Best Negotiating Practices®
Negotiation Training for Project Managers
Move beyond simple compliance and achieve sustainable commitment and buy-in.
Program and Project Managers (PMs) don’t always think of themselves as negotiators, yet negotiating as a tool of influence, communication and conflict resolution is critical to their success. PMs are planners and problem solvers who bring structure, rationale, team building and urgency to ensure complex projects are delivered within budget and on schedule while meeting requirements. They must navigate conflicting priorities, risk mitigation, change orders, and missed deadlines. The successful PM must become a master negotiator to influence decisions across teams and stakeholders. From foundation to advanced skills and strategies, Watershed’s workshop participants explore scenarios of increasing complexity, with expert coaching and peer feedback that results in more confidence and skill as negotiators.
Learn through Engaging Exercises
Role Plays |
Company-Specific Brainstorming |
Company-Specific Case Studies |
Planning Live Negotiations |
Movie Clips |
Self-Assessments |
Recaptured Learning |
Goal Setting |
Negotiation workshops and conference sessions for PMs are tailored to engineers, IT, product development, construction estimators and superintendents, and other professional functions who manage major projects and lifecycle programs, as well as remote and cross-disciplinary teams.
Beyond the Gantt charts, automation software and technical expertise PMs utilize, negotiating skills are the differentiator that dramatically improves results. A Project Management Institute study concludes that a project’s success rate improves by approximately 40% when PMs develop the ideal skill set that includes business management skills.
Sample Learning Outcomes
Trading value across project dimensions |
Pursuing needed resources with confidence |
Moving from conflict to conversation |
Presenting opening offers strategically |
Trading outcomes to restrain scope creep |
Getting past “No” to creating options |
Promoting collaboration to resolve schedule and budget challenges |
Building trust and relationships |
Managing emotions during tense discussions |
Managing and resolving conflict among stakeholders |
Getting beyond internal customer indecision |
Responding to internal customer objections |
Avoiding common mistakes that damage credibility and trust |
Getting beyond impasse |
And more! |
Why Program and Project Managers Choose Watershed’s Negotiation Programs
Watershed has served for over a decade as the negotiation curriculum for NASA’s renowned Academy of Program/Project & Engineering Leadership (APPEL). Let us bring the same understanding of PM to improve your PMs’ negotiations.
- High impact workshops motivate new behaviors
- Maximized audience engagement
- Tailored to your industry and challenges
- Improves teamwork and collaboration
- Tools to build a core competency in negotiations among PMs
- PMs solve conflicts in preferences, teams, resources and schedules
Adding negotiation skills to your PMs toolbox contributes to corporate savings and competitive advantage.
Empower your PMs with Impactful Negotiation Skills
Inspiring Keynotes & Conference Sessions
Intense Workshops for All PM Levels
Coaching for Individuals and Teams
Watershed is with You for the Long Haul
Follow-up Support & Coaching
eTools for Planning Negotiations
