Negotiation skills: Negotiate and resolve conflict

Go to Course: https://www.coursera.org/learn/negotiation-skills-conflict

Introduction

### Course Review: Negotiation Skills - Negotiate and Resolve Conflict **Course Overview** In today's tumultuous business environment, characterized by unpredictability, complexity, and a diverse workforce, mastering negotiation and conflict resolution skills is more crucial than ever. The Coursera course **"Negotiation Skills: Negotiate and Resolve Conflict"** addresses these challenges head-on, equipping participants with the essential tools and insights necessary for effective communication, negotiation, and conflict management. Designed for managers and professionals at all levels, the course encompasses a comprehensive curriculum that navigates the intricacies of organizational politics, interpersonal relationships, and cultural sensitivities. It invites learners to develop their negotiation acumen while also enhancing their emotional intelligence and interpersonal effectiveness. --- **Course Syllabus Breakdown** 1. **Resolving Conflicts and Negotiating Agreements in the New World of Work** - This introductory module sets the stage for understanding the basic concepts of negotiation and conflict resolution. It emphasizes recognizing opportunities for negotiation and differentiating between negotiation and conflict scenarios. Learners will also explore planning interventions to help them navigate conflicts proactively. 2. **Theories of Conflict, Pathways to Resolution** - This module dives into why conflicts arise and the principles that can effectively address them. Focusing on breakdowns in negotiation and escalation of disputes, students will gain insight into the necessity of conflict as a feature of healthy organizational dynamics, equipping them with strategies to resolve disputes constructively. 3. **Building and Using a Skillset: Moving from Knowing to Doing** - Fostering self-awareness is key in negotiation, and this module leverages self-assessment tools to help learners identify their conflict styles and understand how these styles impact interpersonal dynamics. Real-world organizational cases will be analyzed to underscore the consequences of inadequate self-awareness on conflict resolution. 4. **The Three Negotiations: Content, Process, and Relationship** - Explores the subordinate negotiations at play in every negotiation scenario. Participants will learn to navigate content negotiations, optimize processes, and maintain healthy relationships with counterparts, all crucial in achieving desired outcomes. 5. **When Context Matters: Negotiating Across a Cultural Divide** - Given the global nature of business today, understanding cultural differences is essential. This module equips learners with the knowledge to adjust their negotiation strategies accordingly, addressing concepts like 'saving face' and adapting to various cultural expectations. 6. **Coping with Complexity: From Multi-Party Negotiation to Conflict Transformation** - This conclusion module identifies the elements contributing to negotiation complexity, including time, number of issues, and the parties involved. Techniques for breaking down complex scenarios into manageable segments are introduced, along with innovative strategies to redefine and transform conflicts. --- **Recommendation** "Negotiation Skills: Negotiate and Resolve Conflict" is a must-enroll course for anyone looking to thrive in leadership and managerial roles. The course strikes the perfect balance between theoretical foundations and practical applications, making it relevant for participants in various industries and cultural contexts. The engaging structure, along with the real-world case studies and emphasis on self-reflection, provides a comprehensive learning experience that will not only enhance your negotiation skills but also bolster your capacity to resolve conflicts effectively. Whether you are a seasoned leader or a budding manager, the insights gained from this course will undoubtedly prove invaluable in fostering a productive workplace environment grounded in healthy relationships and effective communication. **Final Thoughts** In a world that often feels fragmented and complicated, having the ability to navigate negotiations and conflicts with confidence is an indispensable skill. The emphasis on emotional intelligence, self-awareness, and cultural adaptability makes this course particularly relevant in today's diverse and dynamic work landscape. I highly recommend enrolling in this course to enhance your professional toolkit and become a more effective leader.

Syllabus

Resolving conflicts and negotiating agreements in the new world of work

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.

How should negotiators adjust their approach when working across a cultural divide? We address the critical question of culture this week and look at a number of key issues faced by negotiators when working across cultures. You will learn how cultural values manifest as different expectations and in communication differences in negotiation. You will learn about how to read a room for subtle messages. You will also learn about the concept of ‘saving face’ in negotiation and its importance especially in Asian countries and how to adjust your style to account for cultural differences and ambiguous situations.

How do we cope with complexity in negotiation and conflict resolution? What makes certain situations more complex and more difficult to resolve than others? To answer these questions we consider the following issues: the length of time involved, the number of issues under review, the number of parties involved and how ‘invested’ they are in a particular outcome. This week you will learn what makes certain situations more complex and how to deal with this complexity. We study the role of sequencing in negotiation (breaking a large negotiation down into a series or sequence of smaller negotiations) and you will also learn about an approach called 3D negotiation in which a holistic negotiation strategy is emphasized where what happens away from the table (changing the context) is seen as a crucial variables influencing the final outcome. This week you will also study how complex conflicts can be redefined, reframed and ultimately transformed an exciting new direction in the field of conflict resolution.