Getting to Yes: How to Negotiate Agreement Without Giving In

Written by Roger Fisher and William Ury

Narrated by Dennis Boutsikaris

Getting to Yes offers a concise, step-by-step, proven strategy for coming to mutually acceptable agreements in every sort of conflict—whether it involves parents and children, neighbors, bosses and employees, customers or corporations, tenants or diplomats. Based on the work of the Harvard Negotiation Project, a group that deals continually with all levels of negotiation and conflict resolution from domestic to business to international, Getting to Yes tells listeners how to:

• Separate the people from the problem

• Focus on interests, not positions

• Work together to create options that will satisfy both parties

• Negotiate successfully with people who are more powerful, refuse to play by the rules, or resort to “dirty tricks”

• Language: English
• Publisher: Simon & Schuster Audio
• Release date: May 3, 2011
• ISBN: 9781442339538

Reviews for Getting to Yes

[Sheriffah Omo Olambiwonninu · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Very insightful. Great book. Good read. Would recommend. For everyone.

[Kendra R · Rating: 1 out of 5 stars]

Excellent negotiation framework and guidance, but the author casually labeling the racist, genocidal and communist South African government as "inclusive" and "multilateral" completely undermines the author's credibility.

[connorasmithllc · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Excellent! This was great! Thank you; vi highly recommend this.

[Mathias Rexius · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Great book! I feel like this book is a little bit more complex than som other books around the same subject. However, it’s a really nice book and I strongly recommend reading “Never Split the Difference” after this one.

[a b · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

I feel like I wanted to give it 4 stars but I couldn't it's so repetitive and a lot of good info but but it could have been half as long and still had all the info. Decent overall a strong 3 stars for me

[Nicolas Cadet · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Very useful book. It provides actionable strategies that can be applied to many situations in one's professional and personal life.

[Milows WWFCC · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

a good book, but a little bit absolete in some parts.

[Robert Rowe · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

The book was okay, this was my first audio book. The content seemed dry, some of it was comparable, some of it I found myself thinking about other things.

The biggest take away I got was the example of one person makes the slice, the other picks the cut. That’s huge in any negotiation where both parties are looking for an equal or greater share.

I’ve moved onto The Millionaire Next Door, I’m not sure if maybe it’s the guy reading it; but I find myself paying much more attention to it. Either way I found this book useful, but not as entertaining as some of the How I built this episodes from the NPR podcasts I was listening to prior to audiobooks.

[angel mieses tatis · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Amazing details, full of retorical questions, based on the nature of the people problem.

[Nika Bukova · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Very smart book, helped me ti open mi mind to other people opinion.

[jasonli_1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

More than three decades after its initial publication, "Getting to Yes" is a classic in transactional negotiations of all sorts, whether it be business or political. Despite being a product of the Harvard Negotiation Project, it's an easy read that mixes research and self help.Fisher, Patton and Ury do well to write in a friendly, upbeat tone while peppering their arguments with real life examples either from global politics or anonymized examples from their research. Highly recommended.

[sarahlh-41506 · Rating: 1 out of 5 stars]

I feel like I wasted my time reading it. It dragged on for such a long time despite being very short. A lot of boring repetition and filler in place of interesting ideas. Also, if I have to read the word BANTA one more time, I might scream.

[trile1000 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Though dry and a little dated, this book does give a useful cursory overview of basic negotiating tactics. The advice the book gives focuses on the following tenets:
1. Separating the PEOPLE from the problem
2. Focus on INTERESTS on posiions
3. Invention OPTIONS for mutual gain
4. Insist on using objective CRITERIA
It's a handy book for those who with very little knowledge of negotiating and a good starting point to learn more about getting agreement.

[shadowbarbara · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

This is the Harvard Business School method of negotiating to get away from positional bargaining. Some great ideas about finding solutions and being an authentic negotiator. Several chapters on how to deal with those who won't play in this fashion.

[datrappert · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Common sense, very memorable book about negotiating. Major takeaway: start with small things you can agree on and work from there.(Will have no use in political debates!)

[daniel5estes · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Meh... I realize that Getting To Yes is a classic in the field of negotiation, but, jeez, this is one dry book. Real negotiation should be vibrant, engaging, and a heck of a lot more interesting than GTY makes it seem. And maybe it is, and writing about it doesn't do it justice. I'm far from an expert negotiator so treat my outsider's opinion as such.

