Travelling to the Source of the World’s Top Negotiators
The team at Acquire Procurement Services attended the Harvard Law School Negotiation and Leadership Program in Boston, Massachusetts last month. Run by a consortium based in Harvard University, the programme was designed to accelerate participant’s negotiation and leadership capabilities. It examined core decision-making challenges, analysed complex negotiation scenarios, and provided a range of competitive and cooperative negotiation strategies to be used in both private and public negotiation environments.
The program focused on how to shape important deals, negotiate in uncertain environments, improve working relationships, claim (and create) more value, and resolve seemingly non-negotiable disputes.
Why the Harvard Program On Negotiation?
At Acquire, one of our goals to deliver our mission is to ‘be the industry leaders in spend analysis and negotiation’.
The professors running Harvard’s Program on Negotiation are recognised globally as experts in the field and include the author of the well-known and influential book in the field of negotiation Getting to Yes: Negotiating Agreement Without Giving In.
Furthermore, these professors are considered some of the world leaders in Negotiation, Mediation, and Dispute Resolution. Members of the group have held positions such as the chair of the World Economic Forum’s Global Agenda Council on Conflict Resolution and have participated and consulted on high profile negotiations and disputes in both public and private sector contexts.
Facilitators included:
- Professor Daniel Shapiro,
author of Negotiating the Nonnegotiable: How to Resolve Your Most Emotionally Charged Conflicts (Viking, 2016); - Professor Guhan Subramanian,
author of Dealmaking: The New Strategy of Negotiauctions (W.W.Norton 2011); - Professor Robert Mnookin,
author of Bargaining with the Devil: When to Negotiate, When to Fight; Professor Gabriella Blum, author of Island of Agreement: Managing Enduring Armed Rivalries (Harvard University Press 2007) and - Professor Robert Bordone, author of Designing Systems and Processes for Managing Disputes (Aspen, 2013) and The Handbook of Dispute Resolution (Jossey-Bass, 2005).
Who attended the program?
The Negotiation and Leadership Program attracted a diverse, global audience from both the private and public sectors. Participants represented a wide range of
private sector positions including C-Suite, Vice Presidents and Board Members of multi-national organisations, through to senior positions within the public sector including a number of elite military personnel with experience in negotiating in life or death situations.
The range of perspectives from these participants fostered some very interesting discussion on negotiation theories and created complex dynamics in mock negotiation scenarios.
How will we bring our capability to you?
The team at Acquire have years of experience negotiating supply agreements for our clients. The knowledge and experience we received from the Negotiation and Leadership Program both validated the approach and methods we have been using and have provided us with some new learnings and perspectives from the thought leaders on negotiation theory.
We’d love to share our learnings and experience with you and your organisation. For more information, please contact Simon Thompson or check out some of our videos on negotiation