The Art of Negotiation

The author, a Harvard Business School professor, teaches negotiation to students and managers, and is also editor-in-chief of Negotiation Journal, published by Harvard Law School. Here, he delivers some theoretical and practical lessons to negotiate more effectively, taking account of the fact that the environment is chaotic and unpredictable, and the negotiation process interactive by nature. You must thus both prepare your negotiation strategy and develop qualities such as agility, open-mindedness and the ability to improvise. The author borrows best practices from seemingly disparate domains, such as jazz and improvisational theater. The more business-oriented examples and anecdotes also aptly illustrate the author’s messages. The interest of the book resides not so much in the theoretical model behind each chapter—“learning, adapting, influencing”—as in the good ideas and questions to pose upstream and throughout the negotiation process. These teachings are as useful on a personal level as in professional settings, and can be used by just about anyone. We particularly recommend the first chapter, which concerns preparing and defining your negotiation strategy, as well as the second chapter, which concerns useful techniques and ideas to improvise better on the spot—particularly to overcome anxiety and develop an optimistic mindset. An invaluable guide to maximize the chances of negotiating successfully—and, more generally, to interact better with others.