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The fundamentals of negotiation
Before the 360 techniques, the big concepts. The landmarks that organise the whole discipline and make sense of every technique. Start here.
Distributive and integrative negotiation
Win-lose or win-win: the two paradigms that shape every negotiation.
Read →The Harvard method: principled negotiation
The four principles of Fisher and Ury: negotiate on the merits, without wrecking the relationship.
Read →Positions and interests: the distinction that unlocks
Stop defending what you demand, discover what you actually need.
Read →BATNA, ZOPA and reservation price: the geometry of a negotiation
Measure your room for manoeuvre before you negotiate, and know when to walk away.
Read →Cognitive biases in negotiation
The mental traps that distort a negotiation, in the other side and in yourself.
Read →Power in negotiation
Where leverage really comes from, and how to shift it without raising your voice.
Read →Ethics and manipulation: the line not to cross
Telling legitimate influence apart from manipulation, and spotting dirty tricks.
Read →The five negotiation styles (Thomas-Kilmann)
Competing, collaborating, compromising, avoiding, accommodating: which one are you?
Read →Preparing a negotiation
80 % of the outcome is decided before you sit down.
Read →What the fundamentals are for
A technique can be imitated; a concept applies everywhere. Each technique in the library answers a precise question: what to do against an aggressive anchor, how to phrase a trade-off, when to stay silent. The fundamentals answer a question of a different order: how to think about a negotiation, any negotiation, before choosing a tactic. It is the difference between collecting recipes and knowing how to cook. A negotiator who owns these landmarks recognises the structure of a new situation within minutes; one who lacks them faces every situation as a special case.
These nine landmarks build on one another. Everything starts with the two paradigms: whether a fixed value is being divided or new value can be created changes the whole game. Preparation turns that reading into a plan: objectives, limits, scenario. The geometry of BATNA, ZOPA and the reservation point puts numbers on your room for manoeuvre and sets the moment to walk away. The distinction between positions and interests opens up the space of solutions, which the Harvard method organises into a complete approach. Then come the forces that run through every exchange: power and its sources, the cognitive biases that distort judgement, the styles that govern behaviour, and the ethics that bound what you allow yourself.
The order of the cards above follows that progression, and it is the best reading order the first time through. After that, enter wherever the moment requires: a negotiation stuck on a number points to anchoring and the geometry; a meeting turning sour, to styles and method. Every pillar ends with the techniques that turn it into concrete moves, and with its sources: the concepts presented here rest on fifty years of research, from Fisher and Ury to Kahneman.
Theory will not negotiate on your behalf. Once the landmarks are in place, the library provides the tools and practice does the rest: repetition, not reading, is what turns a concept into a reflex.