Ben Collier, PhD

Carnegie Mellon University in Qatar · 2012 to 2016 · Undergraduate

70-321 Negotiation and Conflict Resolution

70-321

A negotiation every week, a debrief every week, and a real negotiation of your own at the end.

About 20 students

Every Monday students negotiated a role-play case against a classmate, and every Wednesday we took apart what happened: who claimed value, who created it, and what they left on the table. The cases built from a two-party price haggle to multi-party coalitions, mediation, social dilemmas, and a cross-cultural deal over a theme park. Alongside the cases, each student started the semester with a single KitKat and traded up as far as they could. The course ended with a paper on a real negotiation each student planned and carried out outside class.

Week by week

Spring 2013 · Mondays and Wednesdays. Scroll the schedule and the slides follow along: five from each session, picked from the decks I taught from.

  1. Part I: Claiming value
  2. Week 1
    Introduction, and a first negotiation: BioPharm-Seltek
    Negotiation skills are useful everywhere, from jobs to housingEverything can be a negotiation, even a robbery at a sandwich shopFive negotiation myths, starting with 'you have to be tough or soft'The common traps: winner's curse, agreement bias, hubris, lose-lose dealsThe ground rules for every role-play in the course
  3. Week 1
    Negotiation basics: BATNA, reservation point, ZOPA
    The essentials of negotiation analysis, from BATNA to targetBATNA: what you will do if you cannot reach a dealThings that are never true about a BATNAThe zone of possible agreement between buyer and sellerWhen reservation points do not overlap, there is no deal to be had
  4. Week 2
    Distributive negotiation: Coffee Contract In-class exerciseReading: Galinsky, 'Should you make the first offer?'
  5. Week 2
    Coffee Contract debrief and distributive tactics
    One red paperclip, traded up to a house in 14 tradesOur version: start with a KitKat and see how far you can tradeWhat really matters in a deal, by the standard of Getting to YesCoffee Contract: mapping each side's BATNA and the bargaining surplusHardball tactics and their names, from good cop/bad cop to the nibble
  6. Part II: Creating value
  7. Week 3
    Integrative negotiation: New Recruit
    Cialdini's weapons of influenceSix shortcuts people use to decide whether to say yesShould you make the first offer?Making the first offer anchors the other side, unless they know more than youNew Recruit: BATNAs, reservation prices, and the ZOPA in points
  8. Week 3
    Integrative negotiation: expanding the pie
    Two sisters want one orangeNon-conflicting interests: one wants the juice, the other the peelTwo utility curves and the deals that make both people better offCreating value moves you toward the Pareto frontier, claiming value moves along itThe fixed pie belief, in the words of a congressman on arms control
  9. Week 4
    The Player: a movie deal between a director and a producer In-class exercise
  10. Week 4
    The Player debrief
    The Player: what the director and the producer each care aboutEach side's BATNA, and a maximum joint value of 14,000 pointsWhich issues were compatible and which were integrativePlotting the deals between the two reservation pointsLogrolling: trade the issues you care less about for the ones you care more about
  11. Part III: Ethics, emotion, and time
  12. Week 5
    Ethics and agents: Bullard Houses In-class exerciseA real estate negotiation between agents who each represent a principal
  13. Week 5
    Ethics and lying
    Bullard Houses is real: the Villard Houses on Madison AvenueBe careful about Getting to Yes: agreement bias and sunk costsThe real-world outcome: a hotel, after a preservation fightShell's legal definition of a lie: knowing, misrepresentation, material, factMalhotra's smart alternatives to lying
  14. Week 6
    Emotions and biases: Myti-Pet
    Myti-Pet: each side's BATNA in a supplier disputeThe issues on the table, from water content to delivery scheduleNatural responses to anger lead to concessions or escalationBetter responses: stay calm and redirect to interestsInterests, rights, and power
  15. Week 7
    Time and strategy: Stopwatch
