David Lax and I present a novel idea—a “virtual lockout” or “virtual strike”— that lets owners and players battle it out financially to their hearts’ content—but that keeps the games going, fans in their seats, and the sport undamaged. We recently described this concept in a cover story in the Boston Globe’s Sunday “Ideas” section. Given a lot of intrigued reactions, including from labor relations experts and those with a large direct stake in the issue, we think you might enjoy checking out the Globe version here or in this blog post with a lightly edited version (to see it, click on the headline or picture above).

This seemingly “impossible” concept—a full-throated labor-management fight while the games go on—applies beyond sports. To illustrate how it could work, we use a 2021-22 case in which Major League Baseball owners “locked out” the players in an action that could lead to games or even the entire season being canceled.

Here’s an thoroughly engaging novel laced through with insights into negotiation, strategy, and what we can and should not learn from history. Read on (by clicking on the title of this blog or the image)!

I first heard this clever negotiation story from my friend, William Ury; it’s been invaluable to me when advising on truly challenging business and political negotiations. After briefly recounting it, I’ll sketch two applications: one from Blackstone’s early fundraising days, the other from dealing with an impasse between Egypt and Israel.

While known as a trust buster and national parks advocate, Teddy Roosevelt had real chops as a negotiator. Here’s a tough dealmaking challenge from his 1912 election campaign. See how you’d handle it, then learn what actually happened and its lessons for today’s negotiators.

Apart from my academic research and advisory work helping companies with their toughest negotiations, I seek to distill practical lessons by carefully studying many of the world’s greatest negotiators. In this blog, I briefly describe how I study these remarkable men and women and highlight one cross-cutting insight from this work: how remarkable negotiators make a practice of going back and forth between “zooming out” to a broader strategy and zooming in to the specific individual with whom they are negotiating. These dual perspectives—strategic and interpersonal—provide complementary insights and tactical guidance. This post illustrates how this valuable practice can be useful in private as well as public negotiations.

Learn how Rupert Murdoch pulled off the improbable deal that vaulted Fox into the top ranks of broadcasters and forever transformed American TV. In this post, I probe this saga to distill eight valuable lessons for those who face today’s most challenging deals and disputes.

Amazon is known for innovation but in deciding on—and ultimately backing out of—a decision to site its new headquarters in Queens, the company fell into a common trap. In my experience advising companies and governments, versions of this—avoidable—outcome are shockingly prevalent.  So I wrote a longer version of this post as part of Harvard Business School’s Working Knowledge series. In short, how the DAD (Decide-Announce-Defend) approach to negotiation can become DADA (Decide-Announce-Defend-Abandon)—and what to do about it.

Complex and controversial, Henry Kissinger’s name inevitably comes up as a remarkable negotiator. For example, Walter Isaacson, Kissinger’s often-critical biographer, called him the “foremost American negotiator” of his time. This book, which I co-authored with Nick Burns and Bob Mnookin, delves into Kissinger’s approach to negotiation, a surprisingly neglected aspect of his record. Our primary goal is to unearth the implications of Kissinger’s strategies and tactics for today’s most challenging business and diplomatic negotiations. This post sketches the origin of this book along with assessments by formidable current negotiators in business, finance, law, diplomacy, and tech about the practical value of the book’s advice. There are also FAQs pointing to answers about the relevance of Kissinger’s approach beyond 1970s diplomacy, ethical issues raised, etc., as well as audio and video resources.

To get past the impasse in the second round of shutdown talks, two negotiation concepts point the way. First, intractable, single-issue, win-lose negotiations can often be resolved by heeding the wise words of Dwight Eisenhower: “If a problem cannot be solved, enlarge it.” Second, craft an outcome that permits each side to give a (genuine but differently spun) “victory speech” to its constituents.