Through role play and simulation, this course teaches strategic ways to strike business deals that do more than just make money

Uncommon Courses is an occasional series from The Conversation U.S. highlighting unconventional approaches to teaching.

Title of course:

“Negotiation Strategy: Fostering Collaborative Dynamics in Competitive Environments”

What prompted the idea for the course?

• Students arrive on campus with energy, ambition and an instinct that business can somehow be a force for good.
• So I developed a course to help students learn how to be true to themselves when they negotiate business deals.

What does the course explore?

• Everything about the course is designed to teach students how to negotiate both rationally and genuinely.
• In one of the negotiation reflections, for example, I invite students to describe how feeling angry can help define ethical problems.
• Another scenario highlights to students how expressions of sadness potentially build empathy and trust needed to resolve conflict.
• The course design invites students to role-play negotiations in teams of anywhere from two to six students.

Why is this course relevant now?

• Good negotiators understand how to approach business decisions by asking what is appropriate based on their personal values.
• The course introduces decision frameworks that transform the competitive nature of business into collaborative opportunities.

What’s a critical lesson from the course?

• Being yourself in business means approaching work with the same logic that applies to community, locally and globally.
• Every solution starts with oneself, with who you are in relationship to people.

What materials does the course feature?

• “A Primer on Decision Making,” by James March • “Getting to Yes,” by Roger Fisher, William Ury and Bruce Patton • “Negotiating Genuinely,” by Shirli Kopelman • “The Mind and Heart of the Negotiator,” by Leigh Thompson

What will the course prepare students to do?

• They will see who they are as an essential part of understanding what is on the negotiation table and how to navigate a discovery process.
• It paves the path for negotiating from the inside out to pursue profits and make the world better.