Prerequisite: There are no prerequisites for this course. If have taken another negotiation course at Harvard, you will find that this course builds upon and extends what you learned.

Exam Type: No Exam

Leaders, advocates, and other change agents must engage effectively with people whose worldviews are very different than their own. Conflicts involving deeply held values and other fundamental differences in perspective present special challenges and may require adjustments to approaches to negotiation we use in other situations. Through interdisciplinary readings, presentations, negotiation simulations, dialogue experiences, exercises, discussion, and reflective practices, this practice-focused, workshop style course aims to help participants become more aware of how their own and others’ worldviews influence conflicts involving identity-defining value differences and to help them become more effective negotiators.

Worldview conflict can arise in what we think of as private contexts (e.g., business transactions) or public contexts (e.g., domestic healthcare policy negotiations, bilateral trade disputes, and wars) and at a local level (e.g., land use disputes), societal level (e.g., the abortion debate), or global (e.g., climate change policy) level. We will consider the potential and challenges of negotiation across diverse contexts, taking up topics such as the comparative advantages and disadvantages, and interplay among, litigation, civil resistance, and negotiation as tools for social change and a bounded theory of pluralistic relativism as a response to the reality of moral diversity.

The course is limited to 48 students. In addition to participating in in-class activities, students will be expected to keep a journal and submit portions of it throughout the term and will participate in a small group dialogue that requires a modest commitment of time outside class.

There are no prerequisites for this course. If you have taken another negotiation course at Harvard, you will find that this course builds upon and extends what you learned. This course has no final examination.

Note: This course will meet for three hours each week, on Thursday and Friday, starting at 1:30pm.

This course is cross-listed with HDS, listed as HDS 2081.