Strategic Negotiation: Building Organizational Excellence
By Joshua Gordon and Gary Furlong Published by Routledge (2023)
Transform Ad-Hoc Dealmaking Into Systematic Negotiation Excellence
Every sports organization negotiates constantly—yet most lack the systems to do it well. From multi-million dollar sponsorship deals to collective bargaining agreements, from facility contracts to player negotiations, success depends not just on individual negotiators but on organizational capability. Strategic Negotiation revolutionizes how sports organizations approach high-stakes negotiations. Written by Joshua Gordon—CAS arbitrator, MLB salary arbitrator, and Faculty Athletics Representative—and Gary Furlong, internationally recognized negotiation expert, this book introduces the groundbreaking Negotiation Capability Model (NCM) that transforms reactive dealmaking into strategic excellence.Listen: Deep Dive into Strategic Negotiation
Explore the key concepts of building organizational negotiation excellence in this comprehensive audio overview:
The Billion-Dollar Problem No One Talks About
Sports organizations lose millions every year—not from bad deals, but from bad negotiation systems.
The Reality Check:
- A star player’s contract negotiation goes public and turns toxic—destroying team chemistry
- Sponsorship deals leave money on the table because no one mapped stakeholder interests
- Collective bargaining becomes adversarial, leading to lockouts that cost everyone
- Facility agreements get rushed through political deadlines without strategic alignment
- Media rights negotiations focus on price instead of long-term value creation
These aren’t isolated incidents. They’re symptoms of a systemic problem:
Organizations rely on individual heroics instead of institutional capability.
When your star negotiator leaves, their knowledge walks out the door. When pressure mounts, teams revert to positional bargaining. When stakes rise, organizations abandon strategy for short-term wins that create long-term problems.
Strategic Negotiation solves this problem.
The Negotiation Capability Model (NCM): Your Roadmap to Excellence
Move from chaos to capability with the only comprehensive framework for building organizational negotiation excellence.
Level 1: Ad Hockery
WHERE MOST ORGANIZATIONS OPERATE
- Every negotiation is a fire drill
- Success depends entirely on individual talent
- No institutional memory or learning
- Reactive, crisis-driven approach
Example: A league scrambles to negotiate media rights weeks before expiration, with no clear strategy or stakeholder alignment.
Level 2: Repeatable Competency
THE CRITICAL TRANSITION
- Standard processes for common negotiations
- Basic preparation templates and checklists
- Defined roles and responsibilities
- Consistent documentation and review
Example: An athletic department creates standard processes for coach contracts, with clear approval chains and negotiation parameters.
Level 3: Adaptive Flexibility
STRATEGIC SOPHISTICATION
- Negotiations tailored to context and counterparts
- Sophisticated stakeholder mapping
- Integration with organizational strategy
- Cross-functional negotiation teams
Example: A professional team designs different negotiation strategies for veteran free agents versus rookie contracts, aligned with long-term roster building.
Level 4: Optimized Performance
CHAMPIONSHIP LEVEL
- Industry-leading collaborative approaches
- Continuous innovation in deal structures
- Value creation beyond traditional boundaries
- Negotiation as competitive advantage
Example: The NFL’s revolutionary revenue-sharing model that aligns owner and player interests for mutual growth.
Where does your organization currently operate?
Most sports organizations are stuck at Level 1. This book shows you exactly how to climb.
The Six Capabilities That Drive Negotiation Excellence
Master these interconnected capabilities to build sustainable negotiation advantage.
1. Strategy, Values & Direction (SVD)
The North Star Align every negotiation with organizational strategy. Know when to compete, when to collaborate, and when to walk away.Key Question: “Does this deal advance our strategic objectives?”
2. Individual Fit (IF)
The Right People Select and develop negotiators who embody organizational values while bringing diverse perspectives and skills.Key Question: “Do our negotiators represent our values?”
3. Human Capital & Investment (HCOI)
The Resources Invest in training, tools, and time. Negotiation excellence requires the same commitment as player development.Key Question: “Are we investing enough in negotiation capability?”
4. Knowledge & Skills (KS)
The Expertise Build both foundational skills (preparation, communication) and advanced capabilities (multi-party facilitation, value creation).Key Question: “Do our people have the skills they need?”
5. Organizational Incentives (OI)
The Alignment Design incentive systems that reward long-term value creation over short-term wins. Align individual and organizational success.Key Question: “Do our incentives drive the right behaviors?”
6. Individual Interests (II)
The Motivation Understand and leverage individual motivations while maintaining organizational alignment. Balance personal and institutional goals.Key Question: “How do we align individual and organizational interests?”
The Power of Integration: These capabilities work together. Weakness in one undermines all others.
Who Needs Strategic Negotiation
League Executives & Commissioners
Build negotiation systems that balance competing stakeholder interests—from owners to players to media partners. Transform collective bargaining from adversarial battles into value-creating partnerships.
Athletic Directors & University Presidents
Navigate the complex landscape of conference realignment, media rights, NIL policies, and coach contracts. Build institutional capability that survives leadership transitions.
