Author Archives: Negotiation Guidance Associates

Empathy as One Cornerstone of Mediation

by Daniel Merz, Ph.D. Generally speaking, empathy is the ability to put yourself in someone else’s shoes for the purpose of valuing a person’s perspective and avoiding shame and judgment.  It’s the ability to identify what someone is thinking or … Continue reading

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Digital Negotiating: Video-conferences

Negotiating by video-conference, such as Zoom or MS Teams, has recently become more common.  When reviewing the on-line literature on this subject it became apparent that there is less research available about how to conduct a video negotiation. But there … Continue reading

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Digital Negotiating: Email

We are often asked about negotiating using email. The questions are something like these: “Is it okay to negotiate through email?” “What is the best way to negotiate by email?” or “What are the difficulties in email negotiations?” Listed below … Continue reading

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Mediation With Difficult Individuals

by Daniel R. Merz, Ph.D* One of the more difficult personalities to face in mediation is when one of the parties exhibits an egotistical, armored, and intimidating personality. These individuals will often display additional character traits such as bullying, grandiosity, … Continue reading

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The Term Sheet: What Is It and How Do We Use It?

By Sarah Klahn,* and David Belcher,** We often encounter “term sheets” in multi-party negotiations. Recently, we were involved in a negotiation that was going pretty well. The parties had agreed on a few things and seemed to trust one another. … Continue reading

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Final, Contingent, and Straw Man Offers

by Berton Lee Lamb and Sarah Klahn* Offers made in a negotiation can come in a variety of “flavors.” The flavor you choose should be selected to maximize development of mutual trust, create open discussion, and search for good results. … Continue reading

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Transition Management, Part 1: The Interpersonal Negotiation

By Russell C. Sanders, Psy.D. There comes a time in everyone’s life when a change produces a reaction that calls for a psychological readjustment. Change is a fact. Transitions are important in all phases of our lives. When we face … Continue reading

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Special Challenges of Multi-Party Negotiation, Part 3: October Surprises

by Berton Lee Lamb and Susan K. Driver A few years ago we were involved in a multi-party negotiation that had an interesting dynamic. Two of the parties in this negotiation were allies. Although they supported each other, one of … Continue reading

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Does Collaboration Make a Difference?

A study published in 2015 examined three hydropower licensing cases that were characterized as having high, medium, and low collaboration. The author, Nicola Ulibarri, found that high collaboration resulted in “jointly developed and highly implementable operating regimes designed to improve … Continue reading

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Do Negotiators Adapt their Message to Communicate with Competing Parties?

In a recent article appearing in Policy Science  Political Scientists Mark McBeth, Donna Lybecker and James Stoutenborough examined the reasons why negotiators might switch between “personal message choice” and “public communication choice.” They describe public communication choice as a message … Continue reading

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