The Evolution of Project Management

Abstract

You will be hard pressed to find an old western movie that doesn’t include a showdown. The reason being, way back then, that’s how conflicts were resolved. There were no mediators or sit-down discussions to resolve differences. Back then, Cowboys settled disputes “like a man”. The art of negotiation has most definitely evolved since those dusty days. Mostly in part due to great, historical negotiators like Abe Lincoln, Gandhi, and Richard Nixon. This paper will provide an overview how historical negotiators and past negotiations have shaped today’s negotiation process.

The Evolution of Negotiation

Negotiation is an interpersonal decision making process necessary whenever we cannot achieve our objectives single handedly (Thompson, 2012). Every human being negotiates at some point in their life for one reason or another. However, the way in which we negotiate has drastically evolved. The history of negotiation and the lessons we have learned from historical negotiators offers an important and more complete perspective. So who are these great negotiators and what have we learned from them? What can we learn from past negotiations and how did we get to where we are now in the negotiation process?

Great Historical Negotiators

Sometimes history is made through great negotiations. Wars have been avoided, constitutional rights have been amended, and events destined to go one way have been averted by some form of negotiations. There are several past negotiators that have in one way or another influenced how we negotiate today.

Our country’s 16th president, Abraham Lincoln, is probably one of the most known historical negotiators ever. His stance to legislate the end of slavery through the passage of the 13th amendment to the Constitution was genius. Lincoln fought for this amendment to legally ensure that no parts of the country could ever keep slaves again. With the war ending, the President had a narrow window to get his team to...