Graduate Module — Negotiations & Pricing Posture (GE 610)
The session-by-session teaching plan for GE 610. Follows the module contract in modules/module-template.md, extended to the 14-week graduate arc. Negotiation is taught as a prepared discipline; the pricing-posture canon is at concept altitude (doctrine/08).
Audience: graduate students in the MS program. Prerequisites: GC 540 recommended (build a defensible price). Readings: the doctrine and literacy folders, plus the course reader on negotiation. Case object: Ravonics and real (closed) procurement negotiations.
Session 1 — Negotiation as a discipline
Learning objectives. By the end of this session, students can: (1) distinguish positions from interests; (2) define BATNA and ZOPA; (3) prepare a one-page negotiation prep sheet.
Session plan (75 min).
- Open (5 min): "You are negotiating a rate change. What do you actually want?"
- Teach (25 min): the course reader on negotiation + doctrine/04. Interests vs. positions; BATNA, ZOPA, reservation price.
- Apply (25 min): prepare a prep sheet for a case negotiation.
- Discuss (15 min): "Why does preparation beat improvisation in negotiation?"
- Close (5 min): assignment.
Discussion prompts. 1. What is your BATNA in a federal negotiation, and how do you improve it? 2. When does a position hide the interest?
Homework / reading. Read the course reader and doctrine/04. Deliverable: a one-page prep sheet for a case negotiation.
Comprehension check. What is the difference between a position and an interest? What is BATNA?
Session 2 — The federal negotiation process
Learning objectives. By the end of this session, students can: (1) describe discussions, clarifications, and BAFOs; (2) explain when price is locked; (3) draw the negotiation arc.
Session plan (75 min).
- Open (5 min): "You submitted. Can you still change your price?"
- Teach (25 min): doctrine/02 + the course reader on the federal process. Discussions, clarifications, BAFOs, orals; the lock points.
- Apply (25 min): draw the negotiation arc of a competitive procurement from proposal through award.
- Discuss (15 min): "What does the two-deadline discipline do to negotiation behavior?"
- Close (5 min): assignment.
Discussion prompts. 1. What can and cannot change in a discussion? 2. Why is an undisciplined price drop during BAFO a governance failure?
Homework / reading. Read doctrine/02. Deliverable: a process map of the negotiation arc.
Comprehension check. What is a BAFO? When is the price truly locked?
Session 3 — Pricing posture as position
Learning objectives. By the end of this session, students can: (1) set a floor, ceiling, and target; (2) state the strategy each serves; (3) connect posture to the negotiation plan.
Session plan (75 min).
- Open (5 min): "Before a word is spoken, what is your position?"
- Teach (25 min): doctrine/05 + the pricing-posture canon at concept altitude. Floor, ceiling, target; the posture as the negotiation position.
- Apply (25 min): set the floor, ceiling, and target for a case pursuit and state the strategy each serves.
- Discuss (15 min): "When does a higher ceiling help you negotiate?"
- Close (5 min): assignment.
Discussion prompts. 1. What does your floor say about your cost discipline? 2. How does the target change with the evaluation posture (LPTA vs. best-value)?
Homework / reading. Read doctrine/05. Deliverable: a posture memo with floor, ceiling, target.
Comprehension check. What are the floor, ceiling, and target? How does posture serve strategy?
Session 4 — Anchors and concessions
Learning objectives. By the end of this session, students can: (1) use an anchor deliberately; (2) plan a concession sequence; (3) read a concession as a signal.
Session plan (75 min).
- Open (5 min): "Your first number sets the room. What number do you open with?"
- Teach (25 min): the course reader on anchoring. Anchoring, concession dynamics, the signal of movement.
- Apply (25 min): design a concession sequence for a case negotiation with a rationale for each move.
- Discuss (15 min): "When is a concession a signal, and when is it a giveaway?"
- Close (5 min): assignment.
Discussion prompts. 1. How do you anchor without looking unreasonable? 2. What does the size and timing of a concession communicate?
Homework / reading. Read the course reader. Deliverable: a concession-plan exercise.
