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Reader’s Review
John D. Baker
GETTING TO YES: Negotiating Agreement Without Giving In
By
Roger Fisher, William Ury and Bruce Patton
Getting to Yes: Negotiating Agreement Without Giving In
By Roger Fisher, William Ury and Bruce Patton
240p Penguin Books (Revised), 2011
Paperback (USA) $16.00
Since its first publication in 1981, Getting to Yes has sold over 5 Million copies and continues to
enlarge its readership. Unquestionably, Getting to Yes has established itself as one of the most
outstanding works in negotiation literature.
Additionally, the book’s three authors have distinguished themselves by being the co-founders of
the Harvard Program on Negotiation in 1979. This program is designed to advance the training
and research in the field of negotiation. Individually and together, the three men have created a
remarkable achievement in their field.
The first of these contributors is Roger Fisher, an expert in negotiation and conflict management,
Mr. Fisher received a B.A. and a law degree from Harvard University before going on to serve
the university as the Samuel Williston Professor of Law (emeritus) and as the Director of the
Harvard Negotiation Project.
With extensive trial experience in private practice, Mr. Fisher went on to work in international
negotiation. He participated in such major efforts as the Israeli-Egyptian peace treaty, the Iran
hostage crisis, the end of apartheid and the creation of the new constitution for South Africa. Mr.
Fisher is the author of many works on negotiation.
William Ury, the second of the authors, holds a B.A. from Yale University and a Ph.D. from
Harvard University with a specialty in social anthropology. He has over 30 years of experience
as an advisor and conflict mediator in corporate mergers, strikes and Middle-East conflict
management. Dr. Ury is a co-founder with Jimmy Carter of the International Negotiation
Network seeking to end civil wars. Currently, Dr. Ury is a Senior Fellow of the Harvard
Negotiation Project and a major contributor to the literature of negotiation.
Bruce Patton is also a co-founder of the Harvard Negotiation Project and has served as the
Thaddeus R. Beal Lecturer on Law at Harvard for over fifteen years. Mr. Patton is the founder
of Vantage Partners, LLC, specializing in international consulting. Bruce Patton holds both an
The Negotiator Magazine February 2015
Copyright © 2015 The Negotiator Magazine
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undergraduate degree and a law degree from Harvard and has written extensively in the field of
negotiation.
Having briefly introduced the authors of Getting to Yes, let me briefly remind you of some of the
concepts they develop in their work. The first is that of a new negotiation approach they term
“principled negotiation” in which the parties to a negotiation seek to decide issues on their merits
rather than by haggling, tricks or posturing. The goal is efficiency, wise agreements and
preservation of the relationship between the parties. From this simple tree, sprout such familiar
concepts as expanding the “fixed pie,” using objective standards, separating people from the
problem, and focusing on the parties working together. The list, as you will recall, turns
negotiating on its head and lays the foundation for the move from positional negotiating to winwin negotiations.
There is much of importance in this thin book. If you have missed this key work, I strongly
encourage that you do so. If you have read this work already, I encourage you to read it again.
Getting to Yes is a true classic in the literature of negotiation.
Highly recommended.
John D. Baker
The Negotiator Magazine February 2015
The Negotiator Magazine February 2015
Copyright © 2015 The Negotiator Magazine
Copyright © 2015 The Negotiator Magazine