Meet your new instructor: former FBI lead international kidnapping negotiator Chris Voss. While many believe that negotiation is a battle, Chris sees successful negotiation as a collaboration rooted in empathy.
Mirroring is one of the most simple yet effective techniques in any negotiator’s repertoire. Through simple repetition, Chris demonstrates how you can gather vital information in a negotiation and put your counterpart at ease.
Learn how you can use labels—verbal observations of feelings—to neutralize negative emotions in a negotiation or reinforce positive ones to create a better deal.
How does a conversation about escape room games lead to deep insights into someone’s character? Chris demonstrates how by using two key negotiation techniques: mirroring and labeling.
The way you say something during a negotiation is as important as the words you choose. Chris explores how you can use tone and inflection to your advantage and shares his top tips for online communication.
In 1993, two men held three employees hostage at a Chase Manhattan Bank in Brooklyn. Hear Chris’s techniques in action as he shares for the first time the tape recordings of his phone calls with the kidnappers.
How people behave and how they say things can be much more insightful in a negotiation than what they say. This lesson is about looking beyond the surface and distinguishing truth from fiction.
Who has more control in a negotiation: the person who’s talking or the person who’s listening? Chris lets you in on the secret to gaining the upper hand in a negotiation and explains how you can shift the power dynamic to your advantage.
Chris plays the part of a father whose teenage daughter wants to spend the weekend with her boyfriend at his parents’ vacation home; he doesn’t trust the boyfriend. Chris demonstrates techniques to get his “daughter” on his side.
There are often a lot of feelings in the room when a negotiation starts. Chris teaches you how to use an accusations audit as a means of identifying these feelings and turning negatives into positives.
Most people think the most important word in a negotiation is “yes.” In fact, the opposite is true. Chris tells you why “no” can be the pivotal word that gets you to your desired outcome.
The hardest thing to reconcile in a negotiation is opposing views. Chris shows you how to handle competing agendas without alienating the other side.
A negotiation can succeed or fail depending on how you frame your case. Chris walks you through the subtle art of perspective and how to understand a counterpart’s key emotional drivers in order to make a compelling case.
Hard bargaining doesn’t have to mean taking a sledgehammer approach. Chris teaches you how to bargain with skill, diplomacy, and tact.
Chris demonstrates how to negotiate effectively for a pay increase. Learn why he doesn’t focus the conversation on money.
Black swans are game-changing pieces of information that you don’t know when entering a negotiation. Chris walks you through an FBI case where uncovering a black swan led to a breakthrough.
An armed bank robber is barricaded in a bank with one female hostage. He wants a car in “60 seconds or she dies.” Watch as Chris deals with this tense, high-stakes negotiation where one wrong move can lead to a deadly outcome.
Chris’s motivation for teaching negotiation is deeply personal. Discover why Chris believes negotiation is a powerful tool that can transform your life.