Comprehension check. What is an anchor? What does a concession signal?
Session 5 — The other side's analysis
Learning objectives. By the end of this session, students can: (1) explain cost analysis vs. price analysis; (2) read a price from the CO's side; (3) predict the questions your price will raise.
Session plan (75 min).
- Open (5 min): "The contracting officer has your price on a screen. What are they thinking?"
- Teach (25 min): doctrine/05 + the audit canon at concept altitude. Cost analysis vs. price analysis; what the other side sees.
- Apply (25 min): from the CO's side, write the three questions your price would raise.
- Discuss (15 min): "What makes a price easy for the other side to justify to their own reviewers?"
- Close (5 min): assignment.
Discussion prompts. 1. What is the difference between cost and price analysis? 2. How do you price so the CO can defend you?
Homework / reading. Read doctrine/05. Deliverable: a memo writing the CO's three questions about your price.
Comprehension check. What is the difference between cost and price analysis? Why must the CO be able to defend your price?
Session 6 — The debrief as intelligence
Learning objectives. By the end of this session, students can: (1) explain the debrief as a negotiation for information; (2) prepare a debrief plan; (3) run a debrief for maximum learning.
Session plan (75 min).
- Open (5 min): "You lost. You get thirty minutes with the CO. What do you ask?"
- Teach (25 min): doctrine/03 + the course reader on debriefs. What a debrief is entitled to give you; how to run it.
- Apply (25 min): design the debrief you would run after a loss — the questions, the records, the follow-up.
- Discuss (15 min): "What do most firms waste in a debrief?"
- Close (5 min): assignment.
Discussion prompts. 1. What information is a debrief actually required to give you? 2. How do you turn debrief notes into a strategy change?
Homework / reading. Read doctrine/03. Deliverable: a debrief plan with questions and record-keeping.
Comprehension check. What is a debrief entitled to give you? How is it a negotiation for information?
Session 7 — Team negotiation
Learning objectives. By the end of this session, students can: (1) assign negotiation roles; (2) apply the "one voice" rule; (3) define decision rights in the room.
Session plan (75 min).
- Open (5 min): "Three people, one negotiation. Who talks?"
- Teach (25 min): the course reader on team negotiation. Roles, the one-voice rule, the discipline of the room.
- Apply (25 min): write a team charter for a case negotiation — roles and decision rights.
- Discuss (15 min): "Why does a negotiating team usually need fewer talkers than it has?"
- Close (5 min): assignment.
Discussion prompts. 1. What does the "one voice" rule protect? 2. Who should hold the walk-away authority?
Homework / reading. Read the course reader. Deliverable: a team-charter memo.
Comprehension check. What is the one-voice rule? Who holds decision rights in a negotiating team?
Session 8 — Power and leverage
Learning objectives. By the end of this session, students can: (1) map sources of leverage; (2) explain how leverage shifts over time; (3) build leverage before the room.
Session plan (75 min).
- Open (5 min): "You have no leverage against the government. Do you?"
- Teach (25 min): the course reader on power + doctrine/05. Alternatives, information, incumbency, time; where leverage comes from.
- Apply (25 min): map each side's sources of power in a case negotiation and how they shift.
- Discuss (15 min): "What leverage does a small firm actually hold in a federal negotiation?"
- Close (5 min): assignment.
Discussion prompts. 1. How does incumbency create leverage? 2. How do you build leverage before the negotiation begins?
Homework / reading. Read doctrine/05. Deliverable: a leverage map for a case negotiation.
Comprehension check. Where does leverage come from? How does it shift over time?
Session 9 — Midterm
Learning objectives. By the end of this session, students demonstrate: (1) preparation skill; (2) posture; (3) boundary discipline.
Session plan (75 min).
- Open (5 min): exam logistics.
- Exam (65 min): a case negotiation fact pattern is distributed. Students prepare a negotiation plan in 75 minutes — posture, anchors, concessions, team, boundaries.
- Close (5 min): what to review for the second half.
Discussion prompts. n/a (examination).
Homework / reading. Review weeks 1–8. Deliverable: midterm submission.
