The History and Philosophy of
Negotiating Training

In the early 1960's, a successful New York attorney, Gerard I. Nierenberg, went through a period of professional self-examination. His personal philosophy set the tone for his law practice. Rather than accept any of the usual labels, i.e.: criminal lawyer, negligence lawyer, real estate lawyer, etc., he considered himself to be a problem solver, and he enjoyed remarkable success. He looked for other key elements of his "success style" and correctly identified "Negotiating Ability". Realizing that no one had a negotiating course and unable to find even one book on negotiating, he started his own research, which was to consume and change his life. He found it rather amazing that society looked upon and expected the lawyer to be the Negotiator when in reality; lawyers had absolutely no training in the process.

As his research and writing increased, in 1966 he created an educational nonprofit institute in New York and called it the Negotiation Institute, Inc. By 1968, he had completed what he felt was an excellent first effort and had published his first book on the subject, The Art of Negotiating. For the first time, he had identified and structured the negotiating material and process allowing it to effectively practiced and taught. No longer could one say negotiators are born. Negotiators could now be trained!

Amazed and delighted at the book's success, in 1968 he began to conduct both public and customized "in house two day seminar workshops", named after the book, The Art of Negotiating®. In time, the US Government would recognize his pioneering effort and original unusual insights by the granting of a registered trademark to this title. In a relatively short period of time, the public presentation grew to 60 major cities between October and June. Nierenberg then searched and found some of the country's top Negotiators to train in his unique methods. As the public seminars grew in size and popularity, these additional presenters met the need for the in-house presentations which were sought by industries of various sizes, as well as governmental organizations and agencies and at every level worldwide.

Materials and activities began to be noticed and to receive attention, not only nationally, but also internationally. Other individuals began to become involved in the negotiating area. Gerard Nierenberg and the Institute's response to this were to encourage and mentor. They encouraged Law Schools, Universities and Colleges to use the materials which were originally presented by their own faculty. There is a strong belief in the use and effectiveness of the negotiation process to avoid or solve disputes. Because of this the members of the Institute never wanted to limit of stop others from pursuing the negotiation area which they clearly pioneered.

These efforts of course were recognized when Forbes magazine recognized Gerard Nierenberg as, "The Father of Negotiating Training." Despite all the others who entered the field it was Nierenberg that organizations and newspapers such as the Wall Street Journal, constantly sought for his opinion.

In spite of his legal training, as an advocate, Nierenberg revolutionizes the way people negotiate by his Everybody Wins® philosophy. He has authored to date 20 books, translated into 30 languages. Many of the books are bestsellers that have not gone out of print, approaching a shelf life of over 30 years; and six have just been republished by Barnes & Noble Booksellers. In addition to the books there were a growing number of audio, video and software products which are utilized around the world.

Gerard Nierenberg purposely maintained a small tightly run organization. As the popularity of Negotiating Training grew, the organization with its more than 18 expert Negotiator/Presenters began to lessen the number of public seminars. Nierenberg preferred to direct his Institution's activities to the more specific customized presentations. This also allowed for the solving of the customers' problems and for the development of new materials and products.

As the demands on his time grew, he preferred to turn over the public and many of the other in-house presentations to his associates. He concentrated his attention on the development of new insights and materials. Despite this, he was always available for Negotiating/Consulting both in the private and public sector worldwide. For many years this occupied the majority of his time. In order to conserve time and still be able to have a maximum impact, he did select seminars such as a meeting which contained more CEO's of major companies than had ever been assembled previously. He pioneered the use of teleconferencing, conducting programs for such organizations as the American Bar Association. In one television appearance, he was able to train almost seven hundred lawyers in 39 separate locations.

Teleconferencing efforts, such as this, were duplicated on various occasions for a variety of industrial and national organizations.

Gerard Nierenberg is continually creating and innovating new directions for the implementation of negotiation training. His goal is to make everyone a better negotiator.