Getting to yes

Negotiating agreement without giving in

Roger Fisher and William Ury

Book Review
August 2019
Learning from scratch

The Problem The Method What ifs! The Conclusion

While negotiating, you tend to take & give up a sequence of positions. Don’t

The Problem: Don’t Bargain Over Positions

Taking Positions: Produces unwise

Is inefficient
agreements

Endangers ongoing Many parties make it

relationship even worse

Being nice is no answer Soft and Hard Positions

The Solution? Practicing Principled Negotiation

The Method: Four basic points

People Separate the people from the problem

Interests Focus on interests, not positions

Options Generate a variety of possibilities before deciding what to do

Criteria Insist that the result be based on some objective standard

Separate the PEOPLE from the Problem

Every negotiator has two kinds of interests: in the substance and in the relationship
• The relationship tends to become entangled with the problem
Negotiators are people first • Positional bargaining puts relationship and substance in conflict

Separate the relationship from the substance; deal directly with the people problem

Perception

Prevention
works best
Communication Emotions
Focus on INTERESTS, Not Positions

For a wise solution reconcile How do you identify Talking about interests
interests, not positions interests?

Ask "Why?" ;
Interests define the Make your interests Look forward, not
Ask "Why not?" Think
problem come alive back.
about their choice

Behind opposed Acknowledge their

Realize that each side Put the problem
positions lie shared and interests as part of
has multiple interests. before your answer
compatible interests, as the problem
well as conflicting ones
The most powerful Be hard on the
Be concrete but
interests are basic problem, soft on the
flexible
human needs people

Make a list.
Invent OPTIONS for Mutual Gain
Insist on Using Objective CRITERIA

Deciding on the basis of will is costly

The case for using objective criteria:
Principled negotiation produces wise agreements amicably and efficiently

• Fair standards
Developing objective criteria
• Fair procedures

• Frame each issue as a joint search for objective

criteria
Negotiating with objective criteria
• Reason and be open to reason
• Never yield to pressure
The What Ifs?

Develop Your BATNA — Best Alternative to a

What If They Are More Powerful?
Negotiated Agreement

What If They Won't Play? Use Negotiation Jujitsu

What If They Use Dirty Tricks? Taming the Hard Bargainer

The Conclusion