Comprehension check. n/a.
Session 10 — Mock negotiation I
Learning objectives. By the end of this session, students can: (1) execute a prepared negotiation; (2) observe and critique; (3) reflect on their own behavior.
Session plan (75 min).
- Open (5 min): logistics and role assignment.
- Mock (50 min): a full mock negotiation on a case fact pattern; half the class negotiates, half observes.
- Debrief (20 min): observers critique against the prep; negotiators reflect.
- Close (5 min): assignment.
Discussion prompts. 1. What did the prepared side do that the unprepared side did not? 2. Where did the negotiation leave the table compared to the prep?
Homework / reading. (exercise). Deliverable: a reflective memo on your negotiation behavior.
Comprehension check. What did the mock reveal about your preparation gap?
Session 11 — Mock negotiation II
Learning objectives. By the end of this session, students can: (1) apply the first mock's lessons; (2) negotiate a contested price posture; (3) hold the floor.
Session plan (75 min).
- Open (5 min): logistics and the new fact pattern.
- Mock (50 min): a second mock where the pricing posture is contested, not the scope.
- Debrief (20 min): the room examines how posture held under pressure.
- Close (5 min): assignment.
Discussion prompts. 1. How did holding the floor change the outcome? 2. What was the hardest concession to resist?
Homework / reading. (exercise). Deliverable: a revised negotiation plan incorporating the first mock's lessons.
Comprehension check. What changed between the two mocks?
Session 12 — Ethics and boundaries
Learning objectives. By the end of this session, students can: (1) state what cannot be said, shared, or promised; (2) draw the wall between negotiation and influence; (3) write a pre-negotiation boundary checklist.
Session plan (75 min).
- Open (5 min): "You know something the CO does not. Using it is a win — until it is not."
- Teach (25 min): doctrine/04 + the course reader on negotiation ethics. What cannot be said, shared, or promised; the wall.
- Apply (25 min): write the boundary rules for a case negotiation as a pre-negotiation checklist.
- Discuss (15 min): "Where is the line between persuasion and influence peddling?"
- Close (5 min): assignment.
Discussion prompts. 1. What is the cost of winning a negotiation you should not have won? 2. How do you keep a negotiation honest under pressure?
Homework / reading. Read doctrine/04. Deliverable: a pre-negotiation boundary checklist.
Comprehension check. What is the boundary between negotiation and influence? What cannot be promised?
Session 13 — The negotiation record
Learning objectives. By the end of this session, students can: (1) document a negotiation; (2) produce the record; (3) use the record as a governance artifact.
Session plan (75 min).
- Open (5 min): "The negotiation is over. What did you actually agree to?"
- Teach (25 min): doctrine/04. The record as governance; positions, offers, concessions, agreements.
- Apply (25 min): produce the negotiation record for your mock negotiation.
- Discuss (15 min): "Why does the written record matter more in federal negotiation than in commercial?"
- Close (5 min): assignment.
Discussion prompts. 1. What must a negotiation record capture? 2. Who else will read this record, and what will they look for?
Homework / reading. Read doctrine/04. Deliverable: the negotiation record for your mock.
Comprehension check. What is a negotiation record? Why is it a governance artifact?
Session 14 — Synthesis
Learning objectives. By the end of this session, students can: (1) integrate posture, prep, process, and boundary; (2) write a personal negotiation doctrine; (3) connect negotiation to the degree.
Session plan (75 min).
- Open (5 min): "Posture, preparation, process, boundary. Which is the load-bearing wall?"
- Teach (15 min): course synthesis.
- Apply (35 min): present your personal negotiation doctrine; the room probes.
- Discuss (15 min): "What will you negotiate differently after this course?"
- Close (5 min): bridge to the capstone.
Discussion prompts. 1. What is the most common negotiation mistake in federal capture? 2. How does negotiation connect to pricing posture and to strategy?
Homework / reading. Course synthesis. Deliverable: final memo, "My negotiation doctrine."
Comprehension check. How do posture, prep, process, and boundary form one discipline? What is the one idea you will carry forward?