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"Concessions are often necessary in negotiation" says HBS professor Deepak Malhotra. "But they often go unappreciated and unreciprocated." Here he explains four strategies for building good will and reciprocity.

Public-policy negotiator Susan Podziba, a teacher and a mediator-for-hire offers this two-part article on negotiation skills. Part I, gives nine tenets for negotiating success. Part II follows up with some thoughts on refining your skills.

How widespread is deception in negotiation and how can you detect it? What are the pros and cons of using e-mail during the negotiating process? How does a good, or bad, reputation influence the outcome of a negotiation? This article gives an overview of three chapters in a new book entitled "Wharton on Making Decisions."

Roger Fisher, renowned gray eminence of negotiation and co-author of the classic book Getting to Yes, says the prescription for negotiations applies to corporate mergers as well as international diplomacy.

In a new book, Breakthrough International Negotiation: How Great Negotiators Transformed the World's Toughest Post-Cold War Conflicts, Harvard Business School professor Michael Watkins dissects the art of give-and-take. This excerpt details 7 principles followed by master negotiators:
1. Breakthrough negotiators shape the structure of their situations
2. Breakthrough negotiators organize to learn
3. Breakthrough negotiators are masters of process design
4. Breakthrough negotiators foster agreement when possible but employ force when necessary
5. Breakthrough negotiators anticipate and manage conflict
6. Breakthrough negotiators build momentum toward agreement
7. Breakthrough negotiators lead from the middle

Note: Business 2.0 is now part of CNNmoney and some older articles are no longer available

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Want to win your next negotiation? Role-playing, that much-maligned management technique, could actually do the trick.

Leigh Steinberg, the most powerful agent in sports, tells free agents in the business world how to negotiate great deals - and how to deal with their fear of negotiation.

A deal can unravel quickly if it doesn't embody the mutual understanding-the social contract-behind the words on paper. The risk factors surrounding negotiation are detailed in this Harvard Business Review excerpt, co-authored by HBS professor James K. Sebenius.

When negotiating compensation, women often sell themselves short. Some practical advice on claiming the power to lead in this interview with HBS professor Kathleen L. McGinn and Harvard's Hannah Riley Bowles.

When U.S. and Chinese businesspeople sit at the negotiating table, frustration is often the result. This Harvard Business Review excerpt summarizes the historical and cultural disconnects.

Negotiation is improvisational-demanding quick, informed responses and decisions. Professor Kathleen L. McGinn lays out the score in this article from Negotiation.

Editor's Note: offers an interesting look at six basic forms of interaction: haggling, fighting, working together, opening up, building a relationship, and complex processing.

In an article from Negotiation, expert Deborah M. Kolb offers tips for deflecting the other side's power grab.

You can use deadlines to your strategic advantage in negotiations-but so can your opponent. Here's how to make the most of time pressure. From Negotiation.

Editor's Note: I found the arguments made in this article quite unconvincing...what do you think?

Many women who think they aren't good negotiators simply have never been taught how. Here are four typical mistakes women make when negotiating and how to correct them, so you can get what you want in business and in your personal life.

How can you make someone be reasonable? Lawrence Susskind, professor and professional negotiator, tells how to deal with the most difficult breed: the apparently irrational negotiation partner.

Note: TWM articles ARE still available BUT: (1) you must be a member (free for existing members, not free for new members)   (2) you must be logged-in for the link to work. If you get an error page, visit the homepage, login and then try the link again.

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The most successful negotiators, those whose track record enables them to be called Master Negotiators, have seven specific strategies. They are:
* Build the future with creative solutions.
* Come to the table incredibly well-prepared.
* Create and claim maximum value.
* Understand negotiating style.
* Master the negotiation process.
* Build strategic alliances.
* Become a life-long learner.
* Build the future with creative solutions.

The decision as to whether or not to make the first offer or demand in a negotiation needs to be a strategic choice rather than a default. The first offer can have a significant effect on the final outcome.

