Harvard Negotiation Principle: Key Strategies from ‘Getting to Yes’

“Getting to Yes: Negotiating Agreement Without Giving In” is a classic book on negotiation. It has helped millions of people learn a better way to negotiate.

In this book, Roger Fisher, William Ury and Bruce Patton brought up 6 principles that introduced the world to the possibilities of mutual-gains negotiation, or integrative negotiation. It means that negotiators don’t have to choose between either waging a strictly competitive, win-lose negotiation battle or caving in to avoid conflict.

Rather, they argued, bargainers can and should look for negotiation strategies that can help both sides get more of what they want.

By listening closely to each other, treating each other fairly, and jointly exploring options to increase value, negotiators can find ways of getting to yes that reduce the need to rely on hard-bargaining tactics and unnecessary concessions.

Here are the 6 principles:

1. Separate the people from the problem

In negotiation, it’s easy to forget that our counterparts have feelings, opinions, values and unique backgrounds that contribute to what they do and say during talks.

When misunderstanding and conflict arise in negotiation, we need to deal with the “people problem” directly rather than trying to gloss over it with concessions.

Strive to imagine the situation from their counterpart’s viewpoint.

If someone is refusing to back down from a hardline position, ask her how she thinks things are going.

Exploring each side’s perceptions openly and avoiding the tendency to blame are key negotiation skills.

2. Focus on interests, not positions

We tend to begin our negotiation by stating our positions.

For example, a homeowner might say to a developer: “I won’t allow you to develop this property”.

When we stake our firm positions, we set ourselves up for impasse.

In our goal of getting to yes, we need to draw out the interests underlying our counterpart’s positions by asking questions, such as, “Why is this property important to you?”

By identifying what interests are motivating the other party, and sharing your own interests, you can open up opportunities to explore tradeoffs across issues and increase your odds of getting to yes.