UMD Smith to Host Building Negotiation Skills Workshop November 2-4 in Washington, D.C.

Negotiation at work is constant – whether with customers, colleagues or bosses. Professionals at all levels should be ready to “think on their feet” when the next situation arises to negotiate – whether in product pricing, partnership agreements or the next job offer, says Professor of Management and Organization Vijaya Venkataramani at the University of Maryland’s Robert H. Smith School of Business.

Venkataramani is co-director of “Building Negotiating Skills” – a three-day professional certificate course from Nov. 2-4, 2022, at the Maryland Smith Washington D.C. campus in the Ronald Reagan Building and International Trade Center. The workshop can be previewed in free information sessions, via Zoom, noon-1 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 13 and 11:30 a.m.-12:30 p.m. Tuesday, Oct. 25.

“The workshop-based program will involve experiential exercises and real-life simulations that cover a broad spectrum of workplace negotiation simulations,” Venkataramani says. The activities further are designed “to bust the myth that good negotiators are born, not made.”

But it’s not about learning how to “win” at any cost, says program co-director Rellie Derfler-Rozin, associate professor of management and organization at Maryland Smith. “The goal is to learn how to get to a place where you are happy with the negotiation outcome, and your partner is also happy with the outcome and wants to negotiate with you further in the future. This is an invaluable skill in the dynamic business environment, in which reputation builds very quickly and is very important to maintain.”

What’s crucial to success in negotiations, she says, is for “both parties to shy away from the idea that if one side is getting more, the other must be coming out worse for wear.”

Derfler-Rozin, who has extensively researched and taught about effective negotiating, gives three keys:

Don’t have a zero-sum mindset. “Don’t think about negotiations as a ‘fixed pie,’ where if one side gains a larger slice, the other side is losing. Instead, think about how you can expand what you are offering and asking for so that everyone leaves satisfied.”

Decide what’s most important. “Both sides can win if they prioritize the factors most important to them. Chances are, those aren’t the same things and with a successful give-and-take based on those priorities, both sides can gain in a negotiation.”

Finish strong. “You want to finish a negotiation in a situation where the other party highly respects you as a competent problem solver who tries to create value for both sides.”

For more information and to register, go to the Smith Executive Education’s Building Negotiation Skills homepage.

Video: Rellie Derfler-Rozin and Vijaya Venkataramani preview the Building Negotiation Skills workshop.