Chris Voss shares what you can expect to learn over the next 30 days—and what you should do to get the most value out of his session.
Chris introduces Brandon, Derek, and Sandy—three members of his negotiation consultancy, The Black Swan Group. Together, they will be teaching you the fundamentals of negotiation at work.
Grab your pen and pad and write down three goals you want to achieve by the time you’ve completed this session. Think about how you’d like this class to impact your career and life.
Chris explains the importance of trust among colleagues and introduces you to mirroring and labeling, two essential skills for building trust-based influence at work.
Chris goes deeper on the skill of mirroring, emphasizing the importance of active listening—and even proactive listening. You’ll learn how to use your tone of voice to foster trust and create a rapport with colleagues. Chris also shares two examples of mirroring in a work context.
In this activity, learn how to label so you can help coworkers feel heard, seen, and understood. Learn how tapping into your gut instinct can drive better and faster decisions at work. Then, test your labeling skills by coming up with your own labels based on a workplace scenario provided by Chris.
As you watch the video, note how many examples of mirroring and labeling you discover.
Follow along with Chris as he highlights the use of mirroring and labeling in Derek and Sandy’s conversation and explains how these skills build rapport and long-term trust at work.
Chris teaches you the accusation audit, a strategy for deactivating negative emotions. This powerful skill is particularly effective when asking for something or delivering bad news.
Now it’s your turn. Test your skills by using the accusation audit in a workplace scenario that Chris provides.
Welcome to your new secret weapon. Dynamic silence is a powerful way to diffuse anger, demonstrate appreciation, and show respect.
Put your skills to use in this interactive practice scenario, which gives you a chance to identify mirroring, labeling, and dynamic silence. Chris will then guide you through a play-by-play analysis of the practice scenario. You will identify the use of labels, mirrors, and dynamic silence–including some you may have missed.
Derek and Sandy practice the skill of mirroring, and then break down the details so you can practice alongside them. You will then practice the skill of labeling, watch Derek and Sandy in a demo, and, finally, get a play-by-play breakdown from Chris.
Derek and Sandy demonstrate the technique of mislabeling, with insightful commentary from Chris. You will then practice three skills you’ve learned–mirroring, labeling, and dynamic silence–in an interactive role-play.
Chris demonstrates how to create a prep sheet for your next skill: the accusation audit. Then, create your own accusation audit prep sheet using the document in the Guides section.
Chris introduces you to the skills of influence and persuasion and explains why they are critical to your success.
Chris introduces a new skill: calibrated questions. You’ll learn why they are an important tool in negotiation—and how to use them.
Chris explains a simple, surprising technique that gets you a long way in any negotiation—getting people to say “no” instead of “yes.”
Follow along with Brandon, Sandy, and Chris as they demonstrate a workplace scenario. Take note when you observe them using negotiation fundamentals.
Now that you’ve identified the negotiation skills in the scenario, Chris breaks down the specifics of how each one was used.
Work with Sandy to test your knowledge of calibrated questions and how to use them effectively.
Chris shows you how the negotiation tactics in the previous practice were used to create the particular outcome.
Practice the no-oriented question in this workplace example provided by the Black Swan team.
Work toward perfecting the no-oriented question in this new practice.
Brandon and Sandy demonstrate how to use calibrated questions in a work context.
Chris will help you put all the skills you’ve learned in this section to use in some real-world scenarios.
Do you get to an agreement? Or do you make the agreement come to you? Chris introduces the process of building trust in the workplace by creating epiphanies and explains the difference between “that’s right” and “you’re right.”
Chris explains two crucial negotiation tools: the paraphrase and the summary.
Learn how to diffuse negative emotions in a business setting with a “that’s right.”
As Brandon and Sandy perform a scenario, identify the skills they demonstrate.
Cross-check the skills you identified with the ones Chris points out here—and learn why these tactics were used.
For this practice, learn the skill of the summary.
Chris provides instructions for this practice—along with an example of how he might do it himself.
Chris describes what it means to maximize value, and why aspiring toward fairness is critical to becoming a better leader.
Learn about fairness and how to apply it in your negotiations.
Chris introduces the concept of deadlines.
Review a business scenario that you might find familiar to find examples of deadlines.
Discover the crucial tool used by The Black Swan Group in many negotiation scenarios: loss aversion.
Follow along with a negotiation performed by Brandon and Derek, and identify the tactics they use that you’ve learned in this section.
Chris does a deep dive into the tactics that Brandon and Derek used in their practice conversation, highlighting what went right.
Use the skills you’ve learned so far as Chris guides you through a relatable situation: negotiating a job offer.
Follow along with a job offer negotiation and identify the tactics you’ve learned.
Chris offers a play-by-play of the tactics used in the previous practice.
The Black Swan Group performs a longer negotiation scenario to demonstrate how to successfully combine all the skills you’ve learned.
Chris goes through the scenario and comments on what worked to produce the best outcome.
In the final section of this session, the Black Swan team explains how the negotiation skills you’ve learned apply to everyone at the table.
Derek and Brandon share anecdotes and personal experiences to elaborate on inclusive negotiation.
Sandy provides insights into the challenges that women face in workplace negotiations—along with some possible solutions.
Chris encourages you to stay curious and put all that you’ve learned out into the world.