STRATEGIC NEGOTIATION IN COMPLEX SYSTEMS

Negotiation today requires navigating complexity, interpreting incomplete data, managing uncertainty, and fostering trust in environments where clarity is scarce and stakes are high. Practitioners must address information gaps and asymmetry, regulatory pressures, and power dynamics while aligning diverse interests and shaping agreements that endure.

This course prepares students with skills to negotiate effectively across healthcare, technology, and business—domains where outcomes hinge on data limitations, contractual nuance, and shifting stakeholder priorities. Trust and credibility are emphasized as essential currencies, especially when agreements depend on long-term relationships, compliance, and cross-functional collaboration.

Guest speakers from multiple industries will share practical insights into negotiating across roles and power structures. Their perspectives will underscore the value of preparation, trust-building, and adaptive strategies for navigating uncertainty in dynamic environments.

Students will:

• Build and apply negotiation frameworks in complex, multiparty environments.
• Learn how to extract meaning from structured (quantitative) and unstructured (qualitative) data.
• Develop data-informed narratives to guide decision-making and stakeholder alignment.
• Practice identifying cognitive bias, ethical tension, and strategic leverage points.
• Engage in simulations and case studies grounded in real-world contracting and influence challenges.

Note for NECR Students: As an elective offered by the Negotiation and Conflict Resolution (NECR) program, this course builds on students’ conflict negotiation skills (PS5105) and their application in healthcare. Students will further engage with concepts on the influences and cultural understandings of conflict parties, and conflict analysis (PS5124 and 6050). The aforementioned courses will contribute to the understanding of this course’s content and should, in general, be taken before this elective.