The Bartering Mindset: A Mostly Forgotten Framework for Mastering Your Next Negotiation

by Brian Gunia

We use money to solve our everyday problems, and it generally works well. Despite its economic benefits, however, money has a psychological downside: it trains us to think about negotiations narrow-mindedly, leading us to negotiate badly. Suggesting that we need a non-monetary mindset to negotiate better, The Bartering Mindset shows us how to look outside the monetary economy – to the bartering economies of the past, where people traded what they had for what they needed. The book argues that, because of the economic difficulties associated with bartering, barterers had to use a more sophisticated form of negotiation – a strategic approach that can make us master negotiators today. Now available in paperback, this book immerses readers in the assumptions made by barterers, collectively referred to as the "bartering mindset," and then demonstrates how to apply this mindset to modern, monetary negotiations. The Bartering Mindset concludes that our individual, organizational, and social problems fester for a predictable reason: we apply a monetary mindset to our negotiations, leading to suboptimal thinking, counterproductive behaviors, and disappointing outcomes. By offering the bartering mindset as an alternative, this book will help people negotiate better and thrive.

Genres: Nonfiction, Business

248 pages, Hardcover

Published February 8, 2019

Reviews

[Dolly · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is about a big and important idea: our lives are filled with monetary transactions, which inadvertently leads us to have a transactional, win-lose mindset which does not serve us or the world well. The author - a negotiations researcher and business school professor - makes a compelling case that a bartering mindset should replace a monetary mindset. With real world examples, robust research, and bite sized practice opportunities, this accessible book is a wonderful read and resource.

[Ryan Scheidt · Rating 2 out of 5]

Book felt very redundant over 215 pages. Think deeply and broadly about your needs and that of others. What can we trade in a mutually beneficial manner? The alter egos, cafe story backdrops, and end of chapter questions and exercises struck me as superficial and superfluous. Book could indeed be summarized in a blog post, as another reviewer suggested. The eighth chapter, addressing objectives to the bartering mindset, was the only semi-worthwhile read.

[Sushma · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good read - important framework that will work with trust n having a common goal. Enjoyed it
1. Classify your needs & offerings
2. Look through the engaging participants & identify your partners in relation to needs n offerings.
3. Do your homework on what your selected partners are in need of - in terms of needs n offerings.
4,5. Predict and acquire Power partnerships across the market.

Most importantly - works when you keep the monetary mindset aside!!

[Alok · Rating 2 out of 5]

Except for the two or three new keywords, this book offers nothing new. At least nothin new that you already didn’t know. Or at least nothing new that you already weren’t following in your daily life without knowing the academic term to use to refer to it.

But here’s the question - does it make you better at something if you know what you are doing in its academic nomenclature?

[Felipe CZ · Rating 3 out of 5]

A method of negotiation that applies to bartering but is still valid. Through a 5 step process, you can understand your needs and offering as well as of those of your partners, in order to find solutions to everyone's problems and negotiate more effectively for mutual benefit.

[Jeremey Duvall · Rating 2 out of 5]

Great ideas, but it wasn't for me. I think it would've sufficed as a great blog post versus an entire book.

[Svetlana Dimovski · Rating 3 out of 5]

Few good timeless principles and ideas, good refresher and remainder to be creative in our negotiations

[Heather Bennett · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Bartering Mindset is a five step process and has some interesting ideas. I will try it in some parts of my business and see what happens.