Featured Article

Don’t be held hostage to your emotions

Business negotiations often fail; meanwhile, hostage negotiations have an incredibly high success rate—up to 94%. We spoke with former police psychologist and hostage negotiator George A. Kohlrieser, the Distinguished Professor of Leadership and Organizational Behavior at IMD Business School in Switzerland and the author of Hostage at the Table: How Leaders Can Overcome Conflict, Influence Others, and Raise Performance (Jossey-Bass, 2006), about what business negotiators can learn from the high-risk enterprise of hostage negotiations.
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Maximizing attention in negotiation

In negotiation, late nights, tight deadlines, and other constraints can lead to deal-drafting errors, New York state lawmakers are finding. Don’t let such distractions mar your decisions.
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Managing the “negotiator’s dilemma”

Negotiators face a fundamental tension between cooperating and competing. New research suggests a way you can do both: Make multiple, equivalent simultaneous offers.
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Simplify complex negotiations with stakeholder alignment

In complex, multiparty negotiations, the task of value creation can quickly become overwhelming because of the large number of parties and interests at stake.
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The art of the threat

Rash, attention-getting threats may be U.S. president Donald Trump’s favorite negotiating tactic, but they have led to unmet goals and mistrust. To succeed, threats need to be delivered rarely and judiciously.
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When outsiders have an interest in your negotiation

A merger between Renault and Fiat Chrysler seemed like a match made in heaven, but the negotiators’ failure to consider the objections of outside parties led the promising deal to collapse.
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Leading negotiation experts

Do experts on negotiation practice what they preach? To find out, we spoke with Harvard Law School and Harvard Business School professor Guhan Subramanian.
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For a better deal, look beyond your BATNA

When negotiators focus too narrowly on their best alternative to a negotiated agreement, they overlook opportunities to create value.
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How serious is your agent’s conflict of interest?

A dispute between TV writers and their agents highlights how competing motives can keep agents from bargaining hard on their clients’ behalf.
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To get unstuck, enlist a mediator

Most businesspeople understand the value of using mediation to resolve conflicts, but did you know that professional mediators can help you reach agreement during the dealmaking phase? Stephen Goldberg, professor emeritus at Northwestern School of Law, describes how mediators can aid parties in creating value at the negotiating table.
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