One of the best references on negotiation is a book titled “Getting to Yes, negotiating agreement without giving in,” by Roger Fisher and William Ury. It provides a contemporary view of the subject based on the latest research on negotiation. The book amazingly proves that the best way to negotiate is to almost not negotiate at all. It shows how the traditional view of negotiations as being merely a haggling exercise over positions is not the best way to deal after all.

The book is based on the Harvard negotiation project, which is a group that has experience in diverse types of negotiations. Techniques from this project were used in some of the more famous political and business negotiations of the modern world.

While the book has somewhat of an academic flavor to it, the concepts are described in a very clear and concise manner with good cases and examples throughout the book to help the reader understand what the practical application of a technique would look like.

The basic concept of the book proposes a shift from the traditional positional style negotiations people are used to, towards what is termed as principled negotiations style.

 Principled negotiations are based on merits and understanding the interests of the negotiating parties. This works better than focusing on superficial positions that are set usually as ultimatums around which the bargaining occurs.

The most fun part of the book is a description of a scenario in which the negotiator turns the aggressive party to his side and gets her to negotiate based on fair basis, instead of positions, while still retaining a good relationship with the other side. The negotiator in the example used a technique called the Jujitsu, after the martial art, which is tough to master in a tense negotiation environment, but once mastered can be very valuable especially when applied in a business negotiation setting.

The nicest concept of the book and the most dangerous at the same time is what the authors call the BATNA, which stands for the Best Alternative To Negotiation. That means that the negotiator should know what are his alternatives to negotiation if negotiation fails to get him an acceptable result. Also, the book stresses on the importance of understanding the BATNA of the counterpart in negotiations. This definitely makes sense however, as the author also cautions, one has to be careful not to be too optimistic or pessimistic when defining BATNAs. Being too optimistic means that one assumes wrongly that he has an attractive alternative and then wastes the opportunity of negotiation only to find out that the BATNA was not valid. If one is too pessimistic, then she might assume that she has no alternatives when there are actually other alternatives. Then, the negotiator might be too accommodating during negotiation and settle for a less fair or unacceptable solution even though a better BATNA exists.

This book is a good one for someone with already some knowledge or experience about negotiation, rather for a beginner. Easier and shorter books on the subject might be more appropriate for a beginner. However, if one is already knowledgeable about the subject or experienced, one can get a good structure and additional tools to use for future negotiations based on the book.

 The book comes in roughly 200 pages, with the last part being in a very useful question and answer setting that deals with the ten most common questions people have asked in response to reading the book and its concepts. The book was first published in the early eighties but continues to be a popular reference on the subject with revised editions currently in print.

 If you decide to buy this book, do not rush to conclusions about it based on reading the initial chapters. Even though most authors try hard to make the first few chapters most interesting to draw the readers, I did not feel the authors of this book cared to follow this rule. I was pleasantly surprised to find that the later chapters of the book were far more fun, to me, than the initial ones.