Rationale
The ability to negotiate and influence others effectively is increasingly being recognized as a key management skill of the 1990s. Certainly in industry and commerce, as well as in government, negotiating expertise is critical to achieving success as it impacts directly on bottom line results. Yet few managers have received formal training in negotiation skills.

Still less are fully equipped with all the tools, techniques and concepts that are necessary for managing negotiations successfully, although we are all engaged in varying degrees of negotiation every day - both externally with others outside of our organisations as well as internally within three-day timetable

Objectives
To provide participants with a systematic framework that will permit a clear understanding of how the negotiation process works, to develop specific negotiation skills that will markedly assist job performance and enhance negotiating competence and confidence, and to identify the changes required to improve the organization’s overall negotiating effectiveness.

Special Focus
The program content of each in-house course may be focused to meet the specific needs and areas of negotiation application of the participant group. For example, special programs have been designed to focus on commercial, financial, legal, sales/marketing, purchasing, production, government, industrial relations, staff, committee, cross-cultural and other applications. Additionally, each program is tailored to match the level of those participating (i.e. top level executives, middle level management and professionals, or more junior staff).
The focus may be on external negotiations outside your organization and/or on internal negotiations within. Courses have proven to be of immense practical value for both veteran negotiators as well as those who are less experienced. They are also particularly useful for developing specialist negotiation project teams, or for focusing on the strategy development of a major forthcoming negotiation.

Format
Broadly, the course provides a mix of theory and practice sessions. Formal presentations are short, as the overall emphasis is on practical applications through small group work and real ‘hands-on’ action learning.

This requires a high level of participant interaction and involvement. Special opportunities are given for course members to identify and work on their own actual current negotiations, and case study material used is drawn from actual participant experience in order to enhance the direct relevance and practical orientation of the course.

Design
All in-house courses are specially designed to meet the requirements of your organization. The general structure of each course is developed after first holding briefing discussions to determine management’s overall requirements for the program. Then intending participants are asked to complete a course diagnostic questionnaire. The actual program content is then carefully designed to meet both management’s requirements and the needs of individuals and/or teams negotiating in specific contexts.
Two of the great strengths of ENS course design are that firstly each program is individually tailored to take account of the specific needs of participants. Secondly, the program content of each course is designed around ‘live’ case study material drawn from participant experience of actual negotiating situations currently occurring in your organization. These pre-determined, non-academic case studies are built into the design of each program and guarantee both the direct relevance and practical orientation of the course and its immediate applicability back in the work place.

Duration
For genuine skills development we recommend programs be not less than three days, and preferably four or five days. Additionally, we suggest that follow-on reinforcement days be incorporated into the initial program design. The longer the course duration, the more opportunities the course leaders have for reviewing in depth both individual and group negotiation problem areas, and for undertaking individual skills practice sessions with critiqued review. These rehearsals are important for genuine skills development and considerably enhance the transfer of training from the course back to the work context.

Numbers
Two experienced course leaders using team-teaching techniques are recommended in order to condense the large amount of material into the time available, and beneficially to direct and critique the small group work and individual practice sessions. Team-teaching is to be distinguished from sequential teaching as both course leaders are active at all times and work together in a way that greatly expands the interactive nature of the program. Additionally, with two course leaders, it is possible to undertake two different case study practice sessions at the same time, if necessary on separate themes. It is possible, however, for a course to be directed by one leader.

To maximize the opportunities for participants to interact between themselves and with the two course leaders, the preferred number attending a course is 14 to 24 participants. For one course leader, the preferred number is around 10 to 14 participants.