Relationships 2.0: Become a Better Negotiator

Never Split the Difference aims to provide a comprehensive guide to negotiating theory and strategy, giving you the tools you need to negotiate successfully. Voss’s thesis is that good negotiation happens on the emotional level of the brain, not the rational level. Your job as a negotiator, Voss argues, is to practice and display empathy toward your counterpart by understanding their emotions, learning to see the situation from their point of view—and, ultimately, getting them to feel comfortable enough with you to let their emotional guard down.

In this guide, we’ve supplemented Voss’s ideas with findings from outside research and incorporated insights from other key negotiation texts—like Roger Fisher and William Ury’s Getting to Yes and Robert Axelrod’s The Evolution of Cooperation—to give readers a more balanced and nuanced perspective on negotiation and evaluate how Voss’s findings square with those of other acknowledged experts on the field.

You’re a negotiator, even if you don’t know it. Negotiation is the art of getting other people to do what you want—and all of us do that every day. However, many people fail to understand the strategies that lead to success. According to corporate negotiator Herb Cohen, if you can become one of the few to master the game of negotiation, you can use this power to create a better life for yourself and a better world for others.

In our guide to Cohen’s You Can Negotiate Anything, you’ll learn how to conduct the most productive kind of negotiation possible: one where both sides win. You’ll also learn how to win at competitive negotiation—we’ll detail what secrets you need to learn about your opponent to secure a favorable deal, no matter the situation. In our commentary, we’ll provide counterpoints and supplemental advice from other books on negotiation like Getting to Yes and Never Split the Difference. Additionally, we’ll give you specific ways to protect yourself from the more manipulative negotiation techniques Cohen describes.

What’s the secret to being a great leader? Whether you’re in a warzone or on the front lines of a corporate battle, Extreme Ownership argues that the best leaders take full responsibility for everything in their world: not only their actions, decisions, and failures, but also those of everyone on their team. By practicing Extreme Ownership, great leaders achieve victory by prioritizing the team above all else and focusing on constant improvement—and in this guide, we’ll show how you can, too.

Authors Jocko Willink and Leif Babin are former US Navy SEAL officers who served in one of the most dangerous areas of Iraq during Operation Iraqi Freedom. They honed the principles of Extreme Ownership on the battlefield, then applied the same tenets to the corporate world as business consultants. In this guide, we’ll add broader context from other leadership books such as Built to Last and Team of Teams to better illustrate how to apply Willink and Babin’s leadership principles to your life.

The failure of Enron in the early 2000’s is one of the largest bankruptcies in US history. Shareholders were wiped out, and tens of thousands of employees left with worthless retirement accounts. This book recounts the rise and fall of Enron, and how the company constructed a massively complex accounting scandal that was doomed to failure.

Enron’s downfall is the predictable mixture of human greed, poorly structured incentives, and lack of sanity checks when everyone has their fingers in the pie. In smaller ways, we too are subject to the same pulls as Enron managers and employees. The warning - if we were put into the same situation, we might not have behaved any differently.

In Ego Is the Enemy, bestselling author and marketer Ryan Holiday defines ego as an unhealthy belief in one’s own importance. He notes that many successful people are famously egotistical, and he contends that as a result, society tends to think that ego is an important ingredient in success, as if ego leads to accomplishment. However, Holiday argues that ego leads far more often to failure, and that people find success only when they’re able to control their egotistical impulses.

To make his arguments, Holiday draws on the philosophies of Stoic thinkers, advising us to resist the urges of our emotions in order to maintain clarity of thinking. In our guide to his book, we’ll examine his theories through the lens of Stoicism, and we’ll compare them to other management theories that similarly aim to help you find success.

Never Split the Difference aims to provide a comprehensive guide to negotiating theory and strategy, giving you the tools you need to negotiate successfully. Voss’s thesis is that good negotiation happens on the emotional level of the brain, not the rational level. Your job as a negotiator, Voss argues, is to practice and display empathy toward your counterpart by understanding their emotions, learning to see the situation from their point of view—and, ultimately, getting them to feel comfortable enough with you to let their emotional guard down.

In this guide, we’ve supplemented Voss’s ideas with findings from outside research and incorporated insights from other key negotiation texts—like Roger Fisher and William Ury’s Getting to Yes and Robert Axelrod’s The Evolution of Cooperation—to give readers a more balanced and nuanced perspective on negotiation and evaluate how Voss’s findings square with those of other acknowledged experts on the field.

