Negotiation Course
Spring 2008
Purposes and Structure of the Course:
The focus of this course will be to prepare you to understand and manage effectively the
tensions in the negotiation process. These will include: the tension between creating and
distributing value, the tension between the need to empathize with other side’s interests, the
need to assert one’s own interests, and the tension between internal and external
negotiations. The primary pedagogical goal is to help you manage negotiations more
effectively by teaching you to prepare, conduct and review negotiations, and to be aware of a
variety of negotiation styles and processes.
The course will improve both your conceptual knowledge about the understanding of the
negotiation process and your practical skills and effectiveness as a negotiator. It will be
conducted in workshop format to combine theory and practice with an emphasis on
negotiation skill building.
The course will integrate intellectual and experiential learning by combining readings,
presentations, and discussions with careful analysis of the negotiating process, frequent
exercises with extensive review, live and field examples, individual and small group reviews,
and will focus on the process of learning from experience.
Schedule:
We will meet on Wednesdays in Thornton 110 from 2:15-4:05, and on some Mondays from
7-9:00pm. Students should plan to spend time out of class and be available for group
meetings to conduct exercises each week. Attendance at all sessions is mandatory.
Attendance and Participation (50%):
Because of the highly experiential nature of this course, attendance at all class sessions
(including evening sessions) is required. Full attendance is essential to achieving the aims
of the course for you and others. Most exercises depend on every participant playing a
certain role. Any absence or tardiness is likely to cause significant inconvenience and loss of
opportunity for everyone, and will significantly affect your grade. If there are extenuating
circumstances, please discuss options with me in advance. Your grade will be based on how
conscientiously and insightfully you attend and participate. Participation includes out of
class exercises as well as contributing to class discussions. Failure to attend a class session
will automatically lower your overall grade by one full letter grade. Missing class for job
interviews or other travel is not acceptable.
The participation grade is based on class attendance (including timeliness), the quality (more
so than the quantity) of your in-class comments and questions, your observed engagement in
role simulations and other classroom exercises. If you attend class regularly and demonstrate
that you are well-prepared, engaged, and thinking hard about the material, you will do well
on the participation component. By weighting participation so heavily, I am trying to
encourage (and reward) your efforts to contribute to your own and your classmates’ learning.
Please remember that listening to your classmates also contributes to learning; your
participation grade will not improve if you speak just to be heard or try to dominate the
discussion (and it may suffer if your comments are irrelevant or inappropriate).
Why a Journal and What to Include? (30%)
One of the most important requirements of the course is that you keep a daily negotiation
journal. Journal writing during the course can be an excellent means of helping you achieve
a heightened level of awareness of yourself and others, and can lead to a deeper
understanding of the negotiation process. Your journal should contain reflections about your
experiences in the course, your interactions with others, the lessons you learn from class and
negotiation simulations, what you like and do not like about these experiences, what you
might do differently next time, and what unanswered questions you still have. You should
view it as an opportunity to engage in ongoing self-examination and personal growth.
You should treat journal writing as something you do for yourself. It will allow you to
follow your progress and serve as a useful reference for the future. I urge you not to hold
back on thoughts and feelings that you would like to express. In fact, I urge you to identify
ideas and feelings that you hope to understand better, discuss lessons of which you may want
to remind yourself, ask questions and try to answer them or hold them open for future
exploration. In short, you are encouraged to “dig deep” in terms of your reflections about
your experiences and focus on analytical issues, process issues, and skill-centered issues.
While there is no single correct way to keep a journal, your journal entries should avoid
simply reporting the day’s events. A brief description is appropriate to illustrate the
experiences that have intrigued or interested you, so that the reader will understand the
context. Your main focus should be on the difficulties and successes you experience, tactical
questions about which you are unsure, feelings you have of satisfaction or disappointment,
and some analysis of why you experienced what you experienced. Whenever possible, tie
these ideas to the readings assigned for the course.
Journal Guidelines and Evaluation:
Journal entries are to be handed in at the beginning of class every-other week and should be
typewritten and double-spaced. While there is no specific minimum or maximum length
required, use three to five pages per journal as a guideline. The quality of insight is far more
important than the length. I suggest that you make an entry each day. Timeliness in writing
will ensure that the events on which you are reflecting are fresh in your mind.
