Our Harvard and Monash Connection

CMA and the Harvard Negotiation Project

The outstanding quality of CMA’s training programs starts with our strong connection with Harvard Negotiation Project (HNP).

Every serious trainer in this field refers to the groundbreaking work of HNP, beginning with the best-selling book Getting to Yes: Negotiating Agreements Without Giving In. But no other Australian training company has the depth of understanding and experience in these acclaimed theories and techniques that CMA has.

The Harvard-based approaches to negotiation, influence, conflict management, feedback and communication are not prescriptive “join the dots” approaches. They are powerful and flexible frameworks for thinking and acting more effectively.

The benefits of our Havard-based frameworks include:

• highest quality content
• consistency among our presenters and across different courses
• adaptability – you can adapt the way you use the frameworks based on your own style, your counterparts’ styles and the situations you are in

Most important of all, they enable you to achieve great outcomes AND build strong, valuable working relationships – two goals that are otherwise very hard to attain at once.

CMA was founded in 1993 with the assistance of leading figures from the Harvard Negotiation Project, including Professor Roger Fisher (author of Getting to Yes and numerous other books) and Professors Doug Stone and Sheila Heen (Difficult Conversations). Fisher and others from HNP had established the training and consulting firm CMG (Conflict Management Group), which quickly became known throughout the USA for its innovative training workshops. As a result of our close involvement with CMG, CMA became Australia's only licensed provider of training workshops based on the HNP/CMG approach.

Now independent of CMG, CMA continues to draw on the innovative approaches developed at Harvard, and contributes to their ongoing development through our own work. We have developed an integrated suite of training modules in the field of negotiation and influential communication, each of which is an application or extension of the core Harvard-based theories.

To find out more about our Harvard based approach, call us on (03) 9614 0333 or email us.

CMA and Monash University

CMA enjoys a longstanding relationship with Monash University. We teach three subjects in negotiation and mediation skills for the Faculty of Law:

• Negotiation and Mediation Skills (undergraduate)
• Negotiation and Mediation Skills (postgraduate)
• Advanced Negotiation and Mediation Skills (postgraduate)

We have also provided skills training for graduates and articled clerks at top-tier law firms together with Monash Law.

Our public workshop program is also endorsed by Monash University, which assures the quality of each course. Participants in our Victorian workshops receive a certificate showing the University’s endorsement.