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).

• Welcome to Successful Negotiation!
• Through this course you'll learn and practice the strategies and skills that will help you become a successful negotiator in your personal life and business transactions. After completing this module, you'll be able to state the four key stages of negotiation and what you need to do successfully complete this course.
• Prepare: Plan Your Negotiation Strategy
• This module focuses on the first step in the negotiation process - planning for a negotiation. One critical component you'll learn is how to complete a negotiation analysis to set you up for success.
• Negotiate: Use Key Tactics for Success
• This module focuses on two especially important topics: (1) how to use power during negotiations and (2) psychological tools that you can use during negotiations. Keep a paper and pencil handy, as you'll be participating in several experiments as watch these videos!
• Close: Create a Contract
• This module focuses on the negotiation that takes place in a business deal after reaching an initial agreement – the negotiation to create a binding contract. Among other things, you'll learn to decide if you need a lawyer or can act as your own for contract creation. However, the videos should not be construed as providing legal advice.
• Perform and Evaluate: The End Game
• This module focuses on performing and evaluating your agreement. If both parties perform as expected, there is no problem. But if they fail to perform, the dispute resolution processes that we cover in this module is important - especially mediation and arbitration.
• Practice Your Negotiation Skills with an Interactive Experience and Live Negotiations
• This module gives you two chances to practice what you have learned in the course. First, you can practice your negotiation skills during an interactive experience with two investors who are interested in funding your start-up business. Second, you can test your skills in a live real estate negotiation with a friend or with someone from another part of the world who is taking the course.
• Final Examination
• Once you have successfully completed the Final Exam, you will have successfully completed the course! The estimated time to complete the examination is 75 minutes. You can retake the examination until you are confident that you understand these concepts.