Instructional goals
The language of innovation and sustainability course aims at teaching students to maximize value creation in agreements and resolve differences before they escalate into costly conflicts. This program emphasizes an understanding of both analytical tools and interpersonal techniques for dealing effectively with others through self-awareness and interaction skills.
Human being interaction is an essential skill in today’s dynamic workplace and private life. Dealing with customers, suppliers, or colleagues, ability to interact effectively is vital to the success of organizations and communities.
The course analyzes:
- the origin of conflicts and understands how they can be handled: strength, law and interests
- deepens basic knowledge about theories and stages of human interaction and effective negotiation behaviors: from positional negotiation to principled negotiation
- teaches a behavioral path to "create value" dealing with three dimensions: relationship, process, substance
During the course, participants will test their beliefs and opinions, overcome their rational and emotional prejudices, analyze complex negotiating scenarios and discover innovative interaction skills to maximize and best pursue their goals in life and profession.
Prerequisites
No Prerequisites
Intended learning outcomes
Intended learning outcomes:
understand negotiation dynamics and how to prepare for uncertainty,
learn to craft agile strategy and be quick on your feet,
resolve conflicts and differences before they escalate,
secure maximum value for your organization and yourself
reflect on personal tendencies and refine your approach to be more effective,
Improve self-awareness through interaction and emotional intelligence.
Course Contents
The Course develops a framework for analyzing and shaping human being interactions. This framework will allow students to make principled arguments that persuade others. It will allow them to see beneath the surface of apparent conflicts to uncover the underlying interests and find out innovative solutions and approaches to conflicts. Students will leave the course better able to predict, interpret, and shape the behavior of those they face in competitive situations.
We will at first examine the origin of conflicts with the aim to approach to them as physiological. We will then study how to better interact with others by learning a behavioral path based on the knowledge and use of three dimensions of interaction, Relationship, Process and Substance.
We will deeply let into each of such three dimensions uncovering the actions to take and challenges to pursue based on a practical and experiential approach.
The Relationship dimension will be uncovered starting by getting aware of the power of perceptions and related human predictable irrationality beneath them. We will then deepen into the world of emotions by learning how to manage them through the 5 core concerns theory. We will then make practical exercises to learn how to better communicate and interact with verbal and non-verbal communication.
The Process dimension will be approached through a highly emotional experiment that will help students to gain a deep and better understanding of time management, team management and process management.
The Substance dimension will focus on the practical implementation of advanced interaction theories on the negotiation framework based on interests-based analysis, identification of BATNA (Best Alternatives to a Negotiation Agreement), Resistance points and ZOPA (Zone of Possible Agreement).
During the length of the course students will have broad opportunities to interact with other students using case studies based on common situations in business and in life.
They will get feedback on their performance and compare what they did to how others approached the same scenario.
The cases also provide a setting to discuss a wide-ranging set of topics including preparing for a negotiation, making ultimatums, avoiding regret, expanding the pie, and dealing with someone who has a very different perspective on the world. Advanced topics include negotiating when you have no power, negotiating over email, and the role of gender differences in negotiation.
Reference Books
R. Fisher - W. Ury - B. Patton, Getting to yes. Negotiating agreement without giving in (2012). Random house business book
G. Cosi e G. Romualdi, La mediazione dei conflitti - Teoria e pratica dei metodi ADR (2012), Torino
D. Malhotra, Negotiating the Impossible, (2016). Berret-Koehler publishers, inc.
R. Fisher - D. Shapiro, (2005) Beyond reason, Penguin Books
F. Gino, Sidetracked, (2013) Harvard Business Review Press
E. Arielli e G. Scotto, Conflitti e mediazione (2003). Mondadori
T. Sigrfied, Beautiful Math: John Nash, Game Theory, And the Modern Quest for a Code of Nature, (2006). Natl Academy
Max H. Bazerman, The power of noticing, (2014). Simon & Schuster
D. Goleman, Intelligenza emotiva, (2015). Milano
P. Watzlawick, Pragmatica della comunicazione umana. Studio dei modelli interattivi, delle patologie e dei paradossi, (1978). Astrolabio Ubaldini
G. Nardone, La nobile arte della persuasione, (2015). Milano
R. Cialdini, Teoria e pratica della persuasione. Capire la persuasione per esercitarla positivamente e difendersi dai manipolatori (2009). Urgnano
Teaching Methods
The course is based on the theories developed by the Program on Negotiation whose flagship course "Negotiation & Leadership" – which is held every year in Boston and which hosts people from all over the world – for 30 years has been an integral part of the academic program at Harvard Law School.
