Negotiating Genuinely

Book excerpt: Master the delicate art of balancing competition and cooperation: “A powerful guide that will help you redo something you do every day.” —Karl E. Weick, coauthor of Managing the Unexpected We often assume that strategic negotiation requires us to wall off vulnerable parts of ourselves and act rationally to win. But what if you could just be you in business? Taking a positive approach, this concise book distills years of research, teaching, and coaching into an integrated framework for negotiating genuinely. One of the most fundamental and challenging battlegrounds in our work lives, negotiation calls on us to both compete and cooperate to do our jobs well and achieve extraordinary results. But, the biggest challenge in a negotiation is to be strategic while also being real. Shirli Kopelman, executive director of the International Association for Conflict Management, argues that this duality is both possible and powerful. In Negotiating Genuinely, she teaches how to reconcile the disparate hats you wear in everyday life—with families, friends, and colleagues—bringing one “integral hat” to the negotiation table. Kopelman develops and shares techniques that illuminate this approach—and exercises along the way help you negotiate more naturally, positively, and successfully.