Common Ground International
The world's leader for top-quality, highly customized negotiation training.
Common Ground International is a consortium of leading organizations and individuals with an expertise in the fields of negotiation and conflict resolution. We focus our talent on a single goal: giving our clients the skills they need to make rewarding and profitable agreements with their customers, employees, vendors, partners, unions, regulators, colleagues, and countless others. Our clients count on us for practical, no-nonsense, cost-effective solutions. We offer seminars, workshops, speakers, consulting, coaching, negotiation, arbitration, mediation, training programs, and more.
The Secret of Our Success
Why have our negotiating programs been so extraordinarily well received? In a nutshell, because they work. People negotiate significantly better immediately after attending our sessions. Happily for us, when something works the word gets around. Common Ground's clients are our best salespeople. Our swift and continued growth is due in no small part to the enthusiastic word-of-mouth promotion of a rapidly-growing army of graduates.
It's not just your imagination–things really are getting tougher. It's harder than ever to manage a business, make a profit, or run a government. And the tougher things get, the more important good negotiating becomes. Today, the average net after-tax profit margin of the S&P 500 companies is a razor-thin 4 percent. Margins of 10 to 20 percent and more used to be typical; only grocery chains and a few other high-volume businesses had 4 percent margins. Margins do constantly fluctuate with economic cycles. But on average, they've been steadily shrinking for the past half-century. The global economic landscape has changed,and probably forever. We share a future of constrained resources and low profit margins where ever smaller advantages will determine who succeeds and who doesn't. This is a future where better negotiating will make all the difference.
A Brief History
Common Ground International is the global leader in negotiation skills training. Unlike our competitors, we customize our program to meet your specific needs. The wellsprings of our success are our celebrated NEGOTIATE to WIN workshop, and our Founder and Principal of Common Ground International, Jim Thomas.Jim is the renowned author of the best-selling business book NEGOTIATE TO WIN, HOW TO GET THE BEST DEAL EVERY TIME!
Nothing worked. The client, familiar with Jim's reputation as a talented negotiator, offered Jim the opportunity to train his employees, but with the added caveat: "No touchy-feely stuff! I don't want to hear about 'Maslow's Hierarchy." Jim's briefing went extremely well; the negotiating skills of the employees improved dramatically. The client was pleased and word got around. The rest is history.
In 1982, Jim expanded his original briefing material into a workshop, gave it the title of NEGOTIATE TO WIN and offered it for the first time to the general public. Since then, our seminars, workshops, retreats, consulting, coaching and other products have become the leading negotiation training programs in the world.
The Principles That Guide Us "Just Tell Me What Really Works!"
Practicality and Effectiveness
While Common Ground has come a long way from its early years, our original mandate: "Just tell me what really works!" still guides us today. Every program, product and service we offer passes through the same, simple filter: Does it work, consistently and reliably, under real-world conditions?
Win-Win—and Profitable—Outcomes
We strongly believe that everyone's best interest is served by win-win solutions that maximize the gain of all parties. Today's problems are too complex and interconnected to be settled on an adversarial basis. Neither the Earth, nor the nations, corporations, and interest groups that populate it, have the resources or recuperative power for the wasteful and prolonged conflicts of the past.
Affordable Programs That Provide Immediate Results
Because our instructors have negotiating careers outside of Common Ground, we're able to keep our full-time staff to a minimum. We don't advertise; we don't have to. Referrals provide us an average 50 percent annual growth rate. This allows us to keep our prices low—far lower than our major competitors, and so low that our clients find it's not cost-effective to develop their own negotiation training programs.
Our Guarantee
We guarantee you'll recover the cost of a Common Ground in-house session within two weeks of the training through more effective negotiating, or we'll refund your money!
Jim Thomas Jim is a negotiator, attorney and standup comedian. A day with Jim is an unforgettable event!
James C. Thomas, Jr.
"My job is to create a spellbinding event that is so much fun that attendees can't help but learn!"
