Of the three life-altering generic skill sets, the ability to get others to agree with you is arguably the most important. In any undertaking of significance, and especially in high-stakes business encounters, knowing how to get adversaries to accept your point of view while seeing themselves as winners is crucial to your success and the prosperity of your organization. You can’t expect to ascend the corporate ladder without a solid understanding of the fundamental negotiating principles or the ability to emulate those who consistently know how to structure mutually beneficial agreements.
Negotiating is a delicate mix of art and science, of style and substance. It prizes intuition as highly as intellect, common sense as much as achieving the hard numbers. It requires emotional detachment, an understanding of the critical importance of process and a high aspiration level. Many understand the theory of making deals but very few feel fully confident in their ability to consistently secure optimal outcomes. Negotiating mastery is a game of power, real as well as imagined. While some play it superbly, others barely understand how it actually works.
This program is designed for both novice and experienced deal makers – those ready to take their skills to the next level. You’ll confront questions you’ve probably never thought about before, yet the ones every accomplished negotiator knows how to answer. It’s purpose-built for flexibility: each session is paired with pre-course work (readings, tasks and simulations). You may cherry pick only the sessions that interest you, or complete all seven to earn a Certificate of Accomplishment. If you aspire to mastery, this program was designed with YOU in mind.
Upon completion, you will be better prepared to:
❏ Enter into any negotiation with greater comfort, confidence and competence;
❏ Remain focused on achieving your objectives regardless of the pressures or challenges;
❏ Project a powerful, credible and controlled presence at the bargaining table;
❏ Engage others in co-operative problem solving aimed at mutual profit improvement;
❏ Not become the unwitting victim of the tactics and emotional ploys used by others;
❏ Utilize savvy advice to enhance your communications in cross-cultural encounters;
❏ Change attitudes, improve relationships and influence decisions that ultimately determine your career accomplishments; and
❏ Embrace negotiating as critical life skill in achieving greater success, happiness and prosperity.
What prior attendees have said:
Among hundreds of testimonials, here is what some prior participants have said about this particular learning experience …
❏ Jim taught me more about negotiating in three days than I learned in three years at law school. – Corporate Litigator, Edmonton
❏ Confirmed my suspicion that I leave far too much on the table and settle much too quickly. – VP, Toronto
❏ This course is similar to going golfing with a world class pro – you can’t play golf as well as him but you do discover where your “game” is. – CFO, Winnipeg
❏ I wish I had taken this program 30 years ago. The torrent of information, savvy insights and real stories told me how I can get whatever I want. – Consultant/Coach, Vancouver
❏ Opened my eyes to my weaknesses and reminded me that everything is negotiable. – CFO, Calgary
❏ You made me acutely aware of the hundreds of dynamics and intricacies that affect me every day and your astute packaging of all of them was a stimulating intellectual exercise. – CEO, Vancouver
The curriculum:
You can choose to attend only those sessions that are of particular interest to you or complete all seven courses to obtain the Negotiating Mastery Certificate of Accomplishment. The courses are listed below in their recommended (but not required) order of completion.
Session 1: The Framework for Negotiating Mastery
This foundation session demystifies what it means to be a master negotiator by framing and dissecting the negotiation jig-saw puzzle, exposing the myths and revealing the core truths behind great deals. It separates fact from fiction, distinguishes content from process, examines how to identify the needs behind the numbers and deal with ethical dilemmas. It identifies which core attributes and behavioral shifts differentiate master negotiators from the amateurs and pretenders. This module sets the framework for the six to follow.
Session 2: The Negotiating Process Simplified
This session explains the structure, stages, ingredients and critical rituals of negotiating. Building on the foundational framework, it maps out the proper sequence of steps from careful preparation to closing the deal, illuminating the practices and nuances of each phase. You will learn how to replace guesswork with a more strategic approach and disciplined blueprint with savvy insights on how to execute each phase. A knowledge of process will give you a renewed confidence and control at every stage of any bargaining challenge.
Session 3: Tactic Recognition and Response
This module explains how to create and sustain your competitive advantage through tactical knowledge. It sharpens the focus on how to deal with almost any tactic that might be deployed against you at the bargaining table. It decodes the subtle ploys and overt power moves that can enable you to remain composed under pressure. Instead of being thrown off balance by surprise gambits or aggressive strategies, learn how to anticipate these and respond with measured and strategic counter tactics. Master negotiators possess the tactical agility that unsophisticated bargainers do not.
Session 4: Essential Communication Skills
This session goes considerably beyond the basics to explain how to develop the communication skills needed to win – how to ask incisive questions and frame language in ways that resonate, listen to what is not being said, decipher nonverbal cues and detect the type of lies that underpin every negotiation. Equipped with more powerful but essential skills, like the use of magical responses that counter-intuitively influence behaviour, master negotiators elevate their interactions from mere exchanges of opposing positions to meaningful dialogues that build rapport and drive collaborative solutions.
Session 5: Power, Creativity and Timing
Learn how to build your leverage ethically while neutralizing the other side’s power advantage without derailing genuine dialogue. Discover the power of innovative and contrarian thinking to break impasses, encourage win-win exchanges that uncover value beyond the expression of opening positions and constraints. By blending the strategic use of power with out-of-the-box problem solving and a superb grasp of timing principles, master negotiators know how to craft high-value outcomes in scenarios that may at first seem one-sided.
Session 6: Human Behaviour and Cultural Differences
This module explains the predictability of human nature and the skill of applying psychological influence for advantage, how to recognize and respond respectfully to differences in gender, ethnicity and personality, deal with aggressive behaviours, maintain self-control, engineer a climate of choice and detect, navigate and utilize cultural differences to advantage. Master negotiators are adept at reading people and steering discussions toward agreement, no matter how diverse the adversary or how complex the situation.
Session 7: Team Bargaining and Mediation
This final session blends the foregoing principles, tactics and insights into the realm of team dynamics and third-party dispute resolution. These higher-level skills will enable you to effectively strategize and align roles and goals among multiple stakeholders. Learn the rules of team success, why behavior changes in groups, how to overcome deal breakers and build consensus among diverse interests while maintaining unity. This module also explores how to impartially defuse relationship conflicts and artfully guide warring factions to common ground. As the capstone of the program, it summarizes and weaves together all prior skills to enable negotiators to resolve their most intricate challenges with greater confidence and authority.