Synopses & Reviews
Youve read the classic on win-win negotiating, Getting to Yes
but so have they, the folks you are now negotiating with. How can you get a leg up
and win?Win-win” negotiation is an appealing idea on an intellectual level: Find the best way to convince the other side to accept a mutually beneficial outcome, and then everyone gets their fair share. The reality, though, is that people want more than their fair share; they want to win. Tell your boss that youve concocted a deal that gets your company a piece of the pie, and the reaction is likely to be: Maybe we need to find someone harder-nosed than you who knows how to win. We want the whole pie, not just a slice.” However, to return to an earlier era before win-win” negotiation was in fashion and seek simply to dominate or bully opponents into submission would be a step in the wrong directionand a public relations disaster.
By showing how to win at win-win negotiating, Lawrence Susskind provides the operational advice you need to satisfy the interests of your back tablethe people to whom you report. He also shows you how to deal with irrational people, whose vocabulary seems limited to no,” or with the proverbial 900-pound gorilla. He explains how to find trades that create much more value than either you or your opponent thought possible. His brilliant concept of the trading zone”the space where you can create deals that are good for them but great for you,” while still maintaining trust and keeping relationships intactis a fresh way to re-think your approach to negotiating. The outcome is often the best of both possible worlds: You claim a disproportionate share of the value youve created while your opponents still look good to the people to whom they report.
Whether the venue is business, a family dispute, international relations, or a tradeoff that has to be made between the environment and jobs, Susskind provides a breakthrough in how to both think about, and engage in, productive negotiations.
Review
"[Susskind] offers innovative ways to head off foreseeable problems... A useful guide with broad applications beyond the world of business."—Kirkus Reviews
Review
"[Susskind] offers innovative ways to head off foreseeable problems... A useful guide with broad applications beyond the world of business."
Kirkus ReviewsFortunately, this dense material is presented in a warm, collegial tone and structured in manageable chapters, which are in turn broken up by subheadings punctuated by snappy call-out boxes of text. Full of valuable advice, this title is a must-read for business or law school curricula and anyone who needs to negotiate in today's global marketplace.”Publishers Weekly
Synopsis
You've read the classic on win-win negotiating, Getting to Yes ... but so have they, the folks you are now negotiating with. How can you get a leg up ... and win?
"Win-win" negotiation is an appealing idea on an intellectual level: Find the best way to convince the other side to accept a mutually beneficial outcome, and then everyone gets their fair share. The reality, though, is that people want more than their fair share; they want to win. Tell your boss that you've concocted a deal that gets your company a piece of the pie, and the reaction is likely to be: "Maybe we need to find someone harder-nosed than you who knows how to win. We want the whole pie, not just a slice." However, to return to an earlier era before "win-win" negotiation was in fashion and seek simply to dominate or bully opponents into submission would be a step in the wrong direction--and a public relations disaster.
By showing how to win at win-win negotiating, Lawrence Susskind provides the operational advice you need to satisfy the interests of your back table--the people to whom you report. He also shows you how to deal with irrational people, whose vocabulary seems limited to "no," or with the proverbial 900-pound gorilla. He explains how to find trades that create much more value than either you or your opponent thought possible. His brilliant concept of "the trading zone"--the space where you can create deals that are "good for them but great for you," while still maintaining trust and keeping relationships intact--is a fresh way to re-think your approach to negotiating. The outcome is often the best of both possible worlds: You claim a disproportionate share of the value you've created while your opponents still look good to the people to whom they report.
Whether the venue is business, a family dispute, international relations, or a tradeoff that has to be made between the environment and jobs, Susskind provides a breakthrough in how to both think about, and engage in, productive negotiations.
Synopsis
Win-win” negotiation is an appealing idea on an intellectual level: Find the best way to convince the other side to accept a mutually beneficial outcome, and everyone gets their fair share. The reality, though, is that people do not want a fair share; they want to win. Tell your boss that you concocted a deal where your company got its piece of the pie, and the reaction is likely to be: Maybe we need to find someone harder-nosed than you who knows how to win.” However, to return to an earlier era before win-win” negotiation was in fashion and seek simply to dominate or bully grudging opponents into submission would be a step in the wrong direction and a public relations disaster.
Into this dilemma steps renowned expert Lawrence Susskind with a brilliant new negotiation paradigm he calls the trading zone.” Good for You, Great for Me provides the missing operational guidelines for winning negotiations in business, family disputes, international relations, or public affairs without undermining trust or ruining relationships. It provides not just new principles but new tools six operational steps to take after youve found your way into the trading zone to ensure you get as large a share of the pie as possible.
Good for You, Great for Me also provides guidance for handling special situations such as dealing with huge power differentials (the 900 pound gorilla), liars, and irrational people; the addition of lots more parties to the negotiation; a history of bad relationships; negotiating when the relationship is too important to lose; and trying to make deals in cross-cultural situations.
About the Author
Lawrence Susskind is Ford Foundation Professor of Urban and Environmental Planning at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and the Founder and Chief Knowledge Officer of the Consensus Building Institute. He has served on the faculty at MIT for over 40 years. He is also Vice-Chair of the Program on Negotiation at Harvard Law School, which he helped to found in 1982, and where he co-chairs the MIT-Harvard Public Disputes Program, the Negotiation Pedagogy Project and teaches advanced negotiation courses.
Professor Susskind has mediated numerous disputes, including land use conflicts, facility siting controversies, public policy disagreements, and confrontations over water. He has served as a court-appointed special master and helped facilitate multilateral global environmental treaty negotiations. He offers a range of executive training programs every year and has served as a guest lecturer at more than two-dozen universities around the world. He lives in Cambridge, Massachusetts and Wilmot, New Hampshire.