Getting To Yes Book Summary And Analysis

Book Summary: "Getting to Yes - Negotiating Agreement without Giving In" by Roger Fisher, William L. Ury, and Bruce M. Patton

Negotiating without Surrender

Negotiation, by definition, implies cooperation from opposing perspectives seeking middle ground acceptable to both sides. More commonly it has been reduced to a win-lose situation, a frustrating episode ignoring middle ground, issuing demands rather than offering options. The intended goal that both sides seek becomes obscured by the "tough negotiator" applying egotistical head butting or heel digging techniques or attempting to squeeze every advantage from a more flexible or "friendly" negotiator in the deal.

How do you get what you want? Maintain a great poker face, demand more than you want - so you can give it up? Appeasement or cajole, play hardball or soft?

Members of the Harvard Negotiating Project suggest, in their book "Getting to Yes - Negotiating Agreement without Giving In" by Roger Fisher, William L. Ury, and Bruce M. Patton, that you simply change the game.

Principled Negotiations

This alternative method maintains focus on the objective and plots a course utilizing four points that reveal and emphasize merits of all the options:

People
Recognize that many times egos will attempt to enter the discussion, clouding an issue with emotion. Eliminate the personality, attack the issue.
Interests
Attempt to understand the opposing side's interests. It will account for the position they are taking. Acknowledge their interest and their position will likely become more flexible.
Options
Do not be compelled to produce the solution, nor accept a solution in an adversarial setting. Designate a "brain-storming" session, specifically for developing solutions that consider the shared interests of both parties, not of one side "or" the other. Be open to creative thinking that can forge the gaps in your differences.
Criteria
Insist both sides utilize "objective criteria" to support their suggestions. This removes the personality of the negotiators and provides facts and figures to help both sides find the "fair" middle ground of resolution.

Keeping the discussion on point, focusing on the objective, evading ego and personalities that may attempt to slip into the process are methods most successful when monitored from both sides. Ideally, neither side of a negotiation has a disproportionate advantage over the other, whether money, timing or political clout, therefore prompting sincere efforts to reach a fair and equitable solution.

Best Alternative to Negotiated Agreements (BATNA)

In the event that you find you have no significant advantage for leverage, it is important that you have entered the negotiation process having already considered what will happen if an agreement is not reached. This question will produce the answer that becomes the "Best Alternative to a Negotiated Agreement (BATNA)".

Unlike a preconceived "bottom-line" scenario, it is a negotiating tool, based in reality that you measure and compare all your proposals against. For which side is not reaching an agreement the least desirable option?

Having a clear perspective of the consequences for not reaching an agreement will keep your mind more open and flexible for seeking success than the traditional "line in the sand". In addition, knowing your BATNA will clarify for you when and if abandoning negotiations would be advisable.

There are three steps for identifying and developing your BATNA:

List the possible actions you may take if no agreement is reached
Refine those measures to those providing greatest impact, creating a list of practical alternatives
From your list, consider and select the best alternative

Even if this tool is never used, having it prepared enables you to represent your interests more convincingly and provides criterion to support your decision to withdraw from negotiations if necessary, without hesitation.

If you are able to determine your opponent's BATNA, it may influence your strategy, set the tone of negotiations or provide advance notice that negotiations would be fruitless.

Applying Jujitsu to Negotiations

The art of Jujitsu involves using the energy of your opponent to your advantage. In negotiations, jujitsu methods are applicable to deflect three common aggressive techniques:

Attack: Forceful assertion of their position
- Response: Accept their position as one of the options to consider
Attack: Criticism of your ideas
- Response: Ask for their advice in your situation
Attack: Personal attack on you
- Response: Do not defend yourself. Listen as if trying to understand their points, then re-frame their comments as an attack on the issue

Use questions instead of statements to reduce resistance to your point and eliminate a perception of criticism, perceivable in assertions. Utilize silence to test the confidence of their explanation and to gain important details.

Mediation

In some negotiating settings, a third-party mediator is required to sort out the agreement. Mediators work from a position of "why" and are interested in the justification for the points considered important by each side.

They draft and adjust lists through a tedious process, defining and refining them until they are able to make their best recommendation, meeting the most requirements from each side possible. It reduces the decision-making to a yes/no option from each side, removing the bargaining aspect completely.

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