Accelerating Negotiation Skills

This program is designed for professionals who regularly navigate situations where reaching agreement, influencing outcomes, or resolving differences is essential to their success. Ideal participants include individuals who:

• Lead teams, projects, or cross-functional initiatives
• Manage client relationships, vendor partnerships, or stakeholder expectations
• Oversee contracts, budgets, or resource allocations
• Engage in conflict resolution, performance conversations, or organizational change
• Represent the interests of an organization, union, community, or client group
• Provide advisory, legal, HR, or consulting support
• Run or grow a business and negotiate daily with customers, partners, or employees

Participants will:

• Build essential negotiation skills and confidence to negotiate effectively in both professional and personal contexts.
• Use a collaborative, interest‑based approach by focusing on underlying needs, generating options for mutual gain, and managing challenging conversations.
• Apply a structured negotiation process by preparing effectively, influencing the power dynamic, and navigating toward outcomes that create value for all parties.
• Strengthen persuasion and framing techniques to communicate with clarity, shift perspectives, and move negotiations forward.
• Enhance decision‑making by identifying strong alternatives (BATNAs) and understanding how they shape negotiation leverage.

Participants also receive a printed Negotiation Toolkit, which includes:

1. A preparation checklist
2. A pre‑negotiation planning template
3. Persuasion and framing fundamentals, including high‑impact questions and phrases
4. Evidence‑based strategies for influencing the power dynamic
5. A negotiation debrief form
6. A glossary of key negotiation terms

• 9:00 – 10:00am — Negotiation as Your Key Communication and Influence Tool
• 10:00 – 11:30am — Strategic Advantage: Effective Preparation
• 11:30am – 12:00pm — Integrative Strategies Part I: Creating Value
• 12:00 – 12:45pm — Lunch
• 12:45 – 1:15pm — Integrative Strategies Part I: Creating Value
• 1:15 – 2:55pm — The Art of Persuasion & Framing
• 3:00 – 5:00pm — Integrative Strategies Part II: Complex Negotiations & the Longer‑Term View, Set the stage for Day 2

• 9:00 – 9:30am — Recap Day 1 and Open Q&A
• 9:30 – 10:10am — Case Preparation and Exercise
• 10:20 – 11:05am — Case Debrief
• 11:10am – 11:55am — Influence the Power Dynamic in Your Favor
• 11:55am – 12:40pm — Lunch
• 12:40 – 1:25pm — Influence the Power Dynamic in Your Favor
• 1:35 – 2:20pm — Closing for Action & Next Steps
• 2:25 – 3:00pm — Course Recap and Final Q&A

Dr. Michelle Gigowski Caplan, has worked in commercial organizations across Finance, Data Analytics, Field Sales, and Marketing roles with over 15 years of experience in the life sciences and healthcare space. Over her tenure, she has negotiated six figure capital equipment acquisitions tied to multi-year, multi-million-dollar contracts in health systems across the US.

Michelle earned her Doctorate in Business Administration at DePaul University, which has fueled her passion for the behavioral decision-making process. Her areas of focus include team level decision-making, negotiation, sustainability, and leadership. While Michelle currently works full-time at a healthcare diagnostics company, she also teaches part-time at DePaul University’s Kellstadt Graduate School of Business in the Department of Management & Entrepreneurship.