General Managers & Front Office Leaders
Move beyond win-lose player negotiations. Create sophisticated deal structures that align player incentives with team success while managing salary cap complexity.
Corporate Partnership & Sponsorship Teams
Transform transactional sponsorship deals into strategic partnerships. Build long-term relationships that create value beyond traditional inventory and signage.
Legal Counsel & Compliance Officers
Shift from defensive negotiation to proactive value creation. Build systems that prevent disputes while protecting organizational interests.
Agents & Player Representatives
Understand the organizational dynamics that shape negotiations. Learn to create value beyond salary, building deals that serve both player and team interests.
Business Leaders Outside Sports
The principles that drive negotiation excellence in sports—where results are immediate and public—apply directly to any high-stakes business environment.
If your organization’s success depends on negotiation—and whose doesn’t?—this book is essential.
Strategic Negotiation in Action: Sports Industry Applications
How the NCM framework and alignment principles transform real negotiations across sport.
Collective Bargaining Agreements
The Challenge: Traditional CBAs become zero-sum battles where owners and players fight over a fixed pie, leading to lockouts, lost seasons, and damaged fan relationships.
The Strategic Negotiation Approach: Apply Level 3 (Adaptive Flexibility) and Level 4 (Optimized Performance) principles to create value before claiming it. Focus on alignment between organizational strategy and negotiation approach.
NCM Application: Move from Level 1 (Ad Hockery) crisis negotiations to Level 4 collaborative approaches that grow revenue for all stakeholders.
Media Rights & Broadcasting Deals
The Challenge: Media landscapes change rapidly. Organizations need negotiation systems that adapt to technological disruption while maintaining revenue stability.
The Strategic Negotiation Approach: Use the Negotiation Assessment Tool (NAT) to diagnose current capabilities, then build toward Level 3 Adaptive Flexibility—tailoring approaches to different partners and contexts.
Key Insight: Organizations at Level 2 (Repeatable Competence) can handle standard media deals, but only Level 3-4 organizations can navigate complex multi-platform agreements.
NIL & Athlete Compensation
The Challenge: The NIL era requires organizations to negotiate with multiple stakeholders simultaneously—athletes, sponsors, collectives, and compliance offices.
The Strategic Negotiation Approach: Chapter 7’s “Implementing Alignment – Mapping the Journey” provides the framework for aligning individual negotiations with institutional strategy and values.
Organizational Capability: Success requires all six capabilities working together—from Strategy, Values & Direction (SVD) to Individual Interests (II).
Facility & Venue Agreements
The Challenge: Stadium deals involve public funding, political pressure, and multi-decade commitments with numerous stakeholders.
The Strategic Negotiation Approach: Apply the book’s assessment and planning tools (Chapter 9) to map stakeholder interests and build negotiation teams with the right expertise and authority.
NCM Level Required: Complex public-private partnerships demand at least Level 3 capabilities—the ability to adapt strategies to different stakeholder groups.
Player Contracts & Roster Management
The Challenge: Individual player negotiations often undermine team salary structures and create locker room tensions.
The Strategic Negotiation Approach: Build from Level 2 (Repeatable Competence) with standard processes and parameters, then advance to Level 3-4 for star players and complex multi-year deals.
Alignment Focus: The book’s emphasis on Organizational Incentives (OI) shows how to structure deals that align player and team interests over time.
Each application demonstrates the book’s core message: Individual negotiation skills aren’t enough. Organizations need systematic capability, strategic alignment, and the right cultural foundation to succeed consistently.
What’s Inside Strategic Negotiation
Part I: Foundation & Assessment
- Chapter 1: The Negotiation Assessment Tool
Diagnose your organization’s current negotiation maturity with a comprehensive assessment framework - Chapter 2: Negotiation as Art and Science
Balance individual creativity with systematic organizational capability - Chapter 3: An Overview of the Negotiation Capability Model
Understand the four-level framework that transforms negotiation from chaos to excellence
Part II: The Four Levels of Capability
- Chapter 4: Level 2 – Repeatable Competence
Build foundational processes that deliver consistent results in standard negotiations - Chapter 5: Level 3 – Adaptive Flexibility
Develop sophisticated approaches tailored to context, culture, and counterparts - Chapter 6: Level 4 – Optimized Performance
Create industry-leading collaborative capabilities that generate competitive advantage
Part III: Implementation & Tools
- Chapter 7: Implementing Alignment – Mapping the Journey
Create your organization’s roadmap from current state to negotiation excellence - Chapter 8: Many Forms of Success – The NCM Applied
Real-world case studies showing how organizations achieve different types of negotiation success - Chapter 9: Tools and Guides for Assessment, Planning and Reflection
Practical templates, checklists, and frameworks you can implement immediately - Chapter 10: A Curated List of Resources
Essential readings, training programs, and tools to continue your development
200 Pages | 47 Illustrations & Frameworks | Evidence-Based Strategies | Implementation Tools
Special Feature: The Negotiation Assessment Tool (NAT)
A diagnostic instrument that helps you evaluate your organization’s current negotiation capabilities across all six dimensions, providing a clear baseline for improvement.
