CMG NEGOTIATION SKILLS WORKSHOP

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The Workshop

This workshop offers concise, step-by-step proven strategies for coming to mutually acceptable agreements across a broad range of negotiations or conflicts.  These could involve superiors, colleagues, other Departments within the Federal Government, and externally with other governments, parties and communities with whom your Department deals on a regular basis. The workshop was developed by the founders of the Harvard Negotiation Project and refined by CMG through its extensive practice with public and private sector clients around the world.

Workshop Goals/ Learning Objectives

At the end of the workshop participants will have --

  • An increased awareness of (a) the negotiation process in general, and (b) their own negotiating behavior, and (c) how the ways in which they approach negotiations and their conduct contributes to, or gets in the way of, resolving difficult issues
  • A proven operational framework for preparing for negotiations, a diagnostic checklist for understanding why a negotiation is going well or badly, and practical "guidelines" for conducting productive, efficient negotiations
  • The ability to align their negotiation strategies with the goals they are trying to achieve

Content

Workshop modules include

  • Testing key assumptions about negotiating
  • Measuring success - the Harvard 7 element framework
  • Systematic preparation
  • Strategic guidelines for negotiation
  • Managing the interpersonal process - dealing with difficult behaviors and tactics
  • Tools for managing multiple-issue multi-party negotiations
  • Practical case application sessions
  • Going forward -- ways to enhance your negotiation power -- continuing to learn from your negotiation experiences

The workshop will provide participants with choices for responding to the questions most often asked about negotiation.

  • Can the way I negotiate really make a difference if the other side is more powerful_
  • How do I enhance my negotiating power_
  • How can I try out new ideas without taking too much risk_
  • What do I do if the people are the problem_
  • Does positional bargaining ever make sense_
  • How do I decide who should make the first offer and how high or low I should start_
  • Should I be fair if I don't have to be_

The program is presented in an intensive, highly interactive workshop format consisting of case negotiations, labs and simulations. Cases for each program are specifically selected to be as relevant as possible to situations which participants deal with on a daily basis.

Expected Benefits

For the individual

  • An operational framework and analytic tools for preparing for and conducting negotiations
  • Improved skills in negotiation, joint problem-solving, and decision-making
  • An enhanced ability to identify, diagnose, neutralize, and manage difficult and misleading tactics
  • The ability to learn from their own future negotiations and to continually refine those skills
For their organization
  • An enhanced capacity to identify high value solutions and to achieve the buy-in required for their successful and timely implementation
  • Stronger and more robust working relationships more capable of dealing with conflicts and internal disagreements with respect to the best course of action
  • A more efficient use of limited resources
  • Participants with the ability, as coaches and mentor to their colleagues, to transfer the process and skills and to contribute to building overall organizational capacity

Facilitation

The program is presented in an intensive highly interactive format with simulations, case negotiations, and labs. Facilitators are selected from a team of experienced instructors from Conflict Management Group.

Who Should Attend

The Harvard model of "interest-based" negotiation and the techniques covered in the workshop have broad applications. Negotiation skills are now an essential part of competence at all levels within organizations. The program is relevant to a wide audience including executives and managers responsible for managing departments, high performance teams, project leaders and teams involved in implementing major initiatives. The program can be particularly helpful for individuals whose work involves influencing and persuading others who do not report to them, but whose support and buy-in is critical to success.


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