“Getting to Yes” by Roger Fisher, William Ury and Bruce Patton is a great book to read if you want to learn or improve your negotiation skills. You can use these techniques in anything from negotiating what movie to watch with your husband to trying to buy a new car. Fisher, Ury and Patton discuss their philosophies of successfully negotiating practically anything in life with the principled negotiation methods that are described as follows:
People: Separate the people from the problem; Interests: Focus on the interests, not positions; Options: Invent multiple options looking for mutual gains before deciding what to do; Criteria: Insist that the result be based on some objective standard[1]
People tend to be very sensitive and take things personally when negotiating and the authors’ suggest putting yourself in the other person’s shoes, understanding their objectives with actual facts. Rather than focusing on the worst case scenarios letting your fears and emotions take control of the situation. Focus on the interests and the big picture of what your objectives are not on positions.
Reading this book has helped me through the process of negotiating the sale of my Co-Op.
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1 “Getting to Yes” by Roger Fisher, William Ury and Bruce Patton
