“Like it or not, you are a negotiator. Negotiation is a fact of life” – Roger Fisher, William Ury
Negotiation is a core skill that we use in all aspects of business life, from agreeing contracts to resolving disputes to implementing solutions. The context may change, but the principles that underly a successful negotiation don’t.
Most negotiators develop their skills over time. We have designed four related workshops that can be tailored according to the audience and be built around diverse scenarios such as a major corporate transaction to human resources (delivering performance feedback, salary negotiations, workplace issues) to product sales (and returns) to lease negotiations. Our commercial negotiation workshops are:
- Introduction to Negotiation, a 1-day primer which introduces the fundamentals of negotiation and explores personal negotation styles
- Core Negotiation, A 2-day workshop which introduces and develops core negotiation concepts and techniques and personal negotiation styles
- Advanced Negotiation, a 3-day workshop for experienced professionals that focuses on complex negotiations
- Managing a Negotiation, a 1-day practical workshop which focuses on analysing and strategising a negotiation situation, and planning, preparing and conducting the negotiation
The workshops can be adapted for negotiators of any seniority. Their content and structure is outlined below, but they can be adapted according to your requirements.
We can also offer negotiation coaching, strategising and planning to help prepare and support clients who are about to embark on a major negotiation.
Introduction to Negotiation
This 1-day workshop draws on the Thomas-Kilmann Conflict Modes Instrument (TKI). TKI recognises five conflict-handling modes - competing, collaborating, compromising, avoiding and accommodating. These conflict modes differ in terms of two basic aspects: assertiveness – the degree to which a person tries to satisfy his own concerns; and co-operativeness – the degree to which a person tries to satisfy the concerns of the other person. In negotiations, people commonly use a couple of these modes, and typically default to one mode. However the different modes can be used at different points and in different ways to achieve a negotiating aim, and skilled, experienced negotiators can readily slip between modes.
The workshop begins with participants completing a TKI self-assessment. Through this they can identify which negotiating styles they tend to use and recognise and understand their own style. They are then introduced to the five modes and are helped to appreciate how the different modes can be used to achieve a negotiating aim and how to maximise the effectiveness of each mode.
Core Negotiation
This 2-day workshop builds on the Introduction to Negotiation workshop. The Core Negotiation workshop draws (critically) on the work of the highly acclaimed Harvard Negotiation Project (which promotes a “principled” “win-win” approach to negotiation as described in Fisher and Ury’s seminal book “Getting to YES”), and also looks at alternative negotiating strategies, such as positional “win-lose” bargaining, which are more common default modes.
Regardless of the negotiating strategy that is adopted (or perhaps imposed), we cover common negotiation techniques that can have a bearing on whether or not there is a successful outcome. These include framing the objectives of the negotiation, recognising interests and positions, and developing a negotiation strategy.
Learning is supported by negotiation simulations, including a recorded exercise on which participants will receive individualised feedback.
Advanced Negotiation
This 3-day workshop is designed for experienced negotiators. It explores advanced negotiation techniques and tactics around complex issues and looks at critical aspects such as linguistics and behaviour, addressing relative strength and weakness and techniques for dealing with difficult people. The workshop includes two recorded exercises on which participants will receive individualised feedback. There is also an opportunity to develop a personal negotiation development plan.
Managing a Negotiation
In this 1-day, highly practical workshop, participants analyse and strategise a negotiation situation, and plan, prepare and conduct the negotiation. The negotiation is recorded and participants receive individualised feedback. The workshop is designed for people who are familiar with core concepts of negotiation technique and can be combined with other workshops.
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