The course consists of theoretical and practical training modules supplemented by self-taught in-depth activities. In particular, it includes:
Theoretical training: students will be able to learn theoretical notions through an experiential and pragmatic training method based on multiple learning channels (visual, auditory, kinesthetic)
Practical training: Students will be able to practice what they have learned in the classroom by applying negotiation techniques as part of an interactive comparison.
In-depth activities: To complete the educational path, for each module, supplementary readings are recommended that are useful to the process of learning the basics of the subject.
Assessment Method
Multiple choice test and oral examination discussion
Thesis assignment criteria
No Criteria
Week 1 Contenuto sessioni on line e on campus
Introduction to the science of negotiation
Role play: X&Y
Role Play: the Ultimatum
Week 2 Contenuto sessioni on line e on campus
Conflicts:
- The origin of conflicts: interests
- The perception of conflict: pathological or physiological phenomenon?
- Modalities of conflict management: Force, Law, Interests
Role play: Shannon/Quick Cash
Week 3 Contenuto sessioni on line e on campus
Principles of effective negotiation:
- Where are we. Positional negotiation.
- Where we want to go. Principled
Negotiation.
separate people from the problem
focus on interests
generate options for both parties
use objective criteria
Role play: Smooth Fit
Role play: Greekonia
Week 4 Contenuto sessioni on line e on campus
Principled Negotiation; Separate people from the problem
The dimension of “Relationship”:
Perceptions
The origin of perception
Putting yourself in the other side shoes
Reactive devaluation and selective perception
Role play: “Falluja”
Week 5 Contenuto sessioni on line e on campus
Principled Negotiation; Separate people from the problem
Emotions
Positive and negative emotions
Stop thinking, start feeling
How to manage the emotions of others (and ours...) in negotiation?
The 5 core concerns:
Appreciation
Affiliate
Autonomy
Status
Role
Role play: Stakes Engagement
Week 6 Contenuto sessioni on line e on campus
Principled Negotiation; Separate people from the problem
Comunication
Active Listening
The form of communication.
The effective transmission of messages (voice, gaze, smile and facial mimicry, movement and posture)
Role Play: Renee and Julian
Role Play: Active listening exercise
Role play: Colonel Chicken
Role play: The pheasant egg
Week 7 Contenuto sessioni on line e on campus
Principled negotiation;
Focus on parties’ interests
Inventing advantageous solutions
Insist on objective criteria
Role play: Staple Rights
Week 8 Contenuto sessioni on line e on campus
The stages of human being interaction:
- Self-awareness through interaction
Detecting emotional Hijacks
Dealing with mental balance
The power of resilience
improving emotional intelligence
Role play: Resilience exercise
Week 9 Contenuto sessioni on line e on campus
The stages of human being interaction:
- Preparation on Relationship:
gather information,
putting yourself in the other side’s shoes,
know and manage others’ emotions.
Week 10 Contenuto sessioni on line e on campus
The stages of human being interaction:
-Preparation on Process
Who?
Where?
How?
When?
Role play: The Problematic Cure
Role play: Automax - Electrics
Week 11 Contenuto sessioni on line e on campus
The stages of human being interaction:
-Preparation on Substance:
Mapping, gradation and composition of own and others’ interests;
Identification of BATNA (own and others’);
The point of reference (own and others’);
ZOPA (Zone of Possible Agreement)
Role play: GE
Role Play: Sally Soprano
Week 12 Contenuto sessioni on line e on campus
The language of innovation: get in challenge, get to action!
Role play: Aerospace
Role play: Mom’s.com