I will attempt to return these entries to you the following week. The purpose in reviewing
and commenting upon your journal entries is not to judge the “rightness” or “wrongness” of
your reflections or your competence as a negotiator. Rather, I will seek to gauge whether
your entries are digging deeply. That is, whether they are sufficiently descriptive, reflective,
and analytic. You should retain a copy of your weekly journal entries to help you prepare the
final strengths/weaknesses summary.
Strengths/Weaknesses Summary (20%):
At the end of the course you should review your journal and write up a final self-assessment
of yourself as a negotiator. This summary should be five to ten pages, and double-spaced.
Similar to your journal it should be analytical rather than descriptive. It should include a
self-development plan including how you aim to push your skills to the next level.
Grades will be weighted as follows:
Class participation……………………………………………………………50%
Journals……………………………………………………………………….30%
Final Strengths & Weaknesses Summary…………………………………….20%
Readings:
Throughout the course there will be readings relevant to the topics we are studying. While
you will not be tested on these readings, you are expected to integrate them into your journal
entries and comments in class. Noticeable inattention to readings will affect your
participation grade. The book ”Getting to Yes,” by Fischer and Uri, 2nd ed, and the Harvard
Business School note “Negotiation Analysis: A Synthesis,” by Watkins are general readings
that should be read at the beginning of the course. We will also use other texts and readings
such as the book “Difficult Conversations,” by Patton, Stone, and Heen.
Course Outline: (Draft)
Introduction and Purposes of the Course
Wednesday, March 2nd
Course overview
Negotiate Parker Gibson Case
Homework: Read Oil Pricing and The Sally Soprano
Journals with Objectives
Read: “Getting to Yes”
Questioning Assumptions in Negotiations
Monday, April 7th
Oil Pricing Exercise
Prepare and Negotiate: The Sally Soprano
Creating Value
Wednesday April 9th
What is a good outcome in negotiation?
Ability to explore interests and options
Review The Sally Soprano Case
Homework: Prepare in pairs, and Negotiate: Eazy’s Garage
Read Wheeler Note, “Negotiation Analysis, an Introduction”
Distributing Value
Wednesday, April 16th
Optimization and joint gains
Role of creativity in negotiation
Debrief Eazy’s Garage
Homework: The Offer
Read: Negotiating Without a Net, and Difficult Negotiations
Monday, April 21st: Watch “12 Angry Men”
Dealing with difficult Tactics/People
Wednesday, April 23rd
Diagnosing common tactics
How to change the game
Review The Offer
Prepare and Negotiate: Weathers & Evans
Read: Viking
Read: Difficult Conversations, Chapters 1, 2, & 8
Monday, April 28th
Listen to Joel Peterson Interview:
http://edcorner.stanford.edu/authorMaterialInfo.html?mid=1573
Role of Observation in Negotiation
Wednesday, April 30th
Recognizing Partisan Perceptions
Role Reversal Exercise
Homework: Negotiate “Chuck’s Wagon”
Read: Difficult Conversations, Chapters 3, 4 & 11
Errors in Social Judgment article
Partisan Perceptions Note
Framing and Speaking Clearly
Wednesday, May 7th
Barriers to effective communication
Framing Labs
Review “Chuck’s Wagon”
Homework: Casino
Read: Argyris, Good Communication That Blocks Learning
Difficult Conversations, Chapters 9 & 10
Active Listening
Wednesday, May 14th
Active listening
Review: Casino
Inquiry and paraphrasing
Homework: MedLee
Read: Heen, “Defining Gender Differences”
Wheeler, “Complexity Theory and Negotiation”
Cultural and Multi-issue Negotiations
Monday, May 19th: Chip Conley
Wednesday, May 21st
Balancing internal and external negotiations
Group dynamics and design
Review: MedLee
Homework: Negotiate Tucker Graphics
Wednesday, May 28th
Balancing internal and external negotiations
Group dynamics and design
Wednesday June 4th: Strengths and Weaknesses Summaries Due