Fundamentals of Contracting and Negotiation Essentials

Introduction:

Organizations often experience significant financial impacts due to contractual terms. Effective planning and understanding of contracts are critical for successful business operations. This course emphasizes practical skills in negotiating, documenting, maintaining, and mediating contracts and disputes. Participants will gain insights into contract formation, key clauses, and dispute resolution techniques, with a focus on achieving win-win outcomes.

Objectives:

By the end of the course, participants will be able to:

• Explain how contracts are generated.
• Identify key considerations related to major contract clauses.
• Expand understanding of contracting structures and strategies.
• Explore how contracts can be structured to transfer risk.
• Investigate conflicts through litigation and alternative dispute resolution methods.
• Recognize and apply the key stages of negotiation: Planning, Discussion, Proposing, Summarizing, and Concluding.
• Achieve positive outcomes in bargaining.
• Explain the nature of disputes, their causes, and their impact on future business relationships.
• Determine and manage conflict resolution strategies.

Training Methodology:

• Interactive presentations
• Case studies
• Group discussions
• Role-playing
• Negotiation and cross-examination exercises
• Question and Answer sessions
• Problem Solving

Course Outline:

Unit 1: How Contracts Are Formed

• Purpose and significance of contracts
• Basic rules of contract formation
• Administrative requirements
• Written vs. Oral agreements
• Authority to bind others
• Standard contract types
• Business-specific contracts
• Moral and ethical concerns

Unit 2: Main Contract Provisions and Associated Issues

• Statement of works
• Acts of God
• Strategies for tough market competition
• Receipt and Acceptance
• Cessation and Abandonment
• Guarantees
• Governing law
• Comprehensive agreement clauses

Unit 3: Changes and Variations

• Amendments to agreements
• Dealing with variations
• Variation clauses
• Estimating scope changes
• Change control and timing
• Interference

Unit 4: Contractual Documents and Payment Issues

• Letter of Intent, Letter of Award
• Insurance
• Payment on account
• Corporate guarantees
• Standard contract forms

Unit 5: Advanced Legal Contracts and Breach Assessment

• Contract conclusion
• Suspension and termination
• Types of effects

Unit 6: Dispute Resolution Procedures

• Preventing disputes
• Managing disputes
• Resolution clauses
• External mediation
• Court system
• Mediation and negotiation
• Post-resolution evaluation

Unit 7: Fundamentals of Negotiation

• Business interactions
• Impact of disputes on partnerships
• Negotiation process: Prepare, Discuss, Propose, Bargain, Close
• Decision-making incentives (e.g., BATNEs)
• Case outlining, goal setting, and common mistakes

Unit 8: The Negotiator’s Toolbox

• Meeting preparation and conditions
• Agenda discussion and trust-building
• Proposals and meeting progression
• Reaching agreements and documenting results
• Conflict resolution without bargaining

Unit 9: Negotiating Styles, Tactics, and Ploys

• Traditional and international contexts
• Negotiation and emotion
• Managing negative feelings and body language
• Push and pull styles
• Strategies and countermeasures

Unit 10: Personal Skills in Dispute Negotiation

• Motivators of conflict and management methods
• Team negotiations
• Conflict resolution and impasse management
• Personal skills development
• Negotiation preparedness

Unit 11: Putting It All Into Practice

• Leadership in high-stake situations
• Team coordination and specializations
• Mediation methods
• Handling negotiation challenges
• Principles of negotiating behavior
• Assumptions management
• Continuous improvement (Murphy’s Law)