At a 2014 conference, Meagan Hill (AB 2011, MBA 2016), a member of the Mohawk Nation, stood proudly as her uncle received an achievement award for his work as treasurer of the Seneca Nation. Hosted by the Native American Finance Officers Association (NAFOA), the annual conference convenes professionals from member tribes, each of which operate as independent governments with their own political structures and economies. Over the next few days, discussions with member nations echoed many of the cases she was studying in her Harvard Business School (HBS) classes and issues she had encountered in her two years working in investment finance. She returned to the HBS campus with a spark of an idea.
In July 1988, during his final year as secretary of state, George Shultz embarked on an eight-country, three-week tour of Asia. No crisis or urgent diplomatic objective had spurred the trip unthinkably long by today’s standards. With the Soviet Union in decline and China focused inward, the United States’ global position was strong. But Shultz had a deep commitment to what he called “tending the diplomatic garden.” I was a young Foreign Service officer accompanying Shultz. Watching the way he treated his hosts in each capital city was a powerful lesson in American diplomacy and why it matters.
Upon his arrival in Tokyo, Shultz raised the confidence of the Japanese long insecure about the attention lavished on China ever since President Richard Nixon’s 1972 visit by proclaiming that the United States had no more important ally in the world. In Beijing, Shultz, the rare American leader who listened more than he spoke, sat through long meetings and an even longer ceremonial d
Free and open to the public.
About the event:
Mike Wheeler has taught negotiation at Harvard Business School since 1993. Over those years, he admits to becoming more skeptical about one-size-fits-all negotiation approaches, whether they’re “win-win” or the “hard bargaining” type. The best negotiators instead improvise as the process unfolds, depending on the situation and who it is that they’re dealing with. Mike will share his insights about crafting agile strategy and being quick on your feet moment-to-moment.
About the speaker:
Michael Wheeler has been affiliated with the Program on Negotiation since its founding in 1983. At that time, he was on the faculty of MIT’s Department of Urban Studies & Planning where he co-authored the award-winning text