Getting to Yes: How to Negotiate Agreement Without Giving in

Getting to Yes is a straightorward, universally applicable method for negotiating personal and professional disputes without getting taken — and without getting angry.

It offers a concise, step-by-step, proven strategy for coming to mutually acceptable agreements in every sort of conflict — whether it involves parents and children, neighbors, bosses and employees, customers or corporations, tenants or diplomats. Based on the work of Harvard Negotiation Project, a group that deal continually with all levels of negotiations and conflict resolutions from domestic to business to international, Getting to Yes tells you how to:

• Separate the people from the problem
• Focus on interests, not positions
• Work together to create opinions that will satisfy both parties
• negotiate successfully with people who are more powerful, refuse to play by the rules, or resort to "dirty tricks"

Getting to Yes is a straightorward, universally applicable method for negotiating personal and professional disputes without getting taken — and without getting angry.

It offers a concise, step-by-step, proven strategy for coming to mutually acceptable agreements in every sort of conflict — whether it involves parents and children, neighbors, bosses and employees, customers or corporations, tenants or diplomats. Based on the work of Harvard Negotiation Project, a group that deal continually with all levels of negotiations and conflict resolutions from domestic to business to international, Getting to Yes tells you how to:

• Separate the people from the problem
• Focus on interests, not positions
• Work together to create opinions that will satisfy both parties
• negotiate successfully with people who are more powerful, refuse to play by the rules, or resort to "dirty tricks"

Effective negotiation requires more than an opinion and an exchange of dialogue. While so many people view bargaining as a contest with only winners and losers, Roger Fisher — Director of the Harvard Negotiation Project — and William Ury bring listeners a program proven to enhance negotiation success. Listeners will learn with the help of sample dialogues from real-life situations to "negotiate on the merits" by separating people from the problem, focusing on underlying concerns — not stated demands — and developing a "walk away" alternative if the negotiation fails. Already a bestseller, Getting to Yes can now be introduced to a new generation of "yes seekers" for professional and personal success.

Roger Fisher teaches negotiation at Harvard Law School, where he is Williston Professor of Law emeritus and director of the Harvard Negotiation Project. Raised in Illinois, he served in WWII with the U.S. Army Air Force, in Paris with the Marshall Plan, and in Washington D.C., with the Department of Justice. He consults widely with governments, corporations, and individuals through Conflict Management, Inc., and the Conflict Management Group of Cambridge, Massachusetts.