About The Negotiation Skills Company
Our mission at The Negotiation Skills Company is to help people enhance their negotiation skills to increase their proficiency, efficiency, and satisfaction with the process of reaching agreements.
We achieve our mission through the
following activities and services:
This web site's pages provide useful information about the topics listed above. One of the unique features of this web site is the opportunity it presents for you to ask direct questions about negotiation issues which Steve Cohen will answer by e-mail.
Frequently Asked Questions
- What makes The Negotiation Skills Company, Inc. (TNSC) different from other providers of negotiation training?
- We recognize that negotiation is not a competitive sport, that unless the parties collaborate to reach agreement, even short-term solutions may fall apart.
- TNSC's copyrighted preparation tool has been found to save four hours of negotiation time for every fifteen minutes devoted to the use of the tool.
- Every one of our trainers has a minimum of twenty years experience as a deal-making negotiator in such fields as banking, lobbying, real estate, labor/management, sales, divorce, journalism and publishing, and hostage negotiations.
- Each program is customized to address the interests of our organizational clients and the individual participants.
- TNSC undertakes extensive follow-up with all participants in our courses, with contact every month and detailed document follow up twice in the first year following each program.
- How will your program fit the particular needs of my company?
Each program is customized through discussions with our client and pre-course questionnaires filled out by each participant.
- Who should attend?
People who:
- Make decisions involving their company and/or other people
- Work as part of teams
- Negotiate with subordinates, superiors, and members of other tribes within the company
- Need to build or enhance relationships with clients, customers, or suppliers
- Are involved in budget decisions
- Have to deal with internal and external lawyers, accountants and other professionals
- How long are the programs?
Building Bridges© is one day
Fighting Fires Without Burning Bridges© is two days
Booster Shot© (a FFWBB review course) is one day
Agreeing to Agree© is three days
TNSC also presents programs of other durations.
- What size is the class?
The ideal class size for Fighting Fires Without Burning Bridges© (2 days) and Building Bridges© (1 day) is 12- 18 people. The maximum class with one trainer is 24. Booster Shot© (1 day review of FFWBB) is designed for 3 - 9 people. Agreeing to Agree© is designed for up to 12 people.
- What is the lead time TNSC needs to present a class?
It usually takes approximately 4 weeks to prepare for and present a class; however, when necessary, it can be done in less time.
- Where are TNSC's trainings held?
TNSC presents on-site courses for corporations and other organizations. Locations are selected by our client organization and can be at a company facility, an outside conference center, or hotel.
- Does TNSC present courses outside the US?
Yes. With Senior Trainers located on three continents, TNSC has the capacity to present programs virtually anywhere. At the beginning of 2004, we can present courses by native speakers in both English and Spanish. Participants in courses presented by TNSC have come from more than fifty countries.
- Are any TNSC training programs open to the public?
We do private programs for corporations and organizations. However, some of our clients allow outside attendees. We keep a list of interested people to notify of those opportunities.
Currently TNSC is in discussion with executive education programs on both sides of the Atlantic about co-sponsoring workshops designed for individual participants.
- Is there a schedule of TNSC training workshops?
We do not have a schedule of workshops, because TNSC only presents programs at and for corporations or organizations; however, if you wish to attend a course that has openings for outside attendees you can request to be added to the list of people that we contact when such an opportunity arises.
- Are your programs interactive?
Yes, both our one and two day course become interactive within the first ten minutes of the program. The workshops include role plays, exercises, and discussions.
- Do you provide any private tutoring on negotiation skills?
Steve Cohen, President of TNSC, does Executive Coaching and mentoring. He can also be contacted for private coaching in negotiation. Please visit www.tnscmentor.com for more information on these services.
- Do you provide negotiation or mediation services?
TNSC provides consulting on negotiation, but believes that individual parties can represent their interests better than 'hired guns' who have no stake in the outcome of the negotiation.
We provide mediation services on rare occasions.
- Does TNSC provide consultants for actual negotiation situations?
Yes. Our consultants' job is to empower negotiating parties to pursue their interests effectively.
- What kind of companies has TNSC provided training for?
TNSC's programs have been used by companies ranging in size from less than ten professionals to organizations with more than one million employees.
Our client list includes Nike, Oracle, Dana Corporation, OshKosh B'Gosh, CIGNA Healthcare, Wal-Mart, Covance Periapproval Services, Xerox Corporation, Henrico, Virginia County Government, and British Telecoms, and many other companies and organizations in a wide variety of business sectors.
- Are TNSC's programs 'off the shelf?'
Yes and No. Each program is customized with input from both the corporation/organization bringing us in and the individual participants attending the program.
- What other benefit does TNSC provide the client above and beyond the actual program?
TNSC sends out 2 follow-up evaluations to each graduate, at two months and one year after their program. Each of our alumni receives a learning point reminder every ten days by email. For clients who want it, TNSC also offers our one-day Booster Shot© review program. We also stress that we continue to be available to our graduates by phone, fax and email.
- Can you help me with a specific negotiation problem?
Specific situations are addressed in our programs as well as on our website: www.negotiationskills.com in the 'Ask Steve's Advice' section.
- Do you negotiate divorce settlements?
No.
- Can TNSC be employed as an arbitrator in a binding arbitration settlement?
Some of TNSC's training team are certified arbitrators in the United States and/or members of international arbitration bodies.
- Does TNSC provide legal services/representation?
No.
- What is the best way to become a credentialed negotiator?