[glennbell_1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Excellent advice on negotiation from an expert. The book is concise, logical, and practical. I strongly recommend this book.

[markbaumann · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Ury and Fisher wrote this in 1991. Afterwards, Ury followed up his lifelong work in negotiation theory with two other books. This set is a classic for people learning about negotiating and mediation.

[lilibrarian · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

guide to collaborative negotiating

[trilliams · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Got to yes.

[sovranty · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

All of the advice in this book is obvious. However, it is a nice way to understand the why behind the how. And if you start to read the book and don't feel like it is obvious, then you will be pleasantly surprised by the way the author has boiled down the steps and explanations. You will come out a better negotiator and on the way to understanding simple mediation.

[lisamaria_c · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Along with Difficult Conversations and Beyond Winning this is one of three texts, plus handouts, used at a Negotiation course at Harvard Law taken by students all over the university--and by people from all over the world. At the end of the course, the students spontaneously rose to give the teachers a standing ovation. It's a very popular and valuable course--and this book deals with some of the techniques at the heart of it. And no, this is not just for lawyers or diplomats or labor leaders. It applies to any of those kinds of situations where you have to make a deal, get something from someone without getting taken. That might mean negotiating a raise, coming to a price, resolving a dispute with a neighbor.It talks about such techniques as looking for objective criteria, focusing on interests, inventing options--and knowing your BATNA. (Best Alternative to a Negotiated Agreement. In other words, know when and at what point to walk away rather than let yourself get pressured into something you can't live with.) I've gone back to this book and brushed up on the principles when I know I'm going to have to work at getting to yes. Very useful.

[larrydellis · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Getting to Yes is a book well worth reading. It presents sage advice on how to unlock opposing parties and moving to successful mediation through a variety of arenas. The authors put forth solid, experienced-based approaches that can draw conflicting agendas on to common turf. He denigrates much of the traditional approaches to negotiation and dispute resolution and shows step-by-step processes about how to focus on individual interests rather than cement ourselves down to opposing positions. He suggests that using an objective criteria is much longer lasting and brings faster resolution than trying to get someone to change their mind and feelings about a conflict. The authors' experience ranges from negotiations with business disputes, family matters, to international terrorist dispute resolution.

[djryan_1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

While it does leave to feeling like Jack Donaghy after a six hour Six Sigma marathon, there's plenty of advice.The whole book can be boiled down to an expression of Wheeton's Law: "Don't be a dick."

[abdelazer-1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

By its own admission this is a book that should leave you feeling like you knew all of the main points. That said, it's a short and well-structured reminder of how to practice negotiation without fruitless positional tactics. I can't recall if I liked it better than the related Getting Past No.

[hippielunatic · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

While this was a book that was not necessarily one I would have picked up on my own, I did get something out of reading it. I am in the process of negotiating a dissolution with my former partner, and despite the emotional turmoil I am feeling because of it, this book helped to outline options for negotiation, helped to teach me to be able to read his signals more appropriately, and helped to make me feel more in control of my piece of the negotiation.

[carterchristian1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Good ideas for business, family and other situations where there is likely to be conflict

[alexpearson_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This book teaches you how to truly negotiate. It is based on principles which pretty much apply to people in all types of situations. Even if you are not in a business field, give this book a try, you will find something useful in it.

[occassionalread · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Somewhere in Getting to Yes the author states that principled negotiation is common sense. That does not mean that it is easy however, and often we are hijacked by emotion or the desire to win at all costs. This book is a useful tool for all of us because whether we are business people, consumers, public servants, or just dealing with our family and friends, we all negotiate on a daily basis. The trick to becoming an effective negotiator is practice. Reading this book is a good first step in reasoned and rational methods to reaching win-win results.

[cecilturtle · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

This is a surprisingly easy book to read but chalk full of information and examples. The contents are carefully structured and each chapter builds on the previous. It does not oversimplify issues, on the contrary, it recognizes the complexity of some negotiation situations but constantly refers to the same principles to show how they can be applied consistently. Finally, I appreciated the variety of the examples drawn both from common occurrences and exceptionally delicate situations, giving a wide range of possibilities to consider. Very dense but extremely useful, this book gives the secrets to a powerful yet human way to find solutions to tough conflicts.