Card 1 of 20: Getting to Yes
Two Harvard negotiators noticed the same failure in labor talks, divorces, and hostage crises alike: both sides dig into positions and the deal dies. Their fix, published in 1981, became the negotiation standard.
Chris Voss spent 24 years talking kidnappers into releasing hostages. His conclusion after leaving the FBI: 'splitting the difference' — the compromise everyone's taught to seek — is usually a bad deal for both sides.
Cialdini spent years undercover training as a used-car salesman, fundraiser, and telemarketer to catalog the tricks that actually work. In 1984 he distilled them into six weapons of influence that still explain most modern persuasion, from ads to cults.
Thirty years after Influence, Cialdini asked a different question: what if the real leverage point isn't the pitch itself, but the seconds right before it? Pre-Suasion is his answer.
A Wharton negotiation professor built his course around a finding students didn't expect: most people negotiate the same way in every situation, whether or not that style fits — and the fix is knowing your default before you walk in.
Jim Camp trained Fortune 500 negotiating teams on a principle that inverts most sales advice: stop trying to get to yes. Let the other side say no, on purpose, as early as possible.
Herb Cohen negotiated hostage releases for the U.S. government and once said he treated every deal, personal or geopolitical, the same way — as a game with three moving parts he could learn to read.
Four researchers studied what separates people who navigate high-stakes, emotional conversations well from everyone else who either shuts down or blows up. The answer wasn't talent — it was a repeatable structure.
Three members of the Harvard Negotiation Project noticed that couples, coworkers, and families all fought the same underlying fight, no matter the topic on the surface. They mapped it into three layers.
A clinical psychologist who mediated in war zones and gang conflicts built a communication method on a simple bet: almost every accusation is a poorly worded, unmet need — and needs are far easier to negotiate than accusations.