Beyond Winning: Negotiating to Create Value in Deals and Disputes

by Robert Mnookin, Scott R. Peppet, Andrew S. Tulumello

Conflict is inevitable, in both deals and disputes. Yet when clients call in the lawyers to haggle over who gets how much of the pie, traditional hard-bargaining tactics can lead to ruin. Too often, deals blow up, cases don’t settle, relationships fall apart, justice is delayed. Beyond Winning charts a way out of our current crisis of confidence in the legal system. It offers a fresh look at negotiation, aimed at helping lawyers turn disputes into deals, and deals into better deals, through practical, tough-minded problem-solving techniques.

In this step-by-step guide to conflict resolution, the authors describe the many obstacles that can derail a legal negotiation, both behind the bargaining table with one’s own client and across the table with the other side. They offer clear, candid advice about ways lawyers can search for beneficial trades, enlarge the scope of interests, improve communication, minimize transaction costs, and leave both sides better off than before. But lawyers cannot do the job alone. People who hire lawyers must help change the game from conflict to collaboration. The entrepreneur structuring a joint venture, the plaintiff embroiled in a civil suit, the CEO negotiating an employment contract, the real estate developer concerned with environmental hazards, the parent considering a custody battle―clients who understand the pressures and incentives a lawyer faces can work more effectively within the legal system to promote their own best interests. Attorneys exhausted by the trench warfare of cases that drag on for years will find here a positive, proven approach to revitalizing their profession.

Genres: Business, Nonfiction, Psychology, Law, Communication, Leadership, Buisness

368 pages, Paperback

First published October 6, 2000

Reviews

[Peter Chan · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a must-read book for solicitors.

Many solicitors have not thought deeply of their roles and meaning in the negotiations in litigation and deal-making. Reading this book will bring a clear concept on that question to their minds, and inspire them to rethink how he want to serve his clients and do his practice, and how he can effectively achieve his goals. Be adversarial or be problem-solving? This book helps them to make a more conscious choice. And this book is also good at addressing many aspects and useful techniques peculiar to legal negotiations. This book serves the solicitors a good food of thought on all these aspects.

[Chanchana]

I only read chapter 2. The definition of empathy is quite interesting. He said that it's "the process of demonstrating an accurate understanding of the other side's needs, interests, and perspectives"
Focus on the word "demonstration". Empathy is not merely understanding in your head. You need to demonstrate it. He call it the "empathy loop". You start by telling the other side what you observe about their feelings, then they correct you, then you repeat the process until you get very accurate understanding of the other side.
This is a very important definition.
The book also suggests that you need to be assertive as well in negotiation.

[Rosbel · Rating 5 out of 5]

If you want to handle good negotiations, this book thoroughly explains the different aspects, motivations, approach ways, and cultural impact, among many other things. It provides multiple examples. Beware it's mostly directed at lawyers, still, it's a great read.
Also, if you're ever to work with lawyers - as colleagues to jointly work on negotiations or to hire for some other reason- it provides great insight on biases and relevant matters to set straight for the relationship to work.

[Kristof Verbeke · Rating 5 out of 5]

Beyond Winning, perhaps better than Getting to Yes, focuses on how to find a solution through negotiation. It focuses on both sides of the story in trying to find mutual gains and offers insightful frameworks for the tension between a lawyer and client or between being empathetic and assertive. Helpful tool for the practitioner but also for a client (especially a business oriented one).

[Luke Smith · Rating 3 out of 5]

There's some great advice in the first half but it loses the way towards the end. What starts off as best practices around disputes and deals soon devolved into dry scenarios regarding different legal disputes. Felt like a book that began as on then turned into another.

[Ali]

According to chris voss, never split the difference, this books chapter on empathy is the best he’s ever read

[Angie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great thoughts on negotiation, even for people who don't negotiate for a living. We all negotiate in our lives. This gave me great ideas on how to do it better.

[Abraham · Rating 3 out of 5]

Expands upon the ideas in getting to yes. Far too theoretical to be useful, but has some interesting ideas.

[Crystal Rose · Rating 3 out of 5]

The book was ok…

This book is really aimed at lawyers - I hoped the emphasis would be on negotiation but it was about lawyers negotiating.

[Robin Remory · Rating 3 out of 5]

Goed boek, zeer interessant. Leest niet heel vlot maar definitely gets the point across. Soms voelen evidente en intuïtieve zaken nogal zeer getheoretiseerd wat het onnodig complex maakt.

[Lisa (Harmonybites) · Rating 4 out of 5]

Along with Difficult Conversations and Getting to Yes this is one of three texts, plus handouts, used at a Negotiation course at Harvard Law taken by students all over the university--and by people from all over the world. At the end of the course, the students spontaneously rose to give the teachers a standing ovation. It's a very popular and valuable course--and this book deals with some of the techniques at the heart of it.

A lot of the principles discussed here is not just for lawyers or diplomats or labor leaders. It applies to any of those kinds of situations where you have to make a deal, get something from someone without getting taken. That might mean negotiating a raise, coming to a price, resolving a dispute with a neighbor.

It talks about such techniques and strategies as focusing on interests, inventing options--and knowing your BATNA. (Best Alternative to a Negotiated Agreement. In other words, know when and at what point to walk away rather than let yourself get pressured into something you can't live with.) It shares that common ground with Getting to Yes. That book though is more geared towards the general reader. Beyond Winning is longer, more technical, and much more geared to the lawyer.

[Colin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good theoretical analysis explained through clear examples. Helpful practical advice for changing the way you approach negotiation and becoming a more effective negotiator. Contains sections targeted at lawyers, but equally useful for anyone who wants to better understand the role of lawyers. Most of the concepts apply to anyone who negotiates in a formal or informal capacity.

[Matthew · Rating 3 out of 5]

not bad but nothing revolutionary. much more legal oriented than the other negotiation books.

[Jameyanne Fuller · Rating 4 out of 5]

At times, this book could be a tad denser than my other readings for the negotiations workshop I took this semester, but on the whole it was readable, clear, and thorough in its breakdown of the elements of a negotiation and strategies for successful problem-solving negotiations that go beyond merely distributing the elements on the table. I also think it may have helped with my understanding of contracts.. I'd definitely recommend to anyone interested in negotiations.