Customer Reviews

The Book of Agreement: 10 Essential Elements for Getting the Results You Want

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Add this book to your shelf of most important references--like your dictionary and your "Windows for Idiots" guide--and consult it often. Your life, relationships, and career will improve immeasurably.

Stuart Levine's first book "Getting to Resolution" is the best I've read on resolving conflict. I think I know a thing or two about agreements. So I read the review copy of this new book, supplied by his publicist, with mixed emotion. I know and love Stewart, we have the same publisher, I'm thrilled his great second book is out, and he taught me good stuff about resolving conflict (we also shared an excellent glass of Merlot last year in Santa Fe, but that's a story for another day). But, just what can Levine teach this veteran partnering consultant about making and keeping agreements?

A thing or two, it turns out.

Let's start with what's critical to learn if you don't already know it.

Consider Levine's Principle #2, "We work and live in a 'sea' (context) of agreements." Do you realize all relationship behavior is governed by implicit or explicit agreements? Someone can't even push your hot-buttons unless you and they have established by implicit agreement that "those" buttons are indeed hot and that you will explode if they are tweaked in a certain way. And you know "Shhh, don't tell a soul"
implicitly means "keep this to yourself as well as I'm keeping it to myself." Even a chain of command is full of implicit agreements about norms like who can and can't tell whom what to do, who can and can't evaluate another's performance, who can and can't make decisions, etc. If you've worked in one hierarchy, you pretty much can move from organization to organization and quickly grasp the nuances of the culture. Why? Because you understand, experientially, the sea of implicit agreements.

You buy into, if not invent, these implicit agreements, and then live by them whether you like it or not. It's your own doing. So you might then consider Levine's Principle #3, "We never learned the essential elements of an effective agreement." I believe people clamor for control because they lack the learned power of agreement-making. It's much easier to just boss folks around. But it's far more powerful and rewarding to make what Levine calls "agreements for results." That's a lot of what TeamWisdom (a term from my work) is about.

So what do you do? You learn the essential elements of an effective agreement, then put them to use. Repeat. Improve. Repeat. Improve. Levine shows you how.

Just as he did in his first book, Levine gives us the foundation first and the practice second. He starts with the Basic Law of Agreement ("Collaboration is established in language by making implicit and explicit agreements"), then offers ten principles, and then ten elements of effective agreements. Elements include things like roles, time and value, measures of satisfaction, etc. Later in the book, he uses these ten elements to fashion templates and illustrate agreements for different situations (like employment agreements, sales agreements, performance appraisal agreements, feedback agreements, and many more).

The strength of this book is in combining his original concepts with his applications. For instance Levine identifies the difference between agreements for protecting your interests and agreements for results. The first is what you hire lawyers to do in writing contracts; he knows,
Levine practiced law for years. He shows you how to make agreements for results and protect your interests. Levine also provides application after application after application. More than half the book is devoted to templates for agreements for results in organizations, associations, communities, families, cultures, marriages, and more. Be sure to practice the new Levine U MBA -- managing by agreement. You'll also want to read his section on training your lawyer how to make agreements for results.

The Book of Agreement makes a terrific companion to "Teamwork Is An Individual Skill: Getting Your Work Done When Sharing Responsibility"

We all know of stories where businesses, families and communities went down the drain because the involved parties were locked into years of conflict. In this book, Stewart Levine provides an insightful framework and applications for resolutions that can be put to practice immediately; sort of a 15-Minute Gourmet Resolutions recipe book.

A must read for anyone trying to get the most out of relationships.

The Book of Agreement is the first practical book on how to realize the potential of really working together in the world, at the office, or in the home. Stewart Levine outlines the amazingly simple, and yet so powerful, 10 elements that actually produce"agreements for results". Following this by example after example of people who actually made this work. I found this book to not only be worth my time, but such a time saver that I got copies for everyone in th office. I even sent copies out to my family.

Stewart Levine has given us a strategy for coming into alignment with all issues. The book is stunningly easy to read, the practices are simple - practical and useful.
Dr. Audrey Reed, is the Author of Money ToolBox for Women and runs a consulting and seminar company.
We use this all the time with our clients, in business and at home.

Step back, take a deep breath, and smile because Stewart Levine's The Book of Agreement will give you the tools to get what you want without causing conflict. Not only does he provide insights into new ways to think about relationships, but he also provides templates that you can use to create them. After reading Stewart's book you will be able to: 1. Negotiate with the people already in your life; 2. Set limits, boundaries and expectations with those people you meet or hire; 3. Bring to the fore hidden concerns that could undermine your relationships and contracts. I immediately applied it to my relationship with our housekeeper to create a cleaning schedule without stress. I used it to clarify trading relationships in my business

The best thing Mr. Levine promotes in this book is agreements being covenants as opposed to contracts. Covenants are commitments to a goal or end that are not dissolved in the event that one or more parties to the agreement fails to perfectly fulfill their promises (unlike contracts that would be dissolved in such an event). Mr. Levine places an emphasis on the "heart" aspect of covenants, which is not inaccurate but perhaps leaves implied the importance of continued commitment in the event of imperfect performance. Mr. Levine also makes a good observation when he expresses that many agreements fail because too many things are left unsaid or are assumed.

I would question some of the ethical implications of Mr. Levine's argument. He seems to believe that fairness is an emotional state as opposed to something that can be established as a matter of fact. He also brings into question the relevance of social and moral systems based on reason (which he calls "old habits"), advocating instead for the satisfaction of individual or group wants as such. Together, these things seem as though they would tend toward basically arbitrary agreements. I am not sure that this system will consistently result in meaningful, positive, or ethical agreements. I would ultimately recommend Getting to Yes and the other books from the various experts with the Harvard Negotiation Project over this one.

As an aside, this book is rather poorly edited with numerous writing errors that could have been resolved by better proofreading.

This book is really a must read for anyone who wants to be more effective in their work, their relationships... and in life. It offers a real roadmap for how to craft honest, workable agreements... the sort of things fundamental to all progress.

The Book of Agreement is profoundly simple yet extremely useful in its application to many varieties of situations/relationships requiring dependable and reliable solutions toward fullfilling significant goals.
Stewart Levine's capacity to provide a means by which conflicts can be resolved, not only allows the reader the ability to do so for him/herself, but it also provides great insight into understanding (which is a wonderful gift).

As a conflict mediator, I have found The Book of Agreement by Stewart Levine to be extremely insightful for me personally and particularly helpful in working with my clients. His book will help us all create effective relationships in our lives. A must read.