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Successful Negotiation: Essential Strategies and Skills

What You'll Learn

  • Understand the negotiation strategies and skills necessary for success.
  • Use a negotiation analysis to prepare for negotiations.
  • Key psychological tools to achieve success.
  • Practice negotiations to find out what you do well and how you can improve.
6 Modules
12 Hours
2 hrs per module (approx.)
Rating

About Successful Negotiation: Essential Strategies and Skills

We all negotiate on a daily basis. On a personal level, we negotiate with friends, family, landlords, car sellers and employers, among others. Negotiation is also the key to business success. No business can survive without profitable contracts. Within a company, negotiation skills can lead to your career advancement.

I hope that you will join the hundreds of thousands of learners who have made “Successful Negotiation” one of the most popular and highly-rated MOOCs worldwide. In the course, you’ll learn about and practice the four steps to a successful negotiation:

(1) Prepare: Plan Your Negotiation Strategy
(2) Negotiate: Use Key Tactics for Success
(3) Close: Create a Contract
(4) Perform and Evaluate: The End Game

To successfully complete this course and improve your ability to negotiate, you’ll need to do the following:

(1) Watch the short videos (ranging from 5 to 20 minutes). The videos are interactive and they include questions to test your understanding of negotiation strategy and skills. You can speed up or slow down videos to match your preferred pace for listening. Depending on your schedule, you can watch the videos over a few weeks or you can binge watch them. A learner who binge-watched the course concluded that “It’s as good as Breaking Bad.” Another learner compared the course to “House of Cards.” Both shows contain interesting examples of complex negotiations!
(2) Test your negotiation skills by completing the negotiation in Module 6. You can negotiate with a local friend or use Discussions to find a partner from another part of the world. Your negotiation partner will give you feedback on your negotiation skills. To assist you with your negotiations, I have developed several free negotiating planning tools that are related to the course. These tools and a free app are available at http://negotiationplanner.com/ . The course also includes an opportunity to use an interactive experience where you can test your negotiation skills before starting the live negotiation.
(3) Take the final exam. To successfully complete the course, you must answer 80% of the questions correctly. The exam is a Mastery Exam, which means that you can take it as many times as you want until you master the material.

Course Certificate

You have the option of earning a Course Certificate. A Certificate provides formal recognition of your achievements in the course and includes the University of Michigan logo. Learn more about Certificates at: https://learner.coursera.help/hc/en-us/articles/209819053-Get-a-Course-Certificate

This course is also available in Spanish and Portuguese. To join the fully translated Spanish version, visit this page: https://www.coursera.org/learn/negociacion/

To join the fully translated Portuguese version, visit this page: https://www.coursera.org/learn/negociacao

Subtitles for the videos are available in English, Ukrainian, Chinese (Simplified), Portuguese (Brazilian), Spanish

Created by: University of Michigan

The course logo composite is shared with a Creative Commons CC BY-SA (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0/) license, and was created using images provided courtesy of Flazingo Photos (http://bit.ly/1zOylRm) and K2 Space (https://www.flickr.com/photos/k2space/14257556613/in/set-72157644732478432).

Skills You'll Gain

  • Advanced Negotiation
  • Business Negotiation
  • Contract Negotiation
  • Decision Making
  • Negotiation
  • Negotiation Strategies

What You'll Earn

Certificate of Completion:
Certificates of completion acknowledge knowledge acquired upon completion of a non-credit course or program.
Experience Type
100% Online
Format
Self-Paced
Subject
  • Business
Platform
Coursera
Welcome Message

Welcome to Successful Negotiation: Essential Strategies and Skills, a course designed to help you negotiate more effectively in personal, professional, and business contexts. You will explore how preparation, strategy, psychology, and ethics shape negotiation outcomes. Through real-world examples and practice scenarios, this course builds practical skills for creating value, managing conflict, and reaching sustainable agreements.
This abbreviated syllabus description was created with the help of AI tools and reviewed by staff. The full syllabus is available to those who enroll in the course.

