Campolo’s Negotiation Blog

A fundamental issue in any negotiation is who should make the first offer. What does the psychological research and negotiation theory say? According to Professor Leigh Thompson Northwestern University Kellogg School of Management, “there is a widespread, almost unquestionable, assumption that it is wise and strategic to let the other person talk first—and that it […]

Protegrity Advisors recently published a Long Island M&A Report, highlighting the strong M&A activity on Long Island, even as the country navigates what might be best described as a modest economic recovery. The full report can be read here. As the report dives into the statistics and metrics, it’s important to remember the very foundation […]

A new research study confirms what many of us have suspected: anxiety about a negotiation is likely to work against you. Published previously in the Harvard Law School Program on Negotiation Daily Blog on November 10, 2014, is an article entitled “Negotiation Skills Confront Your Anxiety Improve Your Results.” The full article can be read here. […]

To encourage the negotiators they supervise to do their best, managers routinely rely on performance benchmarks, the promise of bonuses, and other types of goals. Adapted from “Managers – Think Twice Before Setting Negotiation Goals…,” for the May 2009 issue of Negotiation. See below for more details. But before you engage in further goal setting, […]

Decades ago, Richard Nixon popularized the “madman theory” of negotiations. It suggested that demonstrating a willingness to consider “madness”in action would provide you with negotiating leverage. If your adversary believed that you really might do something extreme or even self-destructive, then you held more of the negotiating power, even if you were too rational ever […]

Earlier this month Facebook Chief Operating Officer Sheryl Sandberg released a new edition of Lean In, her 2013 best-selling book for working women, refocusing itfor college graduates entering the workforce. A central theme of the book is negotiation—in particular, negotiating salaries. “It never even occurred to me to negotiate my first salary,” Sandberg writes in […]

Nelson Mandela was the “greatest negotiator of the twentieth century,” wrote Harvard Law School Professor and Program on Negotiation Chair Robert H. Mnookin in his book,Bargaining with the Devil, When to Negotiate, When to Fight. In Lessons from a Master Negotiator: Nelson Mandela, published in Harvard Law School’s Negotiation Briefings, dealmakers worldwide can learn from […]

When negotiating, we often follow our instincts and intuition. However, negotiation as a discipline is often counter-intuitive. Best practice suggests that we often go against our instincts and follow behaviors which at first pass do not seem to be appropriate to the desired outcome. A recent article posted on the Forbes Leadership Forum on forbes.com […]

With recent health care changes, specifically the Affordable Care Act, negotiation skills will be tremendous value to medical professionals, administrators, and other stakeholders in the health care sector. Recognizing the importance of negotiation, medical schools are starting to invest in communication training for students. A recent article by Dhruv Khullar in the NY Times Health […]

On Aug. 2nd, CBS-owned stations in New York, Los Angeles and Dallas went dark on Time Warner Cable systems after talks between the companies broke down. Time Warner also removed Showtime and three other cablers from lineups nationwide in the dispute. The blackout was a result of a dispute over CBS’ request for higher fees […]