Negotiation Simulation

Power Plays & Tricky Tactics



$165 / seat

Negotiation Simulation Overview

Negotiation is taught through practice: you learn by doing. While the principles of negotiation are fairly straightforward, the hardest part of learning to be a great negotiator is putting those principles into practice.

There is one type of negotiation where it is especially difficult to get practice: dealing with difficult negotiators. Often learners in courses are reluctant to “go negative” while negotiating with their peers. These realities leave negotiators unprepared to respond to the various power plays and tricky tactics that negotiators engage in real-world settings.

University of Michigan Ross School of Business Professor Susan Asford and Forio designed this negotiation simulation to address this issue. As learners go through the simulation, they observe negotiators working on various aspects of a deal. Each scene will end with an issue known to cause negotiators difficulty. We call these difficult issues “power plays” or “tricky tactics”.

Learners get to provide an actual negotiation response on video. After learners post their videos, the negotiation responses are evaluated. The negotiation simulator contains nine different events. Learners are usually assigned a subset of those events to consider and respond to.

Time Requirement

  • Introduction - 20 minutes
  • Game Play - 45 to 75 minutes
  • Debrief - 30 to 60 minutes

The Story

The storyline of the simulation involves two co-founders of a startup company negotiating on various topics among themselves. In each of the nine scenarios available in the simulation, learners will watch a professional actor enacting a particular negotiation tactic. They recognize the tactic and respond as the counterpart of the negotiation in a recorded video. After reading about expert insights and advice on how to respond in such cases, the learners then do a self-assessment of their response. Optionally, the learners can do peer-evaluations for the responses of others in their cohort, followed by the facilitator’s assessment.

Any subset of the 9 negotiation simulator scenarios can be assigned. Best responses on the leaderboard can be viewed together for discussion. The simulation can be played synchronously or asynchronously.

Learning Focus

  • Recognize power plays and tricky tactics in negotiations.
  • Practice how to respond to each tactic in a negotiation.
  • Learn ideal strategies for dealing with difficult people in negotiations.

Topics Covered

  • Negotiation
  • Interpersonal Communication
  • Conflict Resolution

This simulation is WCAG Compliant for the participants.

Each simulation comes with a Teaching Guidebook for the facilitator along with 1:1 facilitator training and free trials.


This simulation is by University of Michigan Ross Business School and Forio

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