The abilities to negotiate with, and influence others, are essential to being an effective leader in technology-rich environments. GradEL’s 6.9270 Negotiation & Influence Skills for Technical Leaders course provides graduate students with underlying principles and a repertoire of negotiation and influence skills that apply to interpersonal situations, particularly those where an engineer or project leader lacks formal authority over others in delivering results. Taught by lecturer Rachel Moore Best.
Behind the scenes look at one of GradEL’s core courses: 6.9280 Leading Creative Teams. In this class, students were asked to re-create a drawing based solely on a partner’s verbal descriptions — an exercise in communicating effectively in a team. In Leading Creative Teams, students learn how to build a team and be their best as part of one by developing self-awareness, motivating others, practicing creative problem solving, influencing without authority, managing conflict, and communicating effectively. Taught by Senior Lecturer David Nino.
How can AI help you prepare for your next big negotiation? Can AI teach you to get what you want from your negotiation partner without sacrificing collaboration? What role should AI play in shaping the future of human agreements?
Samuel (Mooly) Dinnar, lecturer at MIT’s Graduate Engineering Leadership Program (GradEL), and Leroy Sibanda, curriculum development associate with GradEL, explored these and other intriguing questions at an engaging Lunch & Learn. Students were able to try a simulated used car purchase negotiation with an AI bot and share their results. See video highlights of the session.
Dinnar and Sibanda teach GradEL’s 6.9260 Multi-Stakeholder Negotiation for Technical Experts course. They have developed bots that successfully coach students on negotiation skills, particularly in multi-party negotiation settings. Their role-playing techniques are at the forefront of using GenAI to teach negotiation.