Negotiation and Conflict Resolution Collaboratory
THE LATEST AT NCRC
Leadership Development Program Helps City Halls Negotiate Better Results for Residents
Through the Bloomberg Harvard City Leadership Initiative, city administrations are building practical negotiation skills to tackle high-priority challenges, with NCRC Director Monica Giannone and Faculty Chair Brian Mandell teaching and co-chairing the Negotiation for City Leaders program.
The Negotiation and Conflict Resolution Collaboratory connects students, faculty, and practitioners to advance the art and science of negotiation. We create cutting-edge research and tools, convene leaders across disciplines, and equip changemakers worldwide with the skills to tackle their most pressing challenges—from climate diplomacy and conflict transformation to campus dialogue and beyond.
Turn the Tide
Turn the Tide is an inter-university collaboration that equips climate, land, and biodiversity negotiators, students and leaders with the negotiation skills required to advance policy action in high-stakes forums.
Built in collaboration with university faculty, active negotiators, and senior advisors, our curriculum pairs core negotiation strategy with the real-world complexities of multi-party diplomacy. We deliver our curriculum through trainings that integrate research-based teaching, immersive simulations, and practical tools. Every year, we bring our trainings to hundreds of young negotiators from underserved regions to elevate their negotiation skills and help close the gap facing vulnerable nations at the negotiation table.
Beyond our own trainings, we host a growing open-source library of teaching materials, simulations, and guides—free for educators worldwide to bring negotiation training into their own classrooms. We actively invite educators to contribute their own materials, helping this library grow into a shared resource for the global negotiation community.
Negotiation Coaching Clinic
The Negotiation Coaching Clinic is an intensive, research-based program that helps Harvard Kennedy School students sharpen their negotiation skills through personalized coaching, hands-on simulations, and guided reflection.
Offered every semester, the Clinic creates a unique developmental pipeline: students can first participate as a coachee, return as a trained coach, and, for alumni working in the field, come back to HKS as a mentor coach. Whether you’re looking to grow your own skills or give back to the next generation of negotiators, the Clinic offers a meaningful way to engage with the NCRC community.
The Propeller / Why It Worked
Why It Worked is a pioneering global initiative focused on transforming the future of conflict transformation.
The initiative provides actionable insights and tools, including the Propeller Framework for Conflict Transformation, to help communities and leaders in conflict zones design locally-driven, long-term solutions. By uncovering the common elements that have driven successful peace processes, we are equipping leaders worldwide with the knowledge to build more resilient societies and create lasting peace, even in the most fractured regions.
Dialogue For Understanding
Dialogue for Understanding is a training program designed and delivered by NCRC that equips participants with practical skills for navigating difficult, divisive conversations.
Born out of student demand at HBS, it has grown from a small series of workshops into a full program now delivered to up to 1,000 incoming HBS students each year — and more broadly to students and fellows at Harvard Kennedy School and to external organizations. Through interactive sessions grounded in behavioral science and dialogue frameworks, participants learn to manage cognitive biases, balance inquiry with advocacy, and engage more constructively across deep disagreement. The program goes beyond polite debate, helping future leaders sit with discomfort and communicate more honestly when it matters most.
The Case and Simulation Design Laboratory
The Case and Simulation Design Laboratory is an ongoing collaboration between NCRC and HKS students who want to go deeper in their negotiation learning.
Faculty Chair Brian Mandell has transformed the field of experiential negotiation education, and the Case and Simulation Design Laboratory is where much of that work is born. Working alongside the NCRC team, students take the lead on designing and writing cutting-edge negotiation cases and simulations — conducting interviews with practitioners and protagonists in the field, gathering real-world materials, and helping shape the content that drives our classroom teaching and global programming. Opportunities arise on an ad hoc basis throughout the year. If you’re an HKS student interested in working more closely with our team and going deep on negotiation pedagogy, we’d love to hear from you.
Negotiation in Practice
From the start, NCRC’s mission has run in two directions: bringing the best of negotiation research out of the academy and into the hands of practitioners — and bringing what we learn in the field back into our teaching, our cases, and our thinking.
Alongside our work at Harvard Kennedy School, we work directly with leaders, teams, and organizations navigating real, high-stakes challenges where the tools of negotiation and conflict resolution can make an immediate difference. Our work has taken us from legislative chambers to conflict zones, from youth climate movements to community organizations working on the front lines of inequality. If your team is facing a challenge that requires working more effectively across complexity, we’d welcome the conversation.
Recent News
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Self-Evident Truths: The 250-Year Pursuit of Human Rights in the United States of America
For 30 years Brian Mandell, the Mohamed Kamal Senior Lecturer in Negotiation and Public Policy, has taught HKS students real-world skills through simulations that shape careers in conflict resolution and leadership.
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Creating a community of peacebuilders and changemakers through HKS negotiation courses
For 30 years Brian Mandell, the Mohamed Kamal Senior Lecturer in Negotiation and Public Policy, has taught HKS students real-world skills through simulations that shape careers in conflict resolution and leadership.
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Cutting through the noise
A profile of NCRC negotiator Elan Kogutt on cutting through political noise, including his work with Monica Giannone on the Dialogue for Understanding initiative to bridge polarized divides.