Getting to YES

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Getting to YES (ISBN 1-84413-146-7) is the reference book dealing about win-win negotiation. Written by Roger Fisher (professor and Director of the Harvard Negotiation Project), William Ury (negotiation / mediation consultant and director of the Negotiation Network at Harvard University & Associate Director of the Harvard Negotiation Project), and Bruce Patton (founder and director of Vantage Partners, Deputy Director of the Harvard Negotiation Project) , first edition 1981, second edition 1992. This book has become a negotiation best seller: over 2 millions copies in 20 different languages (in 1999) and has broadly influenced negotiation literature.

Contents

[edit] Chapter Summaries

Getting to Yes is written in 5 main sections.

[edit] Don't bargain over positions

Getting to YES highlights:

  • Arguing over positions endangers an ongoing relationship
  • Being nice and giving in is no answer

The book explains how positions are part of human beings and their integrity. They are not negotiable unless one of the two negotiator folds and accepts losing, but as none negotiate to lose there is no point in bargaining over positions.

[edit] Seperate people from the problem

Getting to YES highlights:

  • Negotiators are people first
  • Every negotiator has two kinds of interests: in the substance and in the relationship
  • The relationship tends to become entangled with the problem
  • Separate relationship from the substance; deal directly with the people problem
  • Don't deduce their intentions from your fears, don't blame them for your problem
  • Discuss each others' perceptions
  • Give them a stake in the outcome by making sure they participate in the process
  • Face saving: make your proposals consistent with their values
  • First recognize and understand emotions, theirs and yours
  • Make emotions explicit and acknowledge them as legitimate
  • Allow the other side to let off steam and don't react to emotional outbursts
  • Listen actively and acknowledge what is being said
  • Speak for a purpose, speak to be understood
  • Speak about yourself, not about them
  • Build a working relationship

The book explains how in negotiation, it's pretty easy to entangle the problem and the negotiator; thus, it is important to keep in mind that the negotiator is a human being with emotions and is not the problem, but the one who will help to solve the real problem.

[edit] Focus on interests, not positions

Getting to YES highlights:

  • Interests define the problem
  • Focus on Interests, not positions
  • Ask why, ask why not & use empathic listening
  • Realize that each side has multiple interests
  • Identify shared interests and focus on mutual options for gain
  • The most powerful interests are basic human needs:
    • Security (Economic well being),
    • Guidance (A sense of belonging),
    • Wisdom (Recognition),
    • Power (Control over ones life)
  • Acknowledge their interests as part of the problem
  • Put the problem before your answer
  • Look forward not back
  • Be concrete but flexible
  • Be hard on the problem, soft on the people

The book explains interests are the objectives of a negotiation. Each negotiator must seek to fulfill his interests and needs, there is no point in trying to change the other side's position.

[edit] Invent options for mutual gain

Getting to YES highlights:

  • Don't assume there is a fixed pie and only one answer
  • Don't think solving their problem is their problem, help them
  • Separate inventing from deciding brainstorming process
  • Broaden your options
  • Look through the eyes of different experts
  • Invent agreement of different strengths
  • Identify shared interests
  • Ask for their preferences
  • Make their decision easy

A good behavior in negotiation is described as a creative open minded behavior: the negotiator should seek to invent new options that might satisfy both parties' needs. It is also wise to take the other side's needs in account when making new proposals.

[edit] Insist on using objective criteria

Getting to YES highlights:

  • Principled negotiation produces wise agreements amicably and efficiently
  • Use fair standards, fair procedures
  • Never yield to pressure
  • Use a 3rd party as referee
  • Consider the one text procedure

The book explains how negotiation is often linked to peoples' points of view, and why a good idea to reach a fair deal is to reference the deal to objective criteria.

[edit] Misc

Getting to YES highlights:

[edit] Criticisms

Although the book explains how to reach a wise and fair agreement, it seems the low natural negotiation skill humans have inborn refrain from using efficiently these techniques. Beyond Reason: Using Emotions as You Negotiate and Getting past NO are follow ups to Getting to Yes and aim to explain how to handle difficult deals and tough emotions.

The authors recommend that both sides know and use these techniques to achieve a more efficient win/win deal.

Getting to YES includes techniques to defuse "dirty tricks" from the other side. The book also recommend not to use these "dirty tricks" techniques as they are often used to win over the "adversary" and not to reach a negotiated deal.

[edit] Sequels to Getting to YES

  • In 2005, Roger Fisher (lead author of Getting to Yes) published a follow-up to Getting to Yes called Beyond Reason: Using Emotions as You Negotiate (with co-author Daniel Shapiro, a Harvard psychologist). As Nobel Laureate Desmond Tutu notes, Beyond Reason offers "powerful, practical advice" to turn an adversary into a partner as one negotiates. It focuses on five "core concerns" that stimulate helpful emotions in negotiations ranging from the personal to international. In Beyond Reason: Using Emotions as You Negotiate, Fisher documents many of his first-hand experiences negotiating around the world, from his involvement in negotiating the Iran-Hostage situation to his advisory role in helping Jamil Mahuad, President of Ecuador (1998-2000), resolve a long-standing international border dispute.
  • In 1991, William Ury published Getting past NO, a sequel to Getting to YES. The book discusses five strategies to break through impasse in a negotiation, including "going to the balcony" and "stepping to their side."

[edit] See also

[edit] External links

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