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Book Report – Getting to Yes
Introduction
Many people have at one time engaged in negotiations that ended up creating relationship
tension, anger, hatred, and other negative outcomes for the parties involved. These poor
agreements can be linked to the negotiation process and its failure to anticipate and overcome
any problems in the individual stages. Fisher and William (2011) are authors of a book titled
“Getting to Yes: Negotiating Agreement Without Giving In ."The issues they cover are helpful in
negotiations because they contribute to the achievement of good agreements whereby the
interests of both parties are addressed. The relationship or interactions between the parties are
not negatively impacted. The book looks at the four points of principled negotiation and guides
the reader on practicing each of the four points to effectively realize good agreements in
negotiations. This report discusses the key issues learned from the book, including the four
points, tricky tactics, positional bargaining, and the concept of BATNA.
BATNA
BATNA is an acronym for the "Best Alternative to a Negotiated Agreement," It involves
establishing a fallback plan that a party will choose if the negotiation talks fail. The parties
cannot reach an agreement (Davies 378). The BATNA of a party is the option that they will
revert to in case of negotiation fails. Developing a BATNA as the negotiations proceed is
essential because not all negotiation talks succeed in reaching an agreement. They are used at the
negotiating table to facilitate realization of an agreement even in the event of an impasse in the
negotiations. The parties will translate their BATNA in the best way possible to match the key
issues in the current negotiations.
Tricky Tactics
The book explains that unpleasant or unethical tricks can be used to enhance the
competitive position of one party in the negotiations. Two common tricky tactics are deliberate
deception and positional pressure. Deliberate deception involves intentionally altering the facts,
intentions, and authority of the deceptive party in the negotiations. Such deception can be
overcome by requiring the other party to verify their claims. Positional pressures involve
structuring the negotiations so that only one side is pushed to make concessions (Huffmeier et al.
868). Overcoming it would require focusing on interests instead of position because definition of
a problem based on position creates potential of one party losing, but when focusing on interests,
negotiations can identify a solution that addresses the interests of both parties (Fisher and
William 42).
Positional Bargaining
As explained by Fisher and William (11), pPositional bargaining involves a negotiation
process that starts with each party giving their position on an issue. The next step in positional
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bargaining is for each party to start bargaining from their individual positions and attempt to
agree on a single position. A key problem with this kind of negotiation is that the parties’
interests are neglected (Ott 34). Each party pushes the other to concede its position; therefore, the
parties become stubborn, and the relationship between them is harmed. It fails to work because
there has to be one position; therefore, one party will lose, and the other will win in the
negotiations. There will be no mutually beneficial agreement. A good example is price haggling
because each party starts by stating their price, and the two parties haggle over the prices until
one concedes and the other loses – primarily because their position is found to be lower or less
competitive.
Four points of principled negotiations
Fisher and William (11) state that effective negotiation should be founded on four
principles, starting with separating parties from the problem. In that stage, the negotiator
attempts to eliminate the tendency of parties to be personally interested in their side's position.
Instead, the parties focus on responding to the position based on the perspective that they are
personal attacks; separating the parties from the problem enables each party to address the issues
without negatively affecting their relationship. The second stage focuses on interests instead of
positions because the definition of a problem based on the parties' positions results in one party
losing the negotiations. In contrast, defining a problem based on underlying interests of the
parties facilitates development of a solution that meets the interests of both parties (Fisher and
William 42). The third stage is generation of several solutions prior to settling on an agreement,
and that would enhance identification of one or more options that could manifest shared interests
among the parties during the negotiations. The final stage involves pressuring the parties to base
the negotiations on objective criteria because reliance on reasonable standards facilitates
effective decision-making on the solution to the problem in the negotiations.
Current Events
The Russia-Ukraine negotiations to reach an agreement and end their current war
manifested positional bargaining. The two parties each entered negotiations with a focus on their
positions instead of their interests in the process. The Russian side's position was that Ukraine
belonged to them, but that contrasted with Ukraine's position that it was a sovereign that had a
right to territorial integrity (Allison 1851). Since the negotiations focused on positions, the talks
failed and are yet to find an agreeable solution. If they had focused on the interests of each party,
they would have found an agreeable solution.
Conclusion
The lesson learned from the book is that principled negotiations have the potential to
enhance achievement of good agreements. The authors comprehensively inform the reader of the
individual steps to follow and the dirty tricks to be cautious of during negotiations. Personally,
the techniques will be helpful in my professional life because I now recognize that I can use the
four points of principled negotiations to improve outcomes. That technique will enable me to
avoid the problems associated with positional bargaining because my focus will be on interests
rather than positions. I would recommend the book to other people because it would help them
improve their negotiation skills.
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Works Cited
Allison, Roy. "Russia, Ukraine and state survival through neutrality." International Affairs 98.6
2022: 1849-1872.
Davies, Nick. "Fundamental principles surrounding negotiations." Journal of Building Survey,
Appraisal & Valuation 7.4 2019: 377–386.
Fisher, Roger and William Ury. Getting to Yes: Negotiating Agreement Without Giving In, 3rd
ed. New York, NY: Penguin Books, 2011.
Hüffmeier, Joachim, Freund, Phillip Alexander, Zerres, Alfre, Backhaus, Klaus & Hertel, Guido.
"Being tough or being nice? A meta-analysis on the impact of hard-and Softline strategies
in distributive negotiations." Journal of Management 40.3 (2014): 866-892.
Ott, Notburga. Intrafamily bargaining and household decisions. Springer Science & Business
Media, 2012.