Reviewed by Rama Gaind.
By Chris Voss with Tahl Raz, Random House, $22.99.
Full of sagacity that applies to (almost) any everyday negotiation, former international FBI negotiator Chris Voss offers a new, field-tested approach to parley. Valuable in any situation, the insights offered break down traditional strategies so that anyone can use them in the workplace, in business or at home.
It appears that all we’ve been taught previously about negotiation is wrong: there is no such thing as ‘fair’; compromise is the worst thing you can do; you are not rational; and the real art of negotiation lies in mastering the intricacies of ‘No’, not ‘Yes’.
These startling tactics — which radically diverge from conventional negotiating strategy — are the field-tested tools FBI agents use to talk criminals and hostage-takers around the world into — or out of — just about any scenario you can imagine.
Entrenched in the real-life experiences of an intelligence professional at the top of his game, it gives you the competitive edge in any discussion.
After a stint policing the rough streets of Kansas City, Missouri, Chris Voss joined the FBI, where his career as a kidnapping negotiator brought him face-to-face with bank robbers, gang leaders and terrorists. Never Split The Difference takes you inside his world of high-stakes negotiations, revealing the nine key principles that helped Voss and his colleagues succeed when it mattered the most – when people’s lives were at stake.
We spend most of our days at work negotiating for something. Voss draws on his experiences in life-or-death situations to illustrate how outcomes can be influenced by the techniques outlined in the book. Voss explains how simple these tools can be, such as your tone of voice, the types of questions you ask the other party or even how you enter the conversation in the first place.
Knowing the most successful, crisis-tested approaches to the process will ensure the conversation more frequently goes your way.
