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Tag: Sara del Nido

Searching For A Leader, Not Just A General

October 5, 2015 / / 0 Comments

Via HNMCP

Robert C. Bordone & Sara del Nido

Listening to the language that most Presidential candidates have regularly been using in their speeches, it’s hard not to have a bunker mentality: battles, wars, and fights seem to be all around us. From Hillary Clinton to Donald Trump, nearly all the current candidates have engaged in the rhetoric of war to describe their campaigns. Senator Ted Cruz provided an archetypal example of the mindset by asserting during the most recent Republican debate, “We need to stop surrendering and start standing for our principles.” Many media outlets are no better, framing such debates as fights and linking combativeness with perceived strength. The emphasis on “fighting,” “winning,” and “battles” calls to mind a combat mission or boxing match, not an election.

Everywhere we turn, it seems that our politicians are fighting for every possible cause. But against whom? And why?

Truth be told, it’s likely that nearly all of the Presidential candidates aspire to similar fundamental goals – economic and national security, quality education, freedom of expression – albeit with different strategies on how to achieve them. But what gets lost when these differences are persistently framed as zero-sum battles that the President must fight?

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The Negotiation Within

August 28, 2015 / / 0 Comments

Via the Harvard Negotiation and Mediation Clinical Program

HNMCP Director Bob Bordone, former HNMCP Associate Toby Berkman ’10, and Clinical Fellow Sara del Nido ’13, and have been published in the Fall 2014 volume of the University of Missouri School of Law’s Journal of Dispute Resolution. The article is entitled, “The Negotiation Within: The Impact of Internal Conflict Over Identity and Role on Across-The-Table Negotiations.”

Bordone, Berkman, and del Nido argue that most existing scholarship on negotiation focuses on strategic, structural and psychological barriers to agreement in across-the-table negotiations, but that internal conflict also plays a profound and powerful role as a barrier, as well. Building on the groundbreaking work in Difficult Conversations and Beyond Reason, which brought to the fore the important identity issues underlying negotiators’ experiences, the article draws on a broad range of scholarship from the fields of psychology, sociology, philosophy, and even literature to propose a framework for understanding internal conflicts, and offers prescriptive advice for self-diagnosing and constructively handling one’s own “negotiation within.”

Continue reading the full story here.

A Prescription for Better Communication

March 11, 2015 / / 0 Comments

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By Sara del Nido, Clinical Fellow, Harvard Negotiation and Mediation Clinical Program

As the daughter of a surgeon, I grew up hearing about life in the halls of a hospital. My father worked long hours, but never tired of recounting the day’s (usually hectic) events to me and my siblings. On many occasions, his stories would end with the same conclusion: the most important trait of a great doctor isn’t technical savvy, nor even scientific expertise – rather, it is the doctor’s people skills that make all the difference.

Having internalized and carried my father’s lesson for well over 20 years, it was with particular interest that I read a recent New York Times article about “inattentive care” – that is, the set of inconveniences and hardships, large and small, that patients experience in the course of medical treatment. In describing inattentive care, the article gave the particularly resonant example of poor communication between doctors and patients, from routine interactions to tough conversations about bad news or outcomes. Scrolling through the comments on the article (the online version generated over 860), one in particular stood out to me: “If doctors have trouble speaking with their clients, they are even worse at consulting with each other!” Other comments alluded to the same overall problem: a lack of communication between all members of the medical support team, and the impact of that lack of communication on patient care.

Continue reading the full story here.

Why It Matters That The World’s Two Biggest Polluters Forged A Climate Accord

November 17, 2014 / / 0 Comments

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By Robert Bordone, Clinical Professor of Law, and Sara del Nido, Clinical Fellow
Harvard Negotiation and Mediation Clinical Program

On Tuesday, Nov. 12, President Obama and President Xi Jinping of China announced a climate accord that demonstrates real promise in making progress to stem global climate change. The climate accord also represents something that is rarely achieved in the struggle to come together around environmental issues: a long-term agreement that meets the interests of both parties; lays the groundwork for future actions by other key players; fundamentally changes the strategic negotiation game; and takes substantial steps toward solving the problem of collective action.

