Negotiator

7. Massively Parallel Roles & Tasks

Negotiators work in a wide range of settings to help their organizations find mutually beneficial ways of working through common problems. These individuals work with other stakeholders to identify the issues that need to be addressed and the interests that affected groups want to protect.  Negotiators then generate and evaluate possible courses of action and ultimately, ideally, reach an agreement  to pursue the most mutually beneficial option. These are the often unsung heroes who enable us to work together in widely varying contexts.  Many of them are the middle managers that David Brooks writes about as "the glue that holds society together."
 
But all of us are negotiators in our own settings — particularly in the family and the workplace. So it is important that we all learn how to negotiate effectively.  Carrie Menkel-Meadow wrote a very basic book to help people do that. The classic, Getting to Yes is another such book. This article from Starts with Us explains how to negotiate without destroying relationships.  At the advanced level, the Harvard Negotiation Project and the Institute for Negotiation Innovation teach and help develop professional negotiators, who work in large-scale complex conflicts ranging from business negotiations to international negotiations. 
 

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