Getting to Yes: Negotiating Agreement Without Giving In

Fri, 31 Jul 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Most negotiation runs on positions: one side names a number, the other names a worse one, and they grind toward a middle nobody chose. Fisher, Ury and Patton judge any method on three counts — a wise agreement, reached efficiently, relationship intact — and positional bargaining fails all three. Kennedy’s 1961 nuclear test ban talks broke down over on-site inspections, the Soviets offering three and the Americans insisting on ten, though nobody had settled whether an inspection meant one person for a day or a hundred for a month. Being nice is no fix: a soft bargainer trades substance for goodwill and rewards stubbornness. The Harvard Negotiation Project’s alternative is to change the game, and it rests on four points.

Bruce Patton on SummaryShelf

Getting to Yes: Negotiating Agreement Without Giving In