There is no nationally-recognized certification of negotiators. TNSC has chosen trainers and consultants who each have at least twenty years of deal-making negotiating experience.
What People Are Saying About Us
"This workshop was the best two day training session that I have experienced in my 23 year aerospace career. It not only provided me with the tools to immediately enhance my negotiation skills, it also provides me with a valuable resource for future needs in the area of negotiation opportunities down the road. I would strongly recommend this workshop to any business person who deals with others in the area of negotiation."
- Steven Marganski
"The ability to succeed in business, professional and personal life requires all the insights and skills taught in this negotiation workshop. The course could not have been more relevant to adult life!"
- Medical Doctor / AtlantiCare Hospital, Lynn, MA
"Truly one of the most informative sessions I have been part of. This is a vitally important subject matter and the instruction was excellent. Typically role plays do little for me, but this time the choice and type of role plays brought home and reinforced much of the information taught."
- Customer Design Supervisor / American Electric Power, Columbus, OH
"If you're genuinely keen to move away from negative, adversarial relationships, then this course offers many ways to achieve this as well as also getting other parties to change."
- Deputy Director of Business Development / Scarborough & NE Yorkshire Healthcare, UK
"This course has provided me with a 'new look' at how I should negotiate; it has given me a '3D' look."
- Projects Administrator / Reuters, UK
"An excellent skills workshop that addresses the total spectrum of barriers both individual and collective to successful dialogue and imparts easy to use techniques to dissolve those barriers. Great stuff!"
- Vice President / Bluefield Medical Center, West Virginia
"During interactions with a major pharmaceutical company that had a study design we thought impractical, we used interest mapping to understand the interests and BATNAs of every department. We were able to streamline the study dramatically and were able to do the study six months faster than anyone thought we could. As a vendor who had not yet been awarded the program, the risk of not getting the contracts was in the tens of millions of dollars. We were able to save ourselves and our customer a lot of money."
- Vice President, Operations / Covance Periapproval Services, Radnor, PA
"Go for it! Learn why negotiations fail and how to head in a different direction before you ever come face-to-face for discussions with the other party."
- Joint Use Administrator / American Electric Power, Columbus, OH
Our Most Recent Newsletter
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The occasional newsletter of
The Negotiation Skills Company, Inc. (TNSC)
Number 39, February 2008
FIGHTING FIRES WITHOUT BURNING BRIDGES(sm)
The occasional newsletter of The Negotiation Skills
Company, Inc. (TNSC)
WHEN "JUST THE FACTS, MA'AM" WON'T DO
The 1950's US television show Dragnet featured a police detective called Joe Friday whose interviewing technique discouraged both witnesses and suspects from injecting their feelings or observations into the discussion. His consistent trademark line was, "Just the facts, ma'am." He wasn't interested in commentary. The implication was that rationally demonstrable facts are all that's needed when making decisions.
Many people want to treat negotiation as a strictly rational process, assuming that facts alone will convince other parties. While facts are enormously important in helping our negotiation partners learn about the benefits we offer or the risks they may face if they don't take facts into consideration, often what one party sees as a fact is viewed as opinion by another stakeholder.
Sometimes this sort of impasse can be solved by looking at objective criteria that each party accepts as definitive sources of information. For example, in virtually all rich countries, there are books or websites that outline the appropriate price range for used cars. These are authoritative, objective sources of information that don't belong to the buyer or seller and can be used to break through disagreements on the appropriate price.
Sometimes, however, mere facts are not a sufficient basis for decisions. When one party's fact is not accepted as such by another, and when the parties cannot agree on an external objective source to solve the disagreement, facts are not going to be 'convincers'. Through much of history, sacred books or traditions have been used to buttress arguments about what is right or wrong, what is true or false. The problem is that, even within the groups that consider such texts sacred, there have often been contrary interpretations of the same language - or reference to other words within the same sacred text that can lead a believer to reach a different conclusion.
In real world negotiations, whether they involve business deals or decisions about leisure time activities, individuals' decisions are driven by many factors. Sheer rationality may be highly influential, but it is rarely the sole basis for collaborative decision-making. Attention must be paid to emotions, to underlying interests that may not relate directly to the issue at hand - but may be carried over from other factors in one's negotiation counterpart's professional or personal life.
For that reason, among others, negotiation must be treated as a search for information: "What factors (not facts) are driving my negotiation partner's decisions?" A skilled negotiator asks open-ended questions to learn what issues must be addressed to bring about agreement. The questions should aim to help one's negotiation partner divulge the underlying interests that, if served, will help bring about a workable agreement. Those interests can include factors such as ego, history, the parties' relationship, and even how the outcome of this negotiation may impact on other negotiations can get the process beyond mere rationality - and into the realm of an agreement that appeals to emotional underpinnings that will make it work.
WHAT'S NEW AT THE NEGOTIATION SKILLS COMPANY
Paul McDevitt has joined The Negotiation Skills Company as one of our certified Senior Trainers. With an extensive background negotiating real estate and other corporate issues in more than thirty countries, Paul brings skill, experience, and a mordant wit to the TNSC team.
Marsha Vaughan has retired as TNSC's vice president for marketing. Her seven years working for us were highly productive - and her personality contributed to TNSC's team spirit and relationships with our clients. We are sorry she has left our company - and our Company.
Final Word
"You can't reason someone out of something they weren't reasoned into."
-- Jonathan Swift
Good luck and good negotiating,
Steve
Steven P. Cohen, President
The Negotiation Skills Company, Inc.
tnsc@negotiationskills.com
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