Our negotiation training programs are designed to provide participants with the skills they need to be persuasive and effective negotiators. Our programs, described in more detail below, combine theory and practice to explore the common pitfalls and challenges of negotiation and introduce participants to a framework that will help them maximize the value of their deals, while still protecting their relationships and reputation. Through the use of case studies and other activities, each participant is actively engaged and challenged in a way that helps them get a firm grasp on the skills they need to get ahead.

Negotiation Essentials Workshop

In this condensed half-day program, participants learn the essential skills that will help make them more effective negotiators. Through a combination of informative lectures, interactive negotiation exercises, group discussion, and micro-skills drilling, participants are actively challenged and engaged. Each participant will learn:

• The common reasons why negotiations fail;
• A framework for thinking about and understanding negotiation;
• A method for preparing for upcoming negotiations;
• In-the-moment strategies for diagnosing negotiation difficulties and responding effectively to them;
• Ways to create more value in negotiations;
• Ways to be assertive without being aggressive;
• Ways to effectively deal with challenging and difficult people;
• Ways to protect oneself from being taken advantage of or cheated.

Due to the interactive nature of this program, the enrollment for our Negotiation Essentials Workshops must be capped at only 24 students. Over the course of the six-hour program, participants will have many opportunities to engage in class discussions and work directly with their instructors and classmates as they develop their negotiation skills together. It is our experience that this smaller class-size helps our participants walk away with a much stronger grasp of the material and skills being presented (as well as a stronger network of friends and business contacts).

Value Creation and Distribution Workshop

Studies show that even experienced negotiators often fail to arrive at agreements that capture the most available benefit for both parties – in other words, they miss opportunities to create value for both parties, and in so doing for their side. In this intensive half-day program, participants will learn about ways they can overcome the challenges of value creation to reach deals that maximize their gains. In addition to learning how to “create a larger pie”, participants will learn how to approach distribution (or “slicing the pie”) in a way that will help them make sure that they are getting their fair share. Participants will learn:

• The common reasons why value is often left on table;
• How to prepare for upcoming negotiations;
• A systematic approach to finding sources of value that are often overlooked;
• Strategies for establishing a value-creating process that encourages sharing between the parties;
• Ways to ask more effective questions during negotiations;
• Ways to manage the tension that exists between creating value and distributing value;
• A principled approach to distribution that will help ensure a fair outcome;
• Ways to protect yourself from being taken advantage of during value creation and distribution.

Due to the interactive nature of this program, the enrollment for our Value Creation and Distribution Workshop is purposely capped at only 30 students.

Negotiation Defense: Dealing with Difficult People

It can be extremely frustrating to deal with a person that uses “hard-ball” tactics or other tricks to control a negotiation. When negotiating with these people we often find that our ego and emotions quickly take control of our actions, and things like “logic” and “fairness” seem to fall to the wayside. In our Negotiation Defense workshop, participants examine these tactics from an different perspective to understand why we react to them the way we do. Through focused skills exercises, role plays, and facilitated discussion, participants will learn techniques for effectively dealing with difficult people and their tactics. More specifically, participants will learn about:

• The sources of power in negotiation;
• Ways to identify common negotiation tactics and tricks;
• In-the-moment strategies for controlling internal responses to difficult tactics;
• Ways to change the structure of the negotiation to move away from tactics and tricks;
• A systematic approach to protect oneself and ensuring that the outcome is fair.

Due to the interactive nature of this program, the enrollment for our Negotiation Defense Workshop is purposely capped at only 24 students.

Negotiating with Clients

Sometimes the negotiation “behind the table” with clients can be more challenging than the negotiation at the table with the other side. It can be especially difficult when aggressive clients try to push in directions that that you think are unwise or possibly unethical. In this program participants will focus on skills that will help them be more effective in managing the expectations of their clients and will learn techniques that will enable them to have open conversations with their clients without damaging the relationship. While some time will spent in lecture format, most of this program will be focused on skill development through role plays and interactive exercises.

Negotiating With Your Attorney

The high-cost and high-stakes of litigation make it so that clients repose a lot of trust in attorneys. The dynamic of this relation can make negotiating with your attorney unbalanced and awkward. In our "Negotiating with Your Attorney" Workshop participants will learn how to handle this delicate interaction when negotiating legal fees and other costs with your attorney. Through a combination of lectures and exercises, participants will come to understand ways to reduce legal costs and how to effectively manage the attorney/client relationship. In this three-hour program, participants will learn:

• the structure of successful attorney/client negotiations
• sources of power in negotiating with your attorney
• ways to reduce high legal costs at the outset of litigation
• how to spot "red flags" in your billing statements and how to deal with them effectively