The High-Stakes Negotiation

The High-Stakes Negotiation How to Wage It, Win It, and Survive It	Are you a masterful negotiator when the stakes are high? You want to answer, "Yes," but by what standards do you appraise your skill? The high-stakes negotiation is an opportunity to give crucial help to a client and to develop your career, but it is also an oversized opening for failure, loss, pain, resentment, and second-guessing. Base your strategy on conjecture and custom and you imperil client and career.

	This workshop takes the guessing out of negotiating. We consider case anecdotes, plus work by Harvard’s Project on Negotiation, Stanford’s Center on Conflict and Negotiation, Forbes 400 members, Fitzgerald, Machiavelli, Montaigne and Sting. We use this material, along with role simulations, to illuminate the conceptual framework, creativity, and interpersonal agility needed to orchestrate high-stakes agreements.
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	We also address the challenge of orchestrating agreements in a world where the economy, the stock market, corporate integrity, and America’s sense of invincibility are all shrouded in doubt. We examine how your understanding of money, justice, and power shape the negotiation’s course, outcome and aftermath. We study the effective use of language and numbers in bargaining maneuvers. We contrast tactics for single-issue talks with tactics for multi-issue talks. We identify tendencies that intensify antagonism, and behaviors that facilitate accord. We articulate the steps an agent must take to add value in a negotiation laden with risk. The heart of the workshop consists of two interactive role simulations and two exercises that allow you to experiment with new negotiating strategies. Material we cover will be useful in all practice areas, including client relations. You will depart with ideas that help your negotiating philosophy evolve, and with practices that strengthen your negotiating performance when someone’s future—perhaps yours—is on the line.

WilliamDevineEsquire