In The Anatomy of Peace, the Arbinger Institute—a leading consultant in conflict resolution—discusses how we perpetuate conflict by misunderstanding its cause and acting inappropriately as a result. By understanding the mechanics of the conflict mindset, you'll find how we make conflict worse, how we invite the mistreatment we desire an end to, and how we blind ourselves to the true causes of our interpersonal problems.

In this guide, we discuss Arbinger’s strategy for adjusting your mindset, returning to appreciating the full humanity of others, and creating strong, conflict-resistant relationships in your home, business, and community. We also examine psychological theories that often underpin, support, or build upon Arbinger’s ideas.

Never Split the Difference aims to provide a comprehensive guide to negotiating theory and strategy, giving you the tools you need to negotiate successfully. Voss’s thesis is that good negotiation happens on the emotional level of the brain, not the rational level. Your job as a negotiator, Voss argues, is to practice and display empathy toward your counterpart by understanding their emotions, learning to see the situation from their point of view—and, ultimately, getting them to feel comfortable enough with you to let their emotional guard down.

In this guide, we’ve supplemented Voss’s ideas with findings from outside research and incorporated insights from other key negotiation texts—like Roger Fisher and William Ury’s Getting to Yes and Robert Axelrod’s The Evolution of Cooperation—to give readers a more balanced and nuanced perspective on negotiation and evaluate how Voss’s findings square with those of other acknowledged experts on the field.

Do you want to make your life better? Are you struggling in your personal or professional life, your interactions with other people, your life balance, or your life’s purpose?

The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People provides an inside-out approach to improving yourself and your life. This method entails examining and adjusting your character, your motives, and how you see the world in order to change how you behave and how you interact with others. Learn how to best focus your time, define your personal mission, and build productive relationships with other people.

In Negotiation Genius, negotiation experts Deepak Malhotra and Max H. Bazerman provide a comprehensive system for negotiating successfully in all areas of your life, whether you want to land a lucrative contract, get a raise, or split chores with your roommate. To be a “negotiation genius,” you must prepare extensively before a negotiation and learn to not only claim but create value. By applying the authors’ strategies, you can avoid common negotiation pitfalls, make attractive deals, and build stronger relationships.

In this guide, we’ll discuss how to apply the authors’ advice to prepare, create value, and maximize satisfaction in your negotiations. We’ll also look at common obstacles negotiators face and explore ways to avoid them or use them to your advantage. Throughout the guide, we’ll compare the authors’ strategies with those of other negotiation experts and supplement their advice with additional psychological insights.

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.

In Shortform’s Master Guide to negotiation, we’ve synthesized the ideas and recommendations from some of the world’s leading experts on negotiation to help give you a competitive edge the next time you sit down to bargain. We’ll explore the two main approaches to negotiation (the emotional approach and the rational approach); show you how to prepare for your negotiation; and walk you through some specific moves and countermoves to get the best deal for yourself when you’re sitting face-to-face with your counterpart.

In Negotiation Genius, negotiation experts Deepak Malhotra and Max H. Bazerman provide a comprehensive system for negotiating successfully in all areas of your life, whether you want to land a lucrative contract, get a raise, or split chores with your roommate. To be a “negotiation genius,” you must prepare extensively before a negotiation and learn to not only claim but create value. By applying the authors’ strategies, you can avoid common negotiation pitfalls, make attractive deals, and build stronger relationships.

In this guide, we’ll discuss how to apply the authors’ advice to prepare, create value, and maximize satisfaction in your negotiations. We’ll also look at common obstacles negotiators face and explore ways to avoid them or use them to your advantage. Throughout the guide, we’ll compare the authors’ strategies with those of other negotiation experts and supplement their advice with additional psychological insights.

Getting to Yes by Roger Fisher and William Ury is a practical guide to negotiating more effectively whether you’re haggling over a price, negotiating for a pay increase, or debating how to divide the housework. The authors propose an alternative to traditional adversarial bargaining, which often results in unfair agreements and strained relationships. Principled negotiation, by contrast, aims to reach wise and fair agreements efficiently and civilly. In addition to walking you through their method, the authors offer numerous tips and techniques for handling challenging negotiations. Anyone can use their method, under any circumstances.