The book, authored in 1981 by Roger Fisher and William Ury and updated in 1991 talks about a proven

and step-by-step strategy for coming to mutually acceptable agreements in any sort of conflict.

The author first talks about moving from positional bargaining to principled negotiation approach. They suggested that every person involved in negotiation or dispute resolution suffers from personal positional bargaining. The people problem stems from following categories:

Perception Emotion Communication

Principled Negotiation Approach

Separate people from problem

Base agreement on objective criteria

Principled Negotiation

Focus on interests rather than positions

Generate a variety of options

Listening and understanding carefully doesnt imply that youre agreeing to other party Try to unveil interests of both the parties to reach a mutual better position Effective brainstorming session follows 4 step process state the problem, analyzing the problem, consider general approaches and take specific action Offer proposals with objectivity. It gives weightage to the proposal.

Searching for single answer

Other party is responsible for solution

4 obstacles in generating Creative options

Assumptio n of Fixed Pie

Pre-mature judgment

Look for shared interests

Evaluate Later

4 techniques of overcoming obstacles

First Invent

Bring multiple proposals

Key measure to evaluate negotiation process More the BATNA is, more is the negotiation power Feasible alternative to bottom line. It reflects other parties interests Author rightly pointed out the importance of evaluating other parties BATNA

Author mentioned three approaches to handle the conflict:

Continue principle approach. It doesnt make sense and may be short lived Negotiation Jujitsu. It might offend the other party by directing his attack to main problem. One-text approach. Not everyone is open to disclose important information to third party.

Getting to yes is good basic manual for Negotiators options Authors emphasized on the sharing of interests to build better relationship and bring better result There is a gray area left on how to handle conflict between principle and positional approaches