Getting to Yes by Roger Fisher and William Ury

Description

Getting to Yes by Roger Fisher and William Ury

This book has been around for quite a while and is vaunted by many as THE book on negotiation. I, like many others, am unconvinced. If you have never negotiated anything in your life, this is the book for you. It’s a great primer, but it’s far from all-encompassing. The authors admit that it is not meant to cover everything, though. It teaches what’s known as “principled negotiation,” which is a non-adversarial style. It’s particularly useful for business deals and personal conflicts, since it emphasizes mutual problem solving and de-emphasizes taking positions, thus allowing everyone to “win.”

On the other hand, anyone who has successfully negotiated even the most minor of deals (i.e. haggling), won’t find this as useful. In order to be effective, you have to convince all parties to accept the premise of principled negotiation. If they don’t the whole system falls apart. Furthermore, if you are in an adversarial proceeding (lawsuit, arbitration, etc.), this is fairly useless. In those proceedings, the other party either doesn’t care whether you “win” or actively wants you to lose. If you come up against a manipulator, the practices in this book will prove to be more hindrance than help. I had to read this as part of a law school class. To put it mildly, other aspects of the class were far more useful than this book.

Bottom Line: a good starting point. Just don’t make it a stopping point.

✅ Genre: Self-help Book.

✅ Premium Quality Books.

✅ High Printing quality.

✅ Eye Friendly.

✅ Matt cover (Paperback).