What Leaders Are Saying About Strategic Negotiation
“Strategic Negotiation teaches us that consistent success in negotiating ultimately rests not on an organization having great negotiators—those are needed—but on the organization being built and optimized to support great negotiating. The guidance is specific, nuanced, and presented with clear specification for implementation. And a hidden gem here: the NCM not only sets a company up for better negotiations: it points to much better overall integration of structure, strategy and practice across the organization.”
— Eben A. Weitzman, PhD
Department of Conflict Resolution, Human Security, and Global Governance
University of Massachusetts Boston
“Strategic Negotiation: Building Organizational Excellence is a game changer! For the first time ever, there is a book that takes a comprehensive approach to providing tools needed to educate individuals and organizations about negotiation and how the two work in partnership to create a standard and uniformity in how we negotiate. I will be using this masterpiece as mandatory reading in both my undergraduate and graduate courses.”
— Dr. Marc Williams
Founding Director, Center For Entrepreneurship, Sports and Entertainment
Pacific University
“Josh and Gary have identified and solved for a real gap in the space of negotiation theory and training. By taking a team and systems approach to enhancing the skill set for the organization, not just the individual, they tap into all of the alignment and reinforcing mechanisms necessary to drive meaningful and sustainable behavior change and organizational impact.“
— Stephen Frenkel
Senior Director of Organizational Development at Cigna
Voyager Executive Consulting, LLC
“If you’re looking for a research-based how-to guide on navigating negotiations within your organization, then this is one you should definitely keep by your nightstand. The negotiation frameworks, countless real-world examples, and in-depth analysis made Strategic Negotiation a powerful resource for both novice to experienced negotiators.“
— Coach AK Ikwuakor
Certified Executive Coach & Sales Coaching Lead at Google
“This book goes far beyond traditional negotiation teaching, to explain what an organization must do to bargain well. It’s unique among books on bargaining—it explains, clearly and straightforwardly, what a community group or large corporation should do to prepare its people to bargain effectively and achieve its long term goals.“
— Professor Dwight Golann
Suffolk University Law School
“If any organisation wants to turbo-charge their negotiations then this book provides the insight. This book allows any organisation to self-assess its own maturity to develop a unique roadmap for evolving both firm and individuals over time—a must-read for individual professionals and business leaders alike!“
— Cosette M. Reczek
Founder, Permuto Consulting
“A fresh look at the elements of successful, repeatable negotiation competence for organizations. By focusing on the organization and not just individual negotiator’s skills, this book is a real contribution to the field. Graphics, summaries, and real-world examples give added value.”
— James E McGuire
JAMS, Mediator and Arbitrator
Beyond the Book: Build Your Negotiation Capability
The Strategic Negotiation AI
Access real-time, personalized guidance based on the NCM framework. Our AI tool helps you:
- Assess your organization’s current negotiation maturity level
- Generate preparation templates for specific negotiations
- Map stakeholder interests and power dynamics
- Design negotiation strategies aligned with organizational goals
- Create value beyond traditional win-lose approaches
Organizational Assessment & Consulting
SCI applies the Negotiation Capability Model directly to sports organizations:
- Comprehensive NCM assessment to establish your baseline
- Gap analysis between current state and desired capability
- Custom roadmap for advancing through NCM levels
- Alignment workshops for leadership teams
- Integration with existing organizational systems
Training & Capability Building
Transform your organization’s negotiation capability with targeted programs:
- Executive workshops on strategic negotiation leadership
- Team training aligned with NCM progression
- Negotiation simulation exercises for sports contexts
- CBA preparation and strategy sessions
- Media rights and sponsorship negotiation training
Why SCI for Strategic Negotiation Implementation?
Joshua Gordon brings unique expertise as both co-author and practitioner—serving as salary arbitrator for MLB, mediator for FIFA, and arbitrator for CAS, USOPC, and USSF. This real-world experience in sport’s highest-stakes negotiations ensures your organization receives guidance grounded in both theory and practice.
Get Strategic Negotiation Today
Join forward-thinking organizations building negotiation as a core competitive advantage.
Available in: Hardcover | Paperback | eBook
About the Authors
Joshua Gordon
International arbitrator and mediator for the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS), United States Olympic & Paralympic Committee (USOPC), FIFA, Major League Baseball, and US Soccer. Faculty Athletics Representative and Professor of Practice in Sports Business and Law at the University of Oregon. Founder of the Sports Conflict Institute, bringing 30+ years of experience in conflict management and negotiation to sports organizations worldwide. Co-author of The Sports Playbook: Building Teams That Outperform Year After Year.
Gary Furlong
Internationally recognized mediator, negotiation expert, and organizational consultant with over three decades of experience. Author of the bestselling The Conflict Resolution Toolbox, now in its third edition. Founder of Agree Inc. Dispute Resolution, Gary has trained thousands of professionals in negotiation excellence and helped organizations across industries build sustainable negotiation capabilities. Co-author of The Sports Playbook.
Publisher: Routledge | ISBN: 978-1032153773 | Publication: June 30, 2023 | Pages: 200 | Illustrations: 47
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