The Book of Real-World Negotiations

1Mistakes Negotiators Make, and What Do Great Negotiators Do Anyway?

Learning to be an effective negotiator is a journey, not a destination. Along that journey you will encounter many notions about what effective negotiation looks like. Certain truisms about negotiation have come to the forefront as a result of the mistakes that people make. Similarly, with all the information out there and centuries of practice, we can also delineate what great negotiators do to solve some of the most difficult problems confronting humanity. Let's take a look at both of these before delving more deeply into the case studies.

Skepticism toward Negotiation, and Common but Inaccurate Myths

While we all negotiate regularly at work, at home, and in the world around us, negotiation still sometimes gets a bad name. Furthermore, there are some commonly held fictions related to negotiation that often lead people astray and away from creating the best deals or solutions possible. Below are the most common misperceptions of negotiation that are important to dispel from the outset.

A Winner and a Loser – and Nobody Wants to Lose

The first inaccurate belief about negotiation can be encapsulated in the memorable short story from Dr. Seuss, called “The Zax.” To summarize the well-known tale, there once were a North-Going Zax and a South-Going Zax whose paths met. Neither Zax was prepared to move in deference to the other. They were both stubborn and prepared to stay where they were instead of giving the ...