    StopClocks: interests, position, and BATNA for the sellerA compromise deal versus a more efficient oneThe effects of time pressureDeadlines: when to reveal yours and when to keep it quietTime costs versus deadlines
  16. Week 8
    Spring break No class
  17. Part IV: Conflict and third parties
  18. Week 9
    Conflict resolution: College Town, mediation and arbitrationReading: Misino on hostage negotiation
    College Town: two roommates, their interests and their BATNAsHow 152 other pairs split the late feeConflict resolution: mediation or arbitrationMediation is private, voluntary, informal, and non-bindingFrom mediation to arbitration: how much control the third party has
  19. Week 10
    Creative options: Texoil
    Texoil: a gas station owner who wants to go sailingCreative issues beyond price: a job on return, fuel for the boat, advertising on the hullSharing information strategicallyGathering information: ask about plans and values
  20. Week 11
    Third parties and contingent contracts: OceaniaReading: Bazerman and Gillespie on contingent contracts
    Tools for complex negotiationsOceania: don't fight about the future, bet on itWhat contingent contracts can doRapport is the first skill mediators namePost-settlement settlement: look for a better deal after you have one
  21. Part V: Groups, dilemmas, and culture
  22. Week 12
    Coalitions: Federated Science Fund
    Three companies, and no split that satisfies every two-party coalitionEquity, equality, or need: rules for dividing the spoilsThe Shapley value: pivotal power in a coalitionCoalition math in the German parliamentJim Jeffords leaves the Republicans: one defection flips a coalition
  23. Week 13
    Social dilemmas: SHARCReading: Krusch on the prisoner's dilemma
    SHARC: each group gains from catching more sharks, the group needs fewerThe prisoner's dilemmaTit for tat: nice, tough, simple, forgiving, not enviousThe tragedy of the commonsThe negotiator's dilemma: create or claim
  24. Week 14
    Cross-cultural negotiation: MouseReading: Brett on negotiation and culture
    Mouse is real: Euro Disney outside ParisCulture problems at Euro Disney, from blockades to dress codesEuro Disney's share price after openingHofstede's dimensions of cultureWhere Qatar sits on individualism and power distance
  25. Week 15
    Putting it together: Best Stuff on Earth, and the KitKat debrief
    KitKat debrief: show your final item and how you traded upHazards of many-party negotiations: sub-groups and hidden informationDeciding as a group can produce a choice no one would make aloneNegotiation is an interpersonal challenge, so don't forget the relationshipThe top lesson: everything is negotiable
Negotiation skills are useful everywhere, from jobs to housing
Mon, Jan 14 Introduction, and a first negotiation: BioPharm-Seltek Negotiation skills are useful everywhere, from jobs to housing

Major assignments

  • Real world negotiation paper35%

    Plan and carry out a negotiation outside class for anything you would actually be willing to buy or sell, then write it up in 2,000 words or fewer. The best papers built a scoring system for their own interests, estimated the other side's reservation price with honest uncertainty, and were self-critical about what they left on the table.

  • Post-negotiation journals25%

    Three two-page journals over the semester, each sent to the instructor and to the other people in that negotiation. The point was reflection on what you were thinking, not a blow-by-blow account, and the counterpart's journal gave a rare view from the other side.

  • Pop quizzes15%

    Five quizzes through the semester on the readings and concepts.

  • Attendance and class discussion15%

    Every negotiation needs a prepared partner, so missing one without arranging a substitute cost a third of a letter grade.

  • Negotiation plans10%

    A planning document handed in for each in-class negotiation: issues and their values, BATNA, reservation price, target, sources of power, and an opening move.

  • KitKat trade-up

    Modeled on the One Red Paperclip story. Each student started with a KitKat and made at least three trades, logging every one, then wrote a one-page analysis of the tactics they used. On the last day the class voted on the best final item. It counted toward participation.

Offerings

  • Spring 2013

All courses