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We create teaching materials that help people refine their negotiation skills to advance climate change action.

Our collaborators are researchers, practitioners, and pracademics with a passion for engaging teaching.

Clusters of Exercises

Our progressive clusters group multiple exercises with a common theme, and can be completed in order or exercises can be selected individually in the order of your choice.

Cluster 1

Get the fundamentals right!

Explore our introductory negotiation exercises that help participants understand fundamentals concepts in two-party and multiparty negotiations and why they should never assume that they can only get what they want if their counterpart doesn’t get what they want.

Explore Cluster 1

Cluster 2

Manage barriers to understanding one another!

Sometimes we get angry, sometimes we don’t hear one another, sometimes we just don’t understand. Explore our exercises that refine the skills of listening, asking good questions, questioning our assumptions and dealing with heated situations.

Explore Cluster 2

Cluster 3

Master the complexity of large scale negotiations with many parties!

Explore our exercises that help participants understand coalitional dynamics, how to sequence their stakeholder engagement, and why the process that structures a negotiation is as important as the content of the negotiation.

Explore Cluster 3

Explore Our Exercises

How to use our Materials

simulation

Greenhouse Gridlock (2 party)

From positional horsetrading to creative problem-solving

Greenhouse Gridlock is a two-party negotiation simulation to introduce fundamental negotiations concepts, and specifically the difference between positional bargaining and interest-based bargaining. In this fictionalized simulation, two country representatives are aiming to find an agreement on how often to report greenhouse gas emissions, a critical issue reflecting real-world dynamics in global climate governance throughout the early-mid 2000s.
case

Sequencing for Sequestering Negotiating REDD+

Strategize to build a deal-driving coalition

This case focusses on effective coalition-building, with a focus on effective sequencing to build winning coalitions and block counter-coalitions. Participants practice the actionable skill of constructing an effective stakeholder map. The case can be taught with a short extension that focusses on multi-issue complexity. The case can also be taught together with a “multi-issue” extension lasting an additional 30 minutes.
other

Gender and Negotiations

How do gender and other status-linked identities show up in negotiations?

Hannah Riley Bowles, an expert and renowned research on gender intersectionality and negotiations, explores when gender differences arise in negotiations and what organizations and individuals can do about it.
simulation

Greenhouse Gridlock (3 party)

From positional horsetrading to creative problem-solving

Greenhouse Gridlock is a simulation designed to introduce and enable participants to practice fundamental concepts in negotiations including in particular the different dynamics of positional and interest-bargaining that aims for creative resolution of differences. As a three-party exercise, it also introduces coalition dynamics. The simulation challenges participants to look beneath seemingly incompatible positions, to identify shared interests.
simulation

Finding the right words for COP28

Deploy thy words carefully & facilitate effectively

Finding the right words for COP28 is a 6-7 party negotiation exercise that introduces participants to the complexities of facilitated negotiations in a formal setting. The exercise can be used for a variety of different purposes and teaching points depending on the specific purpose, that the instructor wishes to emphasize. It can be used to introduce complexities that arise in multi-party and multi-issue negotiations such as coalition building and management, process structure and management, and making trades across priorities.
exercise

Funding the Future

Cultivate composure when things get tense

Funding the Future is a simple two party exercise that help participants navigate difficult interactions and strong emotions and understanding what might produce them. In this exercise two parties with vastly different perspectives, with one party in an intense emotional state engage have to navigate a conversation. If participants showcase understanding, learning, and acknowledging the other side’s perspective, participants will find a basis for a potential future agreement.

How do you exert influence in this messy huge process?

Climate negotiations are wickedly hard.

Climate negotiations are wickedly hard. Climate issues touch on virtually all aspects of how we live; many of those who suffer the most contribute the least. And making progress on the climate challenge often means working through highly complex and formalized processes. Every year, >190 countries come together to negotiate hundreds of detailed technical issues while negotiating very political issues, with countries that organize themselves in a huge number of coalitions, many of which overlap, representing a set of stakeholders that virtually represent everyone. How can we prepare people to be effective in such obscure processes? We, people at universities and practitioners, brought together our respective insights to develop a set of teaching materials that can help people develop the skills to negotiate in these challenging settings.

Videos on Key Concepts

Explore our videos, which cover the fundamentals of negotiation as well as advanced negotiation skills.

Impressions from COP29 in Dubai
Seyni Nafo, Alice Plane, and Kaveh Guilanpour share impressions of what it feels like to negotiate at a COP
Negotiation Fundamentals
Monica Giannone discusses fundamental principles of effective negotiating including interests, positions, value creation and claiming and the negotiator’s dilemma
How to craft a telling “Party Issue Matrix”
Anselm Dannecker describes how to use a tool to prepare for multiparty, multi-issue negotiations
An interview with Brian Mandell: Complexity in Multiparty Negotiations
Brian Mandell and Anselm Dannecker develop insights on navigating the complexities that arise in complex multiparty negotiations (full interview)
Negotiating with their Backtable in Mind
Kessely Hong explains why you should always think about their backtable when negotiating
Creating Value in Negotiations through Trades
Anselm Dannecker discusses how we can create value and trade across issues effectively by figuring out how much each party cares about different issues
Setting up a Negotiation Process
Monica Giannone discusses the importance of setting up an effective negotiation process and how different processes affect the dynamics in negotiations.
The Cartagena Dialogue
Andrea Guerrero Garcia shares the main ideas behind creating the Cartagena Dialogue and how it had impact.
The story of JC Hyde
Rand Wentworth tells the story of how he negotiated with JC Hyde without doing much of what we usually call negotiating. He listened….
Three Do’s and Don’t’s of Negotiating
Brian Mandell shares his thoughts on what not to do and what to do when negotiating
Coalitions in the climate regime
Monica Giannone and Anselm Dannecker discuss coalitions in climate negotiations
The concept of “the BATNA” in negotiations
Monica Giannone dissects the concept of Alternatives and the Best Alternative to a Negotiated Agreement (BATNA) in negotiations
The concept of “interests” in negotiations
Monica Giannone explains the importance of interests in negotiations and the different types of interests that often surface
Preparing for a Negotiation
Monica Giannone shares some tips and principles for preparing effectively for negotiations.
Connecting with Others
Anselm Dannecker talks about the communicating and connecting with others across differences
An interview with Hannah Riley Bowles: Gender and Negotiations
Hannah Riley Bowles discusses with Anselm Dannecker how gender shows up in negotiations (full interview)
The Importance of Listening in Negotiations
Rand Wentworth discusses the importance of listening for negotiating good outcomes and why sometimes you get the best outcomes by advancing their interests
Sources of Complexity in Climate Negotiations
Anselm Dannecker discusses why climate negotiations often feel so much harder than other negotiations
How to Listen Effectively
Rand Wentworth shares the 4 steps of effective listening
Brian’s favorite “Mandellisms”
Brian Mandell shares his favorite “Mandellisms,” a term coined by his students for his one sentence negotiation advice
Quick insight: How does gender show up in negotiations?
Hannah Riley Bowles summarizes key research insights on gender and negotiations (short video)