Top positive review
4.0 out of 5 starsThe simplicity of genius!
Reviewed in the United States on July 15, 2012
As someone who has studied negotiations in graduate school, I already knew much of the information in this book. However, the discussion of "creating value" in negotiations sets this book apart from the rest, as well as its discussion of cognitive biases that people have in negotiations too. The thesis of the book, that negotiators can get more out of negotiations by trying to "make the pie bigger" (create value) makes negotiating less intimidating to novices in the subject who might shy away from studying negotiations because it seems confrontational.
However, at times, the anecdotes used by the authors to illustrate these concepts and others were long-winded and made the book seem like it was meandering. Perhaps that is endemic to books on this subject however, and I may be biased since most of the other reading I have been doing lately has been in dry textbooks on business that are very clearly outlined and organized. But sometimes there seemed to be one anecdote for every concept, when half as many anecdotes would have sufficed.
For someone with my background in the subject, the discussion of cognitive biases and errors that people have and make in negotiations was worth the price of the book. You can find excellent explanations of these cognitive errors and biases for free on Wikipedia, but you won't find discussions of them within the context of negotiations. In addition, although there are many cognitive biases and errors, the authors only chose to discuss the most common biases and errors that occur in negotiations. That type of information is not readily available online from experts like the authors.
This book will be of value to future students of negotiations because it builds upon a recent tradition that was started by other books like the "7 habits..." book and "Getting to Yes," which describe styles of negotiations where the goal is not to gain more than the other party, as in a zero-sum game, but to help the other party realize their goals along with your own. This might seem a little 'touchy-feely,' but the best benefit of this negotiation style that I can see is that it leaves people in good relations for future negotiations. It's difficult for me to imagine a better outcome than leaving a negotiation where both people are happy and the other person looks forward to another negotiation, and this book will help people to get to that outcome.
