Getting to Yes

Getting to YES: Negotiating Agreement Without Giving In (1981) is a business and self-help book by Roger Fisher and William Ury. It teaches a principled method of settling disputes so that both sides win. Revised in 1991 and 2011, the book has sold 15 million copies in 35 languages, spent several years on the BusinessWeek bestseller list, and is one of the most commonly cited works on lists of the best negotiation books.

Authors Fisher and Ury co-founded the Harvard Negotiation Project, which co-sponsored the book. They each took part in several important international negotiations, including border disputes, a hostage crisis, and disarmament talks. Fellow member and third-edition co-author Bruce Patton co-wrote a related bestseller, Difficult Conversations (1999).

The eBook version of the 2011 revised edition forms the basis for this study guide.

Summary

According to the book, people in contemporary society no longer obey someone else’s dictates; they want a say. There are more disputes than ever, but people don’t always use the best strategies. They tend to think that “soft” and “hard” are the only two ways to negotiate. The soft approach avoids conflict by making concessions; the hard approach seeks to win at any cost.

A third way incorporates both hard and soft techniques, but differently.