Book SummaryThe Master Guides: Negotiation 101, by Shortform

1-Page Summary1-Page Book Summary of The Master Guides: Negotiation 101

In our daily lives, we all negotiate with others for things we want, whether the context is business or personal. For instance, at work you may negotiate a contract with a supplier or a pay raise with a supervisor, while in your personal life you might negotiate with your friends about which movie you’re going to see. In any situation where you’re looking to get something from someone else, you’re engaged in a negotiation.

Experts have different theories about the best approach to getting what you want out of a negotiation, how to think about the needs and goals of your counterpart (the person on the other side of the...

The Master Guides: Negotiation 101 Summary Two Main Approaches to Negotiation

At its most basic level, any negotiation is about getting something you need from someone else. And, by the same token, they’re looking to get something they need from you. To be a successful negotiator, you need to understand how we determine what our wants and needs are. Do our emotions drive those needs, or are we essentially utility maximizers who always follow rational incentives to increase our material well-being?

The different answers to this question reflect the two main approaches to negotiation:

• The emotional approach says that in a negotiation, people are primarily motivated by their needs for emotional security and safety. Thus, your job as a negotiator is to help your counterpart meet those needs by practicing and displaying empathy toward them—which will get them to let their emotional guard down and enable you to get what you want from them.
• The rational approach says that your job as a negotiator is to efficiently and respectfully reach a fair agreement that provides clear and concrete benefits for both you and your counterpart. Contrary to the emotional approach, it’s about deciding issues based on objective measures and separating...

The Master Guides: Negotiation 101 Summary Preparing to Negotiate

Regardless of whether you accept the emotional approach or the rational approach to negotiation, experts agree that preparing for your negotiation is essential. In the section below, we’ll cover the main ways to prepare for a successful negotiation—by preparing for the worst, planning your moves and countermoves in advance, determining your boundaries for the negotiation, and understanding what kind of negotiator you’re going up against.

Prepare First—and Plan for the Worst

Fisher and Ury (Getting to Yes) write that preparation is the first step in any negotiation. Since you won’t know what the other side’s strategy is going to be, it’s best to focus on preparation initially and decide your direction of argument later.

They recommend some important preparation tactics:

• Think about the end: Before starting to negotiate, think about what a good agreement would look like. To get there, what issues would have to be resolved? What kind of agreement could both you and your counterpart justify to yourselves? Envisioning the end...

The Master Guides: Negotiation 101 Summary How to Bargain

Having explored the two main approaches to negotiation and looked at how to prepare, let’s examine how to strike the best possible deal when you’re face-to-face at the negotiating table. In this section, we’ll cover:

• How to take advantage of new information
• How to use the Ackerman model to craft your offer

Take Advantage of Information

Voss (Never Split the Difference) writes that in every negotiation, there is some hidden piece of information that, if it were known, would completely transform the dynamic of the negotiation and the final outcome. Voss writes that there are three types of information.

1) Known Knowns: These are the things you know for sure. In a negotiation, the known knowns are things like your counterpart’s name, their offer, and the knowledge gained from your experience in past negotiations.

2) Known Unknowns: This...

Shortform Exercise: Hone Your Negotiation Skills

Negotiation experts agree that you should prepare for your negotiation, understand what motivates your counterpart, and plan your moves and countermoves ahead of time. Consider how you can apply these ideas the next time you sit down to negotiate.

Do you think negotiations are determined more by the emotional needs of the parties involved, or are they determined more by rational tradeoffs and objective measures? Explain how your answer might affect the negotiation tactics you use.