Negotiation skills: Negotiate and resolve conflict

Negotiation and conflict resolution have long been considered important skills for managers. Now, as the future of work comes into focus, a mastery of negotiation and conflict resolution. along with superior interpersonal skills, cultural competencies and emotional intelligence, are seen by many as essential. These relating skills define resilient leaders, support sustainable organisations and are a distinctive feature of healthy and inclusive communities. This week you will explore concepts central to the fields of negotiation and conflict resolution. You will learn to recognise negotiation opportunities when they arise, how to differentiate between negotiation and conflict resolution situations and how to analyse and plan an intervention so you are well prepared before you begin to interact with a counterpart or with others locked into conflict.

What causes negotiation breakdowns and escalations of conflict? Are disagreements, difficult conversations and such problems at work something to be avoided? Or, is human conflict an inevitable and indeed necessary feature of healthy organisations and societies? This week we examine some of the core principles used to address social conflict across a range of different contexts; from interpersonal situations through to workplace conflict and also conflict in and between communities. You will learn some of the common reasons why deadlocks and other difficulties emerge and why negotiations sometimes stall and even ‘break-down’.

The renowned 20th century psychologist Erik Erikson once said that ‘the more you know yourself, the more patience you have for what you see in others’. Eriksen’s words ring true for negotiators; it is crucial that negotiators come to know their own “hot buttons” and to be self-aware - of values, biases, beliefs and the effect of certain behaviours. This week you will be introduced to several methods of self-assessment to help you gain that self-awareness. One of these tools will help you identify what is called your ‘conflict style’. By completing a self-assessment students will become aware of, and then consider the likely implications of, their preferred conflict styles on their interpersonal effectiveness. To add context and aid discussion you will review several organisational cases that highlight how a lack of self-awareness can lead to unresolved organisational conflicts and can have serious consequences on both individuals and on organisations.

Within every situation labelled “a negotiation” there will often exist a number of ‘subordinate’ negotiations that must be successfully navigated to achieve a successful outcome. In addition to the stated negotiation agenda - the topic at the centre of the discussion - we can identify two other negotiations. Firstly, there is a negotiation that takes place around the parties’ current or future relationship, and secondly, there is a negotiation that takes place around the process that will be followed. While these subordinate negotiations are clearly very important, they are often largely ignored when negotiators are planning. In this week’s session you will learn about what are called “the three negotiations” - content, process and relationship. You will learn how to identify process problems in negotiation and how to bring a stalled negotiation back on track. You will learn how to build trust in negotiation and how to preserve or enhance your relationship with your negotiation counterparts without compromising your own interests.