How to ACTUALLY Have Difficult Conversations — Masterclass on Turning Conflict Into Connection

Negotiate Anything

American Negotiation Institute

Education, Business, Self-improvement

4.7 • 748 Ratings

🗓️ 14 November 2025

⏱️ 113 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

This special masterclass brings together three of the world’s leading voices on communication, psychology, and leadership to explore one of life’s most essential skills — how to have difficult conversations. Harvard’s Sheila Heen unpacks the power of shifting from blame to contribution and shows how understanding power and intent can transform conflict into collaboration. Psychologist Dr. Lara Pence reveals how internal curiosity and emotional self-awareness shape every negotiation and help us stay grounded when tensions rise. Finally, Kenji Yoshino offers a framework for addressing the most complex identity and justice conversations of our time, teaching us how to cultivate curiosity, disagree respectfully, and apologize authentically. Across these three masterclass episodes, you’ll learn how to listen deeply, speak bravely, and lead conversations that heal, connect, and create real change — at work, at home, and in society. Featured episodes Harvard’s Sheila Heen Reveals Why We’re All Negotiating the Wrong Way - Sheila Heen — Harvard Law School Professor & Co-Author of Difficult Conversations Becoming a Better Negotiator Through Curiosity With Lara Pence, PsyD, MBA-Dr. Lara Pence — Clinical Psychologist & Mindset Consultant for Spartan Race Mastering Conversations: Say the Right Thing with Kenji Yoshino - Kenji Yoshino — NYU Law Professor & Co-Author of Say the Right Thing: How to Talk About Identity, Diversity, and Justice

Transcript

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0:00.0	Most small business owners only think about insurance after something gets wrong.
0:04.6	Don't be that person.
0:06.4	With Next Insurance, you get fast, affordable coverage in minutes.
0:10.3	No calls, no waiting, and no nonsense.
0:13.3	Protect your business today at Next Insurance.com.
0:17.4	Welcome to this negotiation masterclass edition of Negotiate Anything.
0:21.4	With over 1,600 episodes featuring some of the world's brightest minds, we've carefully curated three powerful conversations for you.
0:29.4	What makes this so special is that you'll hear how different experts from different industries approach the same challenge in their own unique ways.
0:39.2	Our goal is to give you multiple perspectives so you can build your own unique style. Success doesn't look the same for everyone,
0:44.6	and in this masterclass, you will see exactly why. Let's dive in. Sheila, thanks for joining us today.
0:52.2	It's a total pleasure to be here.
0:56.2	Yes, it does our pleasure to have you, my friend.
0:59.7	So how would you get started by telling us a little bit about yourself and what you do?
1:00.8	Oh, golly.
1:02.0	How do I describe what I do?
1:03.5	So I wear several different hats.
1:08.2	Probably the easiest one to describe is that I'm a professor at Harvard Law School,
1:18.0	where I am responsible for the negotiation teaching curriculum, and negotiation just became required for graduation at Harvard Law School. So that we're expanding the program and expanding courses and seats in those courses, which has been really
1:23.7	fun. On the side, I write books, and I also run a consulting firm called Triad Consulting,
1:31.6	where we do work with clients, both for-profit and nonprofit, trying to equip leaders to have
1:38.2	better conversations and make better decisions. Incredible. And listeners, my friend Sheila here is quite humble here. We are talking to
1:48.0	the queen of negotiation, in my opinion. And that is a high honor coming from somebody who graduated
	...

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