HBR Guide to Negotiating (HBR Guide Series)

Chapter 1

The Seven Elements Tool

Carefully define your measure of success.

How you define success in a negotiation will influence how you prepare and, in turn, how you negotiate. Think through what you want to achieve: What would a successful agreement look like? How do you want to feel when you’ve left the table? You want to identify specific criteria that will help guide your preparation, and you’ll also use these measures to evaluate the agreement when it’s complete.

Beware: There are a lot of common measures that are limiting, and even dangerous. Some professionals think they’ve negotiated well when they’ve extracted more concessions than they gave up or when they’ve pushed their counterpart past his bottom line. Others believe that success ...