By Kjerstin Pugh, Deputy Program Director, M.S. in Negotiation and Conflict Resolution, ’17SPS
Select graduate students in Columbia University’s M.S. in Negotiation and Conflict Resolution (NECR) program were recently invited to a specialized workshop delivered in partnership with the Schranner Negotiation Institute. After a single morning, the ideas they walked away with are already reshaping how they think about conflict, strategy, and their own voice at the table.
The session introduced students to the Schranner Concept, a framework developed by the Schranner Negotiation Institute, which for more than two decades has advised the United Nations, governments, political parties, and businesses on high-stakes negotiations. This Columbia workshop is part of the institute’s broader effort to bring its methodology directly into universities, pairing top-down expertise with bottom-up perspectives from the next generation of negotiators.
Students focused on three core skills: defining goals in difficult negotiations, internalizing key tactics, and working through deadlock. The agenda combined best-practice sharing with role plays, interactive feedback, and a 90-minute case study, bookended by opening remarks and a closing group discussion. For NECR students settling into their first semester in the program, the workshop quickly challenged their negotiation instincts.
NECR student Jacob Elmann described a shift in how he’s starting to see conflict: “My biggest takeaway was to stop treating conflict like a PR crisis to smooth over. Conflict is leverage, provided you have a clear demand list, explicit team roles, and the spine to handle a ‘no.’”
He pushed back on the reflex toward consensus-driven compromise, noting that in marketing and business development, “trying to keep everyone happy bleeds margin and dilutes brand positioning.” He's already thinking about how to apply this: putting tough issues on the table early rather than letting them fester, and meeting pushback with strategic silence instead of reactive concessions. The bigger shift, he said, is coming away with "a broader toolset" — a sense of when to build collaborative alignment internally and when to take a more structured, tactical posture.
Photo Credit: Sharon Kim
Candace Fay, another NECR student who participated in the workshop, took away a similarly counterintuitive lesson about sequencing. She had always avoided putting the “big fish on the table” at the outset, worried it would read as too aggressive. The workshop reframed that instinct: securing agreement on the major item first builds the foundation, with smaller details settled afterward “as the icing on the cake.”
For fellow NECR student Elisa Mandarano, the workshop reframed negotiation itself early in her time in the program. “I am starting to see negotiation and conflict as opportunities for growth and as ways to challenge myself, rather than as concepts with inherently negative connotations,” she said, adding that the emphasis on approaching negotiation with confidence — not to “win,” but to reach the best possible outcome — is something she expects to carry directly into her capstone project down the road.
Mandarano’s biggest takeaway was learning not to negotiate against herself before a negotiation even begins: expressing an ambitious target and real demands, asserted cooperatively rather than apologetically. She connected this directly to the experience of women, who are often socialized toward less assertive negotiating postures. She was also struck by the human dimension of the work — that preparation and strategy matter, but so does relationship-building, and that “the willingness to cooperate can become an incredible strength when used effectively.”
Together, the students’ reflections point to a common thread: the Schranner Concept didn't just add tactics to their toolkit, it gave them permission to negotiate more directly, whether in a classroom simulation, a capstone project still ahead, or a future negotiation with real stakes.
Views and opinions expressed here are those of the authors, and do not necessarily reflect the official position of Columbia University School of Professional Studies or Columbia University.
About the Program
Columbia University’s Master of Science in Negotiation and Conflict Resolution prepares students to analyze the root causes and dynamics of conflict and to transform disputes through reasoned and resourceful interventions. The program focuses on developing self-awareness, tenacity, and interpersonal competency; building common ground; opening lines of communication; ensuring representation and recognition, and building sustainable possibilities for resolution. The program has on-campus and online (with residency) modality options. Learn more about the program here.
