Beyond Reason: Using Emotions as You Negotiate by Roger Fisher, Daniel Shapiro

From Barnes & Noble

Telling a negotiator "Don't get emotional!" is to miss the point. Roger Fisher, the author of Getting to YES, and Daniel Shapiro of the Harvard Negotiation Project understand how emotions affect negotiation and, more important, how they can be used as a tool. Their Beyond Reason pinpoints the five core emotional concerns that we all feel during any interaction: Do you feel unappreciated? Alone? Put down? Trivialized? Your autonomy impinged? Awareness of these concerns can generate positive results and emotions. The difference between "win-win negotiations" and losing control.

From the Publisher

Emotions matter. Whether negotiating with an angry boss or an outraged teenager, emotions can derail you. Properly treated, however, they can help you achieve the results you want. This book shows you how.

In Beyond Reason, you will discover five "core concerns" that motivate people: appreciation, affiliation, autonomy, status, and role. You will learn how to use these core concerns to generate helpful emotions in yourself and in others. Armed with this knowledge, you can gauge the needs of another negotiator, set the emotional tone of discussion, and reach a mutually acceptable agreement.

Beyond Reason clarifies the complicated, "fuzzy" world of emotions and offers straightforward, practical advice. It builds on previous work of the Harvard Negotiation Project, the group that brought you the groundbreaking book Getting to YES. Now, in Beyond Reason, world renowned negotiator Roger Fisher teams up with psychologist Daniel Shapiro, expert on the emotional dimension of negotiation. They show you how to employ emotions to turn a disagreement - big or small, professional or personal - into an opportunity for mutual gain.

Fresh, insightful, and relevant to any interaction, Beyond Reason is certain to become a lasting classic for dealing with anyone from family and friends to colleagues, customers, and employees.

Publishers Weekly

Masters of diplomacy, Fisher and Shapiro, of the Harvard Negotiation Project, build on Fisher's bestseller (he co-authored Getting to YES) with this instructive, clearly written book that addresses the emotions and relationships inevitably involved in negotiation. Identifying five core concerns that stimulate emotion-appreciation, affiliation, autonomy, status and role-the authors explain how to control and leverage your own and others' emotions for better end-results. They enliven the book with detailed examples of commonly faced situations-from dealing with colleagues to understanding one's spouse-and with anecdotes of high-level negotiations regarding critical matters of state (e.g., Fisher's conversation with the head of Iran's Islamic Republican Party when U.S. embassy in Teheran was seized in 1979). Fisher and Shapiro play out each situation, often toward an unsatisfactory conclusion, and then carefully analyze the negotiation and rewind it according to their behavioral framework for more favorable resolutions. Take the initiative and understand the five core concerns, they suggest, offering practical advice on understanding another's point of view, building connections, joint brainstorming, tempering strong emotions and defining an empowering temporary role. Baffled spouses, struggling middle managers and heads of state might take a cue from the convincing strategy laid out by these savvy experts. (Oct.) Copyright 2005 Reed Business Information.

Library Journal

Fisher, whose Getting to Yes has sold three million copies, is joined by the associate director of the Harvard Negotiation Project in this account of how to use one's emotions to get to yes. Copyright 2005 Reed Business Information.

What People Are Saying

Howard Gardner
"With exemplary clarity and thoroughness, and without one unnecessary word, Roger Fisher and Daniel Shapiro detail the five ways in which to mobilize emotions for effective negotiation. The volume is destined to take its place alongside Getting to Yes on innumerable bookshelves around the world."
—Hobbs Professor of Education and Cognition, Harvard Graduate School of Education

Stephen R. Covey
"Written in the same remarkable vein as Getting to Yes, this book is a masterpiece. Fisher and Shapiro beautifully explain how channeling the emotions in deeply respecting five concerns enables the negotiators to reach a mutually beneficial result. I truly enjoyed it and felt edified by it."
—author, The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People and The 8th Habit: From Effectiveness to Greatness

USA TODAY
A "valuable, clearly written book."

Elena Kagan
"Over a lifetime of study and practice, Roger Fisher has transformed what we think about negotiation. His and Daniel Shapiro's new book extends this work in novel and insightful ways. Beyond Reason is a must-read for anyone who negotiates, which is to say for all of us."
—Dean, Harvard Law School, and former Associate Counsel to the U.S. President

The Negotiator Magazine
"Highly Recommended."

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