Course Schedule

Module 1: Welcome to Successful Negotiation

  • Video: Course Goal and Game Plan
  • Reading: Course Focus
  • Reading: How to Succeed in This Course
  • Reading: Earning a Course Certificate
  • Reading: Help us learn more about you!
  • Video: Introduction to the University of Michigan
  • Reading: About the Professor
  • Reading: Syllabus
  • Reading: Suggested Readings

Module 2: Prepare—Plan Your Negotiation Strategy

  • Reading: After completing this module, you will be able to...
  • Reading: Suggested Readings
  • Reading: Assess Your Negotiating Style
  • Reading: Checklist of Ethical Standards and Guidelines
  • Video: Should I Negotiate?
  • Video: A Position-Based or Interest-Based Negotiation?
  • Video: A Dispute Resolution or Deal Making Negotiation?
  • Video: Analyzing the Negotiation
  • Video: Your BATNA in a Dispute Resolution Negotiation
  • Video: Using Decision Trees to Complete Your BATNA Analysis
  • Video: Cross-Cultural Negotiations
  • Video: How to Handle Ethical Issues
  • Video: General Ethical Standards
  • Video: Using Agents in Negotiations
  • Graded Assignment: Show What You Know

Module 3: Negotiate: Use Key Tactics for Success

  • Reading: After completing this module, you will be able to...
  • Reading: Suggested Readings
  • Reading: Developing Your Negotiating Power
  • Reading: Checklist of Psychological Tools
  • Video: Getting to Know the Other Side
  • Video: Using Power in Negotiations
  • Video: Introduction to Psychological Tools; Mythical Fixed Pie Assumption
  • Video: Psychological Tools: Anchoring
  • Video: Psychological Tools: Overconfidence
  • Video: Psychological Tools: Framing
  • Video: Psychological Tools: Availability
  • Video: Psychological Tools: Escalation
  • Video: Psychological Tools: Reciprocation, Contrast Principle, and Big Picture Perspective
  • Graded Assignment: Show What You Know

Module 4: Close: Create a Contract

  • Reading: After completing this module, you will be able to...
  • Reading: Suggested Readings
  • Reading: Contract Law Checklist
  • Video: Perspectives on Contracts
  • Video: Sources of Contract Law
  • Video: Creating Contracts: The Agreement
  • Video: Creating Contracts: Consideration and Legality
  • Video: Creating Contracts: Writing Requirements
  • Video: Business vs. Legal Objectives in Contracting
  • Graded Assignment: Show What You Know

Module 5: Perform and Evaluate: The End Game

  • Reading: After completing this module, you will be able to...
  • Reading: Suggested Readings
  • Reading: Life Goals Analysis
  • Video: Dispute Prevention
  • Video: ADR Concepts
  • Video: ADR Tools
  • Video: Arbitration
  • Video: Arbitration (Conclusion)
  • Video: Mediation
  • Video: Mediation (Conclusion)
  • Video: Contract Performance Review and Evaluation
  • Graded Assignment: Show What You Know

Module 6: Practice Your Negotiation Skills with an Interactive Experience and Live Negotiations

  • Reading: During this exercise, you will...
  • Reading: Negotiating with Investors: Practice Your Negotiation Skills in an Interactive Experience
  • App Item: ⭐ Interactive Experience: Negotiating with Investors
  • Reading: Post-Experience Survey Opportunity
  • Reading: During this exercise, you will...
  • Reading: Suggested Readings
  • Video: Introduction to Negotiation Exercise
  • Reading: Tracy: Instructions and Confidential Information
  • Reading: Pat: Instructions and Confidential Information
  • Video: Negotiation Debrief: Planning for Negotiation
  • Video: Negotiation Debrief: Planning for Negotiation (Conclusion)
  • Video: Negotiation Debrief: Negotiation Tactics
  • Video: Negotiation Debrief: Psychological Tools
  • Video: Negotiation Debrief: Psychological Tools (Conclusion)
  • Video: Negotiation Debrief: Creating and Performing the Contract
  • Video: Negotiation: Building a Larger Pie
  • Reading: Self-Assessment and Feedback for the Other Side

Module 7: Final Examination

  • Reading: Final Examination: Instructions and Honor Code
  • Reading: Some important reminders
Grading Policy

Learners are assessed through a final examination that evaluates understanding of negotiation strategies, tactics, and application. To pass the course, learners must earn an overall score of 80% or higher on the required graded assessment.

Assessment:

  • Final Examination – 100%
Portrait of George Siedel
George Siedel

Williamson Family Professor of Business Administration and Thurnau Professor of Business Law

Beginner Level

No prior experience required

Course Video

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Reviews and Ratings

4.8

16869 Ratings from Coursera

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