For President Obama, the climate accord agreement was a well-timed foreign policy win in the wake of a resounding defeat in this month’s midterm elections. As he faces the prospect of being a lame duck president, stifled by opposition in Congress to any initiatives he has yet to push, President Obama was able to announce the triumphant outcome of months of complex talks that he and members of his team had been tirelessly, yet quietly, pursuing. Regardless of the challenges ahead, the president’s negotiation victory reinvigorates his presidency and adds to his personal legacy.

For President Xi Jinping, the accord represents a shift away from the foot-dragging, non-committal approach China has been taking on climate change. By negotiating directly with the United States and framing this high-profile deal as an example of the types of emissions cuts other countries should model, President Xi is helping his country make a strong, unambiguous statement to the rest of the world: China is the other global superpower along with the United States. The United States’ alliance with China on this issue by no means negates the competition between the two countries in other areas, but it is an implicit acknowledgment that China, as a stakeholder whose support is necessary for meaningful change to occur, has achieved a status in the global economy and the geopolitical landscape that, in many senses, equals that of the United States.

Continue reading the full article here.

A Warm Welcome to Sara Del Nido

July 2, 2014 / / 0 Comments
Sara del Nido ’13, Clinical Fellow, Harvard Negotiation & Mediation Clinical Program

Sara del Nido ’13, Clinical Fellow, Harvard Negotiation & Mediation Clinical Program

Via the Harvard Negotiation & Mediation Clinical Program

The Harvard Negotiation & Mediation Clinical Program (HNMCP) is pleased to announce the appointment of Sara del Nido ’13 to the position of Clinical Fellow.

As a Clinical Fellow with HNMCP, Sara will work on special projects within the Clinic as well as with Harvard Law School student practice organizations that focus on alternative dispute resolution.

Sara graduated from Harvard Law School in the spring of May 2013, after completing a clinical project with HNMCP and Harvard Vanguard/Atrius Health. She and her teammate, Hema Patel ’13, designed an effective communication protocal for medical chiefs and directors to have difficult conversations with their direct reports—both physicians and staff—to hold them accountable to performance outcomes. Sara and Hema then created and delivered a series of trainings to this constituency.

“I couldn’t be more excited about this unique opportunity to work on the cutting edge of a field that I feel passionate about,” says Sara. “Particularly as a former participant in the clinic, I know how impactful this innovative program can be for students’ lives and careers, and it is an honor to now have the chance to contribute to this fantastic team.”

Sara’s interest in alternative dispute resolution (ADR) began early. After graduating from Dartmouth College, Sara served as a Research Associate for Brian J. Hall at Harvard Business School, writing case studies, building and delivering a creative negotiation-focused curriculum, and developing scholarly work with Prof. Hall around dispute resolutions systems and how they can be deployed within organizations. While a student at Harvard Law School, Sara was deeply involved in the ADR community, serving as: Advanced Training Director for the Harvard Mediation Program; as Research Assistant to Prof. Robert Bordone at the Harvard Negotiation & Mediation Clinical Program; and as Online Executive Editor for the Harvard Negotiation Law Review.

“Sara’s choose-to-help attitude, her creativity, and her long-term, deep interest in our field will be a huge asset for HNMCP and our students,” enthuses HNMCP Director Prof. Robert Bordone. “I am delighted to welcome her to our team.”

Sara was a summer associate at Bingham McCutchen LLP and has interned with the Hon. Denise Jefferson Casper in the U.S. District Court, D. Mass, at the U.S. Department of Housing & Urban Development in the Litigation Unit, with the Program on Negotiation at the Harvard Law School, and with the Community Dispute Settlement Center in Cambridge, MA. She served as a fellow at the Center for the Study of the Presidency, where she authored a paper on President Carter’s mediation of the Camp David Accords, for which she won the Marron Award for Best Historical Analysis. She has also published several cases with the Harvard Business School.

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