Editor's Note: includes a negotiation exercise for use in a classroom or business training class

It damages your reputation, your company, and the deal if you make empty threats in negotiation. In this article, HBS professor Deepak Malhotra explains six steps for powerful follow-through.

Do you know how to find strength in numbers? The secret, according to this article, is to agree on the substance of the negotiation, then identify, leverage, and smoothly coordinate each team member's unique abilities.

Jeswald W. Salacuse has found that ten particular elements consistently arise to complicate intercultural negotiations. These "top ten" elements of negotiating behavior constitute a basic framework for identifying cultural differences that may arise during the negotiation process. Applying this framework in your international business negotiations may enable you to understand your counterpart better and to anticipate possible misunderstandings. This article discusses this framework and how to apply it.

Yes you can look at your counterpart across the negotiating table and infer "when to hold them and when to fold them." But negotiating successfully very much involves what you also do away from the table. These co-authors, widely experienced in international business negotiation, describe the importance of a Best Alternative To Negotiated Agreement, (BATNA), and a critical tactic that every successful negotiator must understand and deploy.

Just as negotiating has become an ongoing process, so too has learning new negotiating techniques. "Improving your negotiation skills," write the co-authors of this article, "is a long journey that involves constant reflection, awareness, and openness to feedback." In the article, a valuable and extremely useful primer for negotiators, they describe and outline the preparation, value-claiming and value-creating strategies that are the foundation of any successful negotiation.

Editor's Note: the title doesn't really convey the purpose of this article which is to provide analysis and advice for real-life negotions...and it really is valuable advice.

This paper examines the effect trust and respect has on the strategies used to negotiate, as well as the outcomes of that negotiation. The authors define trust as "the willingness to be vulnerable to another person in the absence of monitoring or the belief that a person does not intend to deceive or harm the trusting person." Respect is "the value one is shown in the way he or she is treated or the level of esteem for another individual based on one's own values."

The authors conclude that respect is important to a successful negotiation, but too much trust can, in fact, lead to a worse outcome for a negotiator. Respect engenders respect from opponents at the table and, as a result, it increases the possibility of mutual problem solving and is vital in achieving creative solutions. Trust, by contrast, tends to dull the competitive edge of negotiators, often leading them to give away their bargaining chips without improving their ability to come up with imaginative compromises. In other words, the authors argue, if you want to get a better deal, respect the people you are negotiating with, but don't trust them for a minute. [s+b annotation]

Negotiation plays an important role in effecting a successful sales process. It helps in achieving the sales objectives without making the other party concede too much. In other words, effective negotiation helps in developing a 'win-win' situation for the buyer and the seller. The paper outlines six steps for effective utilization of negotiation in a successful sales process. [BNET Annotation]

Every individual has a prominent negotiating style. Being able to determine theirs and knowing up-front what to expect can produce dramatic results. Most business people will fall into one of four categories: competitor, collaborator, compromiser or pleaser.

Gender is not a good predictor of negotiation performance, but ambiguous situations can trigger different behaviors by men and women. Here is how to neutralize the differences and reduce inequities.

Most of us trust our intuition more than we should, especially when the pressure is on in negotiations. Professors Max Bazerman and Deepak Malhotra on negotiating more rationally. From Negotiation. Key concepts include:
* Too much trust in intuition can lead to irrational decisions.
* Employ "System 2" thinking to apply logic even in times of stress and indecision.
* In negotiations, schedule more time than you think you will need.

Following the adoption of a collective bargaining agreement in 2005, National Hockey League GMs had one month to absorb the new rules and put a team together. How to best negotiate in an uncertain environment? Michael Wheeler advises looking to military science for winning strategies.

To get what you want in life requires constant negotiation. Discover the Six Laws of Negotiation and how to communicate persuasively.

"Negotiation is increasingly a way of life for effective managers," say HBS professor James Sebenius and colleague David Lax. Their new book, 3-D Negotiation, describes how you can shape important deals through tactics, deal design, and set-up, and why three dimensions are more powerful than one. Here's a Q&A and book excerpt.