Negotiation and Influence: Making Deals and Strategy Work

Program Experience

Highlights and Key Outcomes

In Negotiation and Influence: Making Deals and Strategy Work, you will gain:

• Expand your capabilities as a negotiator and influencer through strategies and techniques proven to increase your effectiveness in complex negotiations
• Hone your abilities to develop and grow relationships to build social capital and strong, diverse networks
• Gain a deep understanding of leverage and how and when to apply it as an effective negotiations and influencer tool
• Learn about, and gain proficiency in, the full spectrum of tools to use in any situation that requires influence
• Increase your self-awareness and improve your ability to understand strengths and weaknesses in yourself and others for a competitive advantage at the bargaining table and beyond
• Learn to recognize and interpret interpersonal signals in both face-to-face and virtual settings, across cultures and geographies
• Be empowered to apply the learning immediately to your current negotiations and influencer initiatives in real time

Experience and Impact

Negotiation and Influence: Making Deals and Strategy Work will enable you to develop the advanced skills to make you a more effective negotiator and help you establish the best position from which to negotiate.

Designed by the Wharton faculty who literally wrote the book on negotiation, the program intentionally intersperses powerful classroom learning with self-paced individual and group practice over a six-week period. Each week, Professors Shell and Massey introduce new strategies and tools that are explored and tested in class. Throughout the week, participants work independently and in groups to pressure-test the concepts through planned exercises, mock negotiations, and conversations. Back in the classroom, the practice comes full circle during debriefs where faculty interprets the feedback, examines the breakdowns, and reinforces the learning. The work advances as the cycle repeats with incredible results.

Negotiation and Influence will also address the unique challenges of conducting negotiations and exercising influence online in a virtual setting, including working with a limited set of visual cues and signals as well as the difficulty of gathering sufficient information. Here the virtual learning environment matches the setting for many negotiations these days, deepening the insight and the value of the exercises.

The program format also supports the natural community building that is a hallmark of Wharton Executive Education programs, allowing participants real time to engage, interact, and network. You will become a part of a learning community comprised of participants from diverse geographic, cultural, industry, and functional backgrounds. Observing, collaborating, and negotiating with these colleagues will provide new perspectives while also revealing new approaches to emulate and errors to avoid.

Session Spotlight: Coalitions — The Intersection of Negotiation and Influence

The sixth and final session of Negotiation and Influence will focus on coalitions. As the program draws to a close, faculty will explain the power of this important — yet often misunderstood — tool, revealing:

• The role coalitions play in negotiations and influence
• How to create and change coalitions
• How to improve your leverage position by forming coalitions
• How you can hold coalitions together when they threaten to break apart
• How and when to activate your personal coalition