Presenter
Hal Movius
- What it means to be a world class negotiating organization
- How to assess your team’s or organization’s performance through a “negotiations audit”
- Why individual skills workshops (alone) are a weak intervention
- The nine steps to building a world class negotiating organization
- How organizations can learn from their negotiations to produce sustainable competitive advantages
- How your organization can spend less on large scale training while enabling improved negotiation processes and results.
Key Takeaways
- 1.Negotiation success is an organizational competence, not just an individual skill.
- 2.Off-the-shelf negotiation skills workshops often fail to produce meaningful, lasting change.
- 3.Organizations can significantly improve negotiation results without expensive, generic training rollouts.
- 4.A 'world-class negotiating organization' is built through improved internal processes and systems.
- 5.Systemic improvements to negotiation capability yield more tangible results than focusing on individual skills.
- 6.Treating negotiation as a strategic capability makes an organization more resilient and better positioned for growth.
The Limits of Traditional Negotiation Training
In today's economic environment, the ability to effectively negotiate and renegotiate agreements is a critical factor for success. However, many organizations find that their investments in standard, off-the-shelf negotiation skills workshops do not lead to meaningful improvements. These training programs often fail because they treat negotiation as a purely individual skill, overlooking the systemic and cultural factors that truly drive outcomes in complex deals.
From Individual Skill to Organizational Competence
Presenter Hal Movius, co-author of "Built to Win," argues that to achieve breakthrough results, organizations must reframe negotiation as a core organizational competence. This approach shifts the focus from training individuals in isolation to building an integrated system that supports high-stakes negotiations across the enterprise.
What is an Organizational Negotiation Competence?
A true negotiation competence is embedded in the organization's processes and culture. It involves creating a supportive framework that includes:
- Internal Best Practices: Developing and sharing standardized approaches to negotiation preparation and execution.
- Knowledge-Sharing Platforms: Creating systems for negotiators to learn from the successes and failures of past deals.
- Post-Negotiation Analysis: Implementing routines to debrief and analyze negotiation outcomes to refine future strategy.
- Clear Metrics: Tracking negotiation performance to measure progress and identify areas for improvement.
By focusing on these systemic elements, companies can foster a culture of continuous improvement and strategic alignment.
How Leaders Can Build a "Built to Win" Organization
Leaders can spearhead the transition toward becoming a negotiating organization. The first step is to assess the company's current negotiation maturity to identify systemic gaps and weaknesses. Rather than simply sending more employees to workshops, leaders should champion the development of internal frameworks and processes that support better negotiation.
By embedding negotiation competence into the company’s operational procedures and cultural DNA, leaders cultivate an environment that is truly "built to win," ensuring that teams can secure favorable outcomes and lasting agreements consistently.
This session addresses the critical importance of negotiation competence not just as an individual skill, but as a core organizational capability. It explores how companies can systematically improve their negotiation processes and outcomes, a topic that remains highly relevant for navigating complex business environments and securing lasting agreements.
What you'll learn
- That negotiation is a fundamental organizational competence, not solely an individual one.
- How to identify and overcome the limitations of traditional, individual-focused negotiation training.
- Strategies for building a "world-class negotiating organization" through improved processes and systems.
- Methods to enhance negotiation results without significant investment in off-the-shelf training programs.
- Insights into how effective negotiation can drive organizational success, especially during challenging economic conditions.
Who this webinar is for
- Senior leaders and executives responsible for strategic partnerships, deals, and contracts.
- HR and organizational development professionals seeking to build enterprise-wide competencies.
- Managers looking to improve their teams' ability to secure favorable outcomes.
- Anyone interested in understanding how organizational structure impacts negotiation effectiveness.
Why it matters now
Effective negotiation is a constant requirement for business success. In an ever-changing global landscape, the ability to renegotiate terms, forge new alliances, and secure advantageous agreements is paramount. Organizations that treat negotiation as a strategic capability rather than a fragmented set of individual skills are better positioned for resilience and growth. This approach helps companies avoid wasting resources on ineffective training and instead focuses on systemic improvements that yield tangible results over time.
How leaders can apply this
Leaders can begin by assessing their organization's current negotiation maturity and identifying systemic gaps. As Hal Movius suggests, focus on creating frameworks and processes that support better negotiation across departments, rather than just sending individuals to workshops. Consider developing internal best practices, knowledge-sharing platforms, and post-negotiation analysis routines. Implement metrics to track negotiation outcomes and refine strategies based on real-world performance. By embedding negotiation competence into the organizational culture and operational procedures, leaders can cultivate a truly "built to win" environment.
About this session
Key takeaways
Watching this webinar gives you grounded, practical perspective on Competence. Expect ideas you can use in leadership conversations, not abstract theory, drawn from Hal Movius's direct experience.
Who this is for
CHROs, HR business partners, talent leaders, executive coaches, organizational development practitioners, and senior leaders who are responsible for killer achievement inside their organization.
Why it matters now
Workforce expectations, hybrid work patterns, and AI-driven change keep raising the bar on culture and leadership. Sessions like this help leaders make smarter, more evidence-informed decisions about Competence.
How to apply it
Use the ideas here to challenge a current assumption on your team, design a single concrete experiment in the next 30 days, and bring one finding back to your leadership group for discussion.
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