from your experiences.