Getting to Yes: Negotiating Agreement without Giving In - Summary

Read a summary of the bestselling non-fiction book Getting to Yes: Negotiating Agreement without Giving In by Roger Fisher and William Ury. The book presents four principles of negotiation known as ‘principled negotiation’ focused on the psychology of negotiation. The paper aims to discuss the summary of the book and understand the content that the authors of the book have been tried to convey.

Running head: GETTING TO YES
GETTING TO YES
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1GETTING TO YES
Getting to say yes: Negotiating Agreement without Giving In is one of the bestselling
non-fiction books of 1981 by Roger Fisher and William Ury. The book presents methods known
as ‘principled negotiation’ focused on the psychology of negotiation. The book describes a
method of negotiation where the problems are isolated and shift the main focus on the interests
creating new options. In the book, the two parties are assisted to reach an agreement
Amazon.com. The paper aims to discuss the summary of the book and understand the content
that the authors of the book have been tried to convey.
The book presents four principles that can be effective for negotiation. According to
Fisher and Ury, a good agreement is one that is not only efficient but also wise that can help
improve the relationship between the two parties involved in the negotiation. A wise agreement
is the one that is fair and satisfies the parties’ interest along with lasting benefits. The authors
aim to reach a goal that is to develop a method through which a good agreement will be achieved
(Fisher, Ury and Patton, 2011). Negotiation is often taken the form of positional bargaining that
includes different part opening with their positions on a specific issue. Then, the two parties
bargain from the point of their opening position in order to have agreement on one particular
position. A typical example is to negotiate over a price. According to Fisher and Ury, any form
of positional bargaining only produces bad agreements. According to Aarons et al. (2014), the
key factor is to reach an agreement that satisfies the parties’ interest. Therefore, Fisher and Ury
have presented that bargaining of price holding a position is an inefficient way of reaching the
agreement. It encourages means of reaching agreements, and the particular agreement tends to
encourage stubbornness and harm the parties’ relationship.
According to Brunner (2014), a principled negotiation will increases the chances of
reaching a good agreement through better ways. Fisher and Ury provide four principles of

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negotiation. The principled negation is a method that can be implemented in any kind of
negotiation and used effectively to resolve any forms of negotiation disputes. The four principles
of negotiations are 1. Separate the people from the problem; 2. Focus on interest rather than
positions; 3. Generate a variety of option before settling on an argument and 4. Insist that the
agreement is based on objective criteria.
While a negotiation takes place, these principles are needed to be observed in each
process. The process starts with the analysis of the situation that presents the idea of the main
problem in the negotiation from the other parties. The next stage is to strategise the ways of
responding to the situation and other parties’. In the end, the parties will discuss regarding the
issue that finds a solution that is appropriate from both the end and agree on it.
Separating people and issues: According to Fisher and Ury’s first principles of
negotiation, people should be separated from the issue. In negotiation, people tend to get
involved personally with the issue and the position they hold. The purpose of this step is to
recognise that emotions and egos often become entangled with the problem in negotiation. This
may blur the potential of seeing the other party’s position clearly. While there is a need for
cooperative interaction, it leads to adversarial interaction. In this stage, the most important
measures are clarifying perception, recognition and legitimising emotions and lastly conducting
communication clearly.
Focus on interest, not position: According to Mansbridge (2018), a good agreement
focuses on the parties’ interest and not their positions. According to Fisher and Ury, the position
is something that an individual decides to hold, and it is the interest that causes the individual to
decide the position. When a problem is defined in terms of position, it will result in a loss for one
party in the dispute. This specific stage is an exploration of the true interest underlying the

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position of each side. Hence, it is essential to ask a question to explore interest and talk about
own interest as well.
Generate options for mutual gain: There are four obstacles that are identified by the
authors and parties together need to generate alternative candidate solutions. It is the parties that
will contribute together in a creative manner to generate possibilities for mutual gain. The steps
that would be involved in the process are brainstorming, broadening options, looking for mutual
gain and making their decisions easy.
Insists on using objective criteria: In situations where the interest is directly opposed to
one another, parties should use objective criteria to resolve their difference. Allowing such
differences often lead to the destruction of the relationship between the two parties. The steps
involved would be using fair standards and fair procedures.
However, there are different situations as well where the other party is more powerful.
According to Laclau (2017), there is certainly no method that can entirely overcome differences
in power. Fisher and Ury suggest ways that can be used against a poor agreement to protect the
weaker party. In these circumstances, a BATNA (Best alternative to a negotiation Agreement)
should be prepared by the weaker party prior to the negotiation. The better BATNA will have
greater power. When the situation is such where the other party will not play, three approaches
can be utilised. The weaker party should use principles negotiation, refuse to retaliate and
redirect their attacks on the issue and involve a third party so the opposite parties’ views can be
fused called One Text Procedure.

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Lastly, when there is the usage of dirty tricks such as lies, psychological abuse and
pressure tactics. By recognising the trick, drawing attention and negotiation about the negation
will help to overcome the issue.
Through the usage of these methods, a negotiation can be turned into a deal. The book is
one way to win negotiation where both the parties will get to keep their interest.

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References:
Aarons, G. A., Fettes, D. L., Hurlburt, M. S., Palinkas, L. A., Gunderson, L., Willging, C. E., &
Chaffin, M. J. (2014). Collaboration, negotiation, and coalescence for interagency-
collaborative teams to scale-up evidence-based practice. Journal of Clinical Child &
Adolescent Psychology, 43(6), 915-928.
Brunner, J. (2014). Patent Prosecution as Dispute Resolution: A Negotiation Between Applicant
and Examiner. J. Disp. Resol., 7.
Fisher, R., Ury, W. L., & Patton, B. (2011). Getting to yes: Negotiating agreement without
giving in. Penguin.
Laclau, E. (2017). Democracy and the Question of Power. In Habitus: a sense of place (pp. 69-
83). Routledge.
Mansbridge, J. J. (2018). A deliberative theory of interest representation. In The politics of
interests (pp. 32-57). Routledge.