Be Careful What You Ask For: The Importance of Questions in Negotiation

Negotiation is a part of our everyday life.

We bargain at home and at work, with our family and with strangers. We know that negotiation is important, and judging by sales of books on negotiation, we want to be good at it.

An under appreciated key to being good at bargaining is to develop the ability to ask good questions. Since information is the key to understanding the content and constraints of a negotiation, questions provide a means of identifying hidden value.

From August 2006 – July 2015, John T. Delaney served as dean of the University of Pittsburgh’s Joseph M. Katz Graduate School of Business & College of Business Administration. He was the sixth person to serve as dean since the establishment of the Graduate School of Business in 1960. During his tenure as dean, Delaney successfully encouraged greater collaboration among faculty, staff, students, alumni, and friends to create and deliver an outstanding education in business.