2-Day Certificate Program in Negotiation
Participation in both days of the program is required to earn the Certificate.
April 23-24, 2025 | 9:00 a.m. – 4:00 p.m. | Kelley Board Room, Mitchell Hamline School of Law
Offered in collaboration with the Dispute Resolution Institute at Mitchell Hamline School of Law
Agenda
(download a PDF of the Agenda)
DAY ONE (Wednesday, April 23)
BLOCK ONE (9:00-10:30am)
PROGRAM INTRODUCTION; CONFLICT THEORY OVERVIEW
Primary Activities: Short exercises to illustrate key conflict resolution themes; Complete and discuss a conflict style self-assessment.
Module Objectives:
- Illustrate wide range of conflict resolution strategies; and
- Gain awareness of each participant’s “default” approach to conflict engagement.
[Morning Break: 10:30-10:45am]
BLOCK TWO (10:45am-Noon)
BUILDING THE NEGOTIATOR’S TOOLBOX PART 1: LISTENING AND QUESTIONING
Primary Activities: Listening and questioning drills and exercises.
Module Objectives:
- Increase awareness of barriers to effective listening;
- Apply lessons from contemporary cognitive science on perception and decision-making to improve listening and avoid common biases that compromise rational judgment when in conflict situations; and
- Appreciate the importance of “interests” and the constructive role of information gathering throughout the negotiation process.
[Lunch: Noon-1:00pm]
BLOCK THREE (1:00-2:15pm)
BUILDING THE NEGOTIATOR’S TOOLBOX PART 2: INTEGRATIVE BARGAINING
Primary Activities: Negotiation in dyads; Post-negotiation reflection and debrief; Fishbowl – Strategies to break impasse.
Module Objectives:
- Recognize that even in highly polarized conflicts, negotiation counterparts will often have different preferences (or different ranking of preferences) than one’s own;
- Examine a wide array of strategies to generate multiple solutions to identified problems; and
- Practice applying objective criteria to evaluate options.
[Afternoon Break: 2:15-2:30pm]
BLOCK FOUR (2:30-4:00pm)
BUILDING THE NEGOTIATOR’S TOOLBOX PART 3: USING POWER, INFLUENCE AND COMPETITIVE NEGOTIATION TACTICS TO IMPACT THE BARGAINING ZONE; THE INFLUENCE OF FAIRNESS AND SOCIAL NORMS
Primary Activities: Negotiation in dyads; Post-negotiation reflection and debrief; Fishbowl – dealing with the “Prince/Princess of Darkness” counterpart.
Module Objectives:
- Explore effective methods for persuading a negotiation partner and how the concept of power works in the context of negotiation;
- Consider the role of fairness and other social norms in evaluating negotiation outcomes; and
- Expand options to deal with a hostile (or even irrational) negotiating counterpart.
DAY TWO (Thursday, April 24)
BLOCK FIVE (9:00-10:30am)
BUILDING AND MAINTAINING TRUST/NEGOTIATION ETHICS
Primary Activities: “Vote with your feet” on ethics challenges; Fishbowl – dealing with deception and breach of trust.
Module Objectives:
- Understand the importance of trust to effective conflict resolution intervention;
- Develop practical tools to build and support trust during negotiations, as well as strategies to repair trust once breached;
- Explore how “good people” can endorse vastly different resolutions of ethical questions in negotiation; and
- Offer applied practice opportunities to respond to unethical negotiation behavior.
[Morning Break: 10:30-10:45am]
BLOCK SIX (10:45am-Noon)
MANAGING DIFFICULT CONVERSATIONS AND HIGH EMOTION; DELIVERING BAD NEWS
Primary Activities: Interactive exercises to illuminate the task of translating hostile and adversarial communication into building blocks of collaborative dialogue.
Module Objectives:
- Illustrate how thinking like a mediator can improve conflict engagement;
- Develop strategies to maintain “genuine” curiosity and constructive distance when engaged in difficult conversations; and
- Practice alternative approaches to communicating “bad news” so that counterparts can hear it.
[Lunch: Noon-1:00pm]
BLOCK SEVEN (1:00-2:00pm)
GROUP MEMBERSHIP: THE IMPACT OF GENDER, CULTURE AND RACE ON NEGOTIATION
Primary Activities: Short exercises in partisan perceptions; Multi-party negotiation; Post-negotiation reflection and debrief.
Module Objectives:
- Recognize how your own beliefs, values, and life experiences inform the way you experience, relate to and explain conflict; and
- Explore a basic triad framework for dealing with difference: 1) avoiding judgment and stereotyping (cultures are not monolithic); 2) self-awareness (your own upbringing and “baggage”); and 3) be at peace (but willing to challenge RESPECTFULLY).
[Afternoon Break: 2:00-2:15]
BLOCK EIGHT (2:15-4:00pm)
COLLECTIVE BARGAINING CHALLENGES; DEVELOPING A PERSONALIZED IMPROVEMENT PLAN (SETTING GOALS)
Primary Activities: Multi-party negotiation; Post-negotiation reflection and debrief; Group reflection on lessons learned; Individual completion of a post-workshop conflict resolution improvement plan.
Module Objectives:
- Explore unique challenges of negotiating in collective bargaining settings, specifically the existence of multiple interlinked issues, complex interpersonal dynamics, and the necessity to “live the deal” that is brokered;
- Improve participants’ ability to formulate and present “yes-able” management offers, effectively find linkages between issues, make necessary trade-offs and manage concessions, and implement stalemate-breaking strategies necessary to close a deal; and
- Demonstrate ability to assess one’s own work and translate self-reflection and self-evaluation into personal and professional growth.