[MUSIC] In this introduction, I would like to prompt your reflection on an important issue, why did you decide to follow a MOOC on negotiation? Why add this to your agenda, which must be pretty busy already? I mean, you could attend other courses or read a book or discuss with friends or enjoy the nice sun out there or sleep or do whatever more pleasant you can think of. So there must be some reasons why you are here watching this video. Please take a couple of minutes and write down the reasons, which brought you to enroll in this MOOC. Welcome back. Here are the top three reasons why people decide to follow a MOOC or a classic course on negotiation. The first one is that negotiation is everywhere. It is 360 degree. Take a pause again and think. With whom have you negotiated so far? Or will you be negotiating with in the future? Make a list. Ready? That list is probably pretty long. Suppliers, customers, colleagues, partners or kids, if any, your boss, etc. Now, let me highlight three distinctions within that list. Negotiation occurs in difference spheres when negotiating our private life, at home or in daily activities, for instance, with your bank. We will also negotiate, of course, within a company organization. These are internal negotiations. We negotiate on behalf of our company with other organizations such as a supplier. These are external negotiations. In this MOOC, you will find tools which have proved useful in all of these three series. Next distinction. Negotiations can be formal or informal. When you meet with a customer's lawyer to discuss a contract. Or when a manager meets with trade union representatives, everybody knows it is a negotiation, it is explicit, rules of proceedings are important. But when you meet with colleagues around the coffee, to discuss the marketing strategy for a new product, it is also a negotiation, although an implicit one, everybody has in mind their own preferences or constraints. Again, in this MOOC, I will address both implicit or informal and explicit or formal negotiations. Last, maybe some of you wrote down, I negotiate with my boss. Or I have to negotiate with the people I manage. In these vertical relationships, the new ingredient changes the negotiation dynamic, and that is the hierarchical authority. Does it end the negotiation? No. You're still in a capacity to influence the decision making of your boss or you still have to convince your team that something has to be done. How to better influence, how to better convince will also be addressed in this MOOC. So that was reason one. Negotiation is everywhere. Reason two is pretty straightforward but worth mentioning anyway. Good negotiation helps make a difference. I mean do we all agree that whether we negotiate in a great way or in a mediocre way the end result is not the same? We get the contract or we don't. The margin is thick or thin. We prevent the conflict or we fuel the dispute, etc. And the third reason is also worth highlighting. Good negotiation can be learnt. That is also good news. Of course, personal soft skills help negotiate and some of us might be more gifted than others with these qualities. Nevertheless, once we realized that these soft skills help, we can work on them and improve. Besides, effective negotiation is based on principles, tools, tips, methods, which help you make a difference. And this MOOC will address both soft skills and proven process tools. Now, if any of you think that negotiation is very rare, does not make much difference and cannot be learnt anyway, well then, you're watching the wrong thing. But if you agree that these three points make sense, then stay tuned. Enroll in this MOOC, and you'll rapidly see the difference. Enjoy.