From its first day in business, Common Ground has been privileged to be associated with Jim Thomas, "The World's Negotiating Coach". Jim is Director Emeritus of Common Ground, and is our advisor, counselor, teacher, mentor and guide. Negotiation has been the focus of Jim's law practice for the past 30 years.Jim is the top choice of U.S. presidents and their staffs for negotiating coaching and advice. When Fortune 100 companies demand their people learn negotiation skills from only the best, they pick Jim. His presentations on negotiating have been enthusiastically received by tens of thousands in the U.S and around the world.
Before Jim started Common Ground, he founded The Cooper Management Institute in 1983. Jim's experience includes mergers and acquisitions, domestic and international business transactions, U.S. and international arms control, the environment, trade and diplomacy, real estate, labor relations, and a host of other fields. Jim served the U.S. in the successful Intermediate Nuclear Forces (INF) negotiations with the former Soviet Union and GATT (now WTO) trade negotiations. In 1977, Jim wrote and presented a pre-negotiation briefing for a client that dramatically improved attendees' negotiating skills. He expanded this material into a workshop, and in 1982 offered it to the general public. Now 30 years later, the descendants of Jim's original workwhop are among the leading negotiation programs in the world and are the recipients of numerous awards for excellence.
Jim's current negotiating projects include some of today's most newsworthy domestic and international issues. His presentation style is frequently described as a combination of negotiator, lawyer, and standup comedian. "If I can make people laugh, I can make them learn," says Jim. "While negotiating is an essential skill for success, it's not easy to do. In fact, it's the only skill I know that can be technically and emotionally demanding at the same time. Jim's energy and confidence reaches even the most distant, resistant participant. He provides each attendee a strong, personal sense of calling, responsibility, and empowerment. His success can be seen in the towering marks his attendees give him.
Jim is the author of the best-selling business book NEGOTIATE TO WIN and scores of articles about negotiating. He is a frequent guest on national and international television and radio, and is a popular speaker and trainer for corporate, government, trade and professional groups. Jim is a graduate of the University of California at Los Angeles (magna cum laude) and The GeorgetownUniversity Law Center. For more information about Jim Thomas, please visit: http://www.jimthomas.info
Unlike Other Negotiation Training Companies, Common Ground's Faculty Members Are Experts Who Negotiate for a Living.
Our faculty is without peer among negotiation training organizations. If one principle defines Common Ground, it's our rule that all programs must be taught by negotiators who happen to be trainers. We owe much of our success to our extraordinary international team of instructors. Each member of Common Ground's global network of program leaders is a distinguished negotiator with an active, full-time negotiating practice. Our internationally recognized experts are frequently seen on news programs and talk shows, and quoted in national news magazines, newspapers, and journals. Our network of instructors have broad experience in mediation, arbitration, and other forms of international dispute resolution.
Some of our instructors have participated in GATT, WTO, INF, and MBFR negotiations. Others have represented or assisted the U.S. government in diplomatic, trade, and arms control negotiations. Still others are "area specialists" with particular expertise in specific areas of the economy. All are exceptional teachers with considerable training experience and first-rate platform skills.Because our instructors negotiate for a living, you'll get the answers you need from experts who deal with negotiation issues every day. The instructor for your program will be selected on the basis of your requirements, schedule, and preference. If your selected instructor is unavailable, we will provide a substitute instructor with comparable skills, experience, and background.
Our Clients
When you're good the word gets around!
More than 1,000 of the most successful organizations throughout the world enjoy the tangible, benefits of Common Ground programs. Our client partners are a virtual "Who's Who" of business, industry, government and Fortune 500 companies.
We've limited this list out of respect for our clients' wishes about the use of their names in marketing literature. However, if you'd like specific referrals to satisfied clients in virtually any business, professional, trade, or governmental area, please give us a call. The Common Ground team's track record of thousands of successful programs delivered to loyal business, industry, and government clients assures you of an outstanding event.
Click here to read testimonials from some of our clients.
Common Ground International
Office Address
8300 Greensboro Drive, Suite 800 McLean, VA 22102
Mailing Address
Phone
703-795-3578
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