Module: Negotiation skills

Experts and managers are regularly confronted with a variety of demanding behavioral situations. There are a number of limited resources in modern research projects, and decisions about these resources are often made during negotiations. It is not always easy to persistently and successfully represent your own ideas in negotiations with internal departments and external negotiating partners and, in the event of difficulties, to find solutions that maintain constructive relations with all strategic partners. This requires effective negotiation skills. Mastering elementary methods of conducting conversations, social skills and specialist knowledge are important prerequisites for this.

The module provides in-depth knowledge of negotiation techniques and negotiation psychology based on modern negotiation research and neuroscience, and trains the skills necessary to implement a fact-based negotiation approach. It incorporates proven effective techniques of all negotiation approaches that are practiced intensively in the workshop. The right way to deal with resistance is developed both theoretically and tried out in practice through role plays and simulated negotiations.

Participants learn the basics for successful preparation, opening and closing of negotiations, the psychological traps in leading negotiations as well as approaches to deal with external resistance. They develop techniques of fact-based negotiation and practice suitable techniques for their situation. All techniques and methods taught in the module are applicable to negotiations both inside and outside academia.

Module contents

• How to prepare effectively for negotiations
• Professional negotiations – theory and practice
• Analyzing various negotiation situations
• Sustainable deal design and value creation

Coach

The team at Verhandlungsperformance Consulting has been offering training and consulting to people seeking to improve their negotiating skills for over 20 years. The range of customers they serve includes everything from non-profit organizations and SMEs to DAX-listed enterprises. Their evidence-based approach, which means the content and teaching methods are based on the research results of leading researchers in negotiation, ensures their training concept is always up to date and optimized for use in practice.

Oliver Paulick has been working as a trainer at Verhandlungsperformance Consulting since 2015 after having completed an MA in Political Science, Economics and Middle Eastern Studies at FAU. Also at FAU, he was project manager of the FAU Model United Nations (FAUMUN) project for several years and was responsible for international negotiations in the project.