Sometimes, parties attend mediation without being prepared. That is, they” wing it.” I can often tell that the party is “winging it” because they did not submit a brief. The submission of a brief is as much for the party’s benefit as it is for mine: It forces the party [Read More]
Happy New Year! I hope that everyone’s 2023 is full of joy, happiness, peace and prosperity…. and brings an end to this pandemic! Over the last few days, the House of Representatives has been voting for a new Speaker. As I write this, it appears that Rep. Kevin McCarthy will [Read More]
We are all taught that before entering into any negotiation, we should give some thought to what our best alternative is if we do not settle (that is, our Best Alternative to a Negotiated Agreement or BATNA.) And along these lines, we have learned that if we have a really [Read More]
This semester, I will be co-teaching a course in negotiation. To prepare, I read the three assigned textbooks on the subject over the holidays. What struck me but not as a surprise, is that each author emphasized the importance of preparing for the mediation. None of them suggests simply walking [Read More]
A few weeks ago, the Harvard PONS blog posted an article outlining research findings that too many BATNAs may not be such a great thing. Entitled Negotiation Research: When Many BATNAs Are Worse than One by the PONS staff on July 22, 2021, it discusses a study by Michael [Read More]
Implicit in every negotiation is the question of who holds the power? “Power” is the “… respective abilit[y] of each person in the relationship to influence each other and to direct the relationship.” (bigthink.com) This balance of power does not remain in the same person throughout the negotiation. It will [Read More]
I recently read a blog post entitled, How To Make Decisions Like a Leader in 2019 appearing on the Leadership Freak website. While the article talks in terms of making decisions as a leader, its strategies apply equally well to any negotiation. For example, first and foremost, the author [Read More]
Although I have taken many many hours of training about negotiation, none of them has really involved what we witnessed during the Presidential election: extreme negotiations. In essence, both Mrs. Clinton and president-elect Trump were engaging in extreme negotiations with the American public in the hopes of becoming the 45th [Read More]
