Handle any negotiation successfully

Dino Rinaldo, Senior Advisor, Global Affairs Canada, describes how the Ivey Collaborative Negotiation Program helped him apply creative thinking and strategy to maximize value in negotiations.

What led you to take the Ivey Negotiations Program?
Negotiation is part of everything we do in personal and business life. To be more effective and comfortable with negotiation means your life will be better, in all aspects. 

How did the program compare to your expectations?
The program exceeded my already high expectations based on experiences with other top business/Ivy league schools' executive development programs. The interaction and simulations were aligned to progressively refine your negotiation skills, while taking chances and experimenting in an immediate positive feedback environment.

What were your biggest takeaways?
Negotiation creates value, well above solely monetary considerations. I learned that your approach will translate into how much opportunity there is available for added value. Both parties have to be winners, otherwise; implementation issues will overshadow any deal. I also learned that sometimes a “no deal” is the “best deal” for everyone.

What was the highlight of the program?
The ability of the program faculty to leverage the diversity of the participants through interaction and simulation at the individual, pair, team, and entire group levels. I was able to take my unconventional ideas, share them, and then try them out in negotiation. This was followed up by professional feedback from the faculty and the participants, which added the icing on the cake!

How did the program prepare you for the challenges you face at work?
In obtaining a comprehensive understanding of how negotiation creates value and that value left on the table can be crucial for successful implementation, a completely new outlook on how negotiation is managed and carried out will be initiated. This will provide insight into developing an innovative strategy on negotiation to get better results in the short-term and creating viable relationships with our partners over the long-term.

How did the faculty contribute to your learning?
The pace and interaction of the faculty was perfect. Normally in other programs, after two days things start to die down, causing me to question the validity of the time-frame for the program. In ISBN, there was a consistent progression, so that at the third day, I wanted to continue on into the weekend to continue the interaction and simulations to try out different negotiation strategies.

How would you describe the program’s impact?
The program has impacted my ability to create and maximize value through negotiation by utilizing unconventional thinking to prepare and manage the negotiation process. My initial intuitive thoughts have been confirmed with scientific and artistic reasoning to adapt my negotiation approach to each unique situation. I feel confident to make an immediate positive impact in negotiation and to develop a negotiation strategy for my organization.

For more information on the Ivey Collaborative Negotiation Program, please download a program brochure.

About The Ivey Academy at Ivey Business School
The Ivey Academy at Ivey Business School is the home for executive Learning and Development (L&D) in Canada. It is Canada’s only full-service L&D house, blending Financial Times top-ranked university-based executive education with talent assessment, instructional design and strategy, and behaviour change sustainment. 

Rooted in Ivey Business School’s real-world leadership approach, The Ivey Academy is a place where professionals come to get better, to break old habits and establish new ones, to practice, to change, to obtain coaching and support, and to join a powerful peer network. Follow The Ivey Academy on LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram.