“Negotiate to win” – a review

I was excited about this book: “Negotiate to win” writes author Kurt-Georg Scheible on the cover, meaning that we must finally put an end to striving for a win-win situation when negotiating. But does the book live up to its promises? A review.

I have been supporting clients in negotiation situations for more than 15 years, be it the sale of companies or the negotiation of contractual terms. Because of this, I’m always eager to learn more about the topic of negotiation.

What is the Harvard Concept?

In particular, the idea behind the Harvard concept has long appealed to me. The Harvard Concept is a negotiation concept that was developed in the late 1970s. It emphasizes a cooperative, problem-solving approach to negotiation rather than an adversarial approach.

One of the essential elements of this approach is to separate personal emotions and perceptions from the problems at hand. In this way, the parties can focus on finding an objective solution to the problem and avoid personal attacks or emotional reactions that escalate conflicts.

A second point is the focus on interests (i.e. the underlying needs, desires or concerns) and not on positions (the specific demands) of a party. By focusing on interests, negotiators can see common ground and find creative solutions that meet the needs of both parties, rather than committing to particular positions.

“Negotiate to Win” – a review

The A book “Negotiate to Win” by Kurt-Georg Scheible now wants to do away with this approach. That’s exactly why I was looking forward to this book. Because I experience again and again in negotiations that striving for a win-win situation, i.e. a situation in which both parties come out of the negotiation with a win and not as a loser, is not always expedient.

This is exactly the starting point of the author. As part of the introduction, he explains that negotiations are more about meeting each other on an equal footing. A win-win situation often turns out to be a compromise. The goal should rather be that everyone emerges from the negotiation as a winner.

However, this presupposes that “all negotiating parties have a good feeling during the talks and can also view the result without discomfort, even with satisfaction; when everyone has achieved a result that is to their advantage in the long term.” (cf. p. 17).

So that a reader can now achieve this goal, the essential elements of good negotiation are described in 9 chapters. It starts with the briefing, through analysis and research, as well as setting goals, through to training, coaching and simulation, and finally negotiation and follow-up.

Short and concise chapters

What I like about it is that Scheible briefly and concisely describes what the individual chapters are about. He shows that without careful preparation, which also includes the negotiating team and the relationships among each other, as well as without a clear goal and recognized alternatives, a meaningful negotiation is only possible with difficulty.

In particular, it makes sense to precisely identify the goal and the ways to get there. The author writes that “one often enters into negotiations with the idea that there is only one solution, instead of considering alternatives.” (cf. p. 33). I can only agree.

Very often I experience that a negotiating party supposedly only has one result of a negotiation in mind. But when it then realizes that there is not just one satisfactory result, but several, then new negotiation options suddenly arise.

Smart principle and eco-check

And as far as the goal is concerned, one can only say it again and again: it must be clearly formulated. In this context, Scheible refers to the smart principle, i.e. that a goal must be specific, measurable, attractive, realistic and time-bound.

If it isn’t, you may have a vague idea of ​​what you want to achieve. But it is not tangible. By applying the smart principle, it becomes clear. But Scheible goes one step further. It expands the smart principle with the so-called “eco-check” (see p. 63), which stands for cost-effectiveness.

Because with regard to a “smart goal”, a cost-benefit consideration must still be made. This is based on the consideration that a goal is often associated with risks. The benefits, the achievement of the goal, are therefore offset by costs, although these costs do not always have to be viewed in purely monetary terms. The goal may then have to be reconsidered due to the costs.

In addition, Scheible clearly describes the role that training, coaching and simulation play in a negotiation and how these differ from one another. In particular, it becomes clear what sense these individual elements have and how they affect the success of negotiations.

“Negotiate to win”: The follow-up to a negotiation

I like the fact that Scheible describes exactly what a negotiating party can achieve with training and what with coaching, but also where it makes the most sense to start with coaching – namely with beliefs and not (first) with behavior (see p .102).

Finally, in the last chapter, Scheible deals with the follow-up to a negotiation. In my opinion, this is immensely important, but is often neglected. It’s not just about carefully preparing the outcome of the negotiations, but also recording what went well, what didn’t go well and what the reasons were in each case.

Careful follow-up lays the foundation for improvements. Scheible distinguishes between the factual and the relationship level and gives tips for optimizing future conversations through meaningful follow-up.

Many practical examples, little depth?

In summary, I can say that the book did not disappoint. It is structured systematically, offers many practical examples and concrete tips on how to achieve more success in negotiations in practice. In addition, at the end of each chapter there are useful summaries of the aspects addressed in a chapter.

If I had to criticize two things, then they are on the one hand the extent of the explanations in the individual chapters and the lack of subdivision of these chapters. Subheadings in the individual chapters would have been helpful to be able to better separate the different contents.

If you’re looking for something in a chapter, it’s difficult without these subheadings. In addition, I sometimes had the feeling that there was a lot more to say about individual aspects in the chapters. Much was addressed and also dealt with in a compact manner, but sometimes the feeling remained that the surface was only scratched. At least further comments or references would have been helpful here.

Review: “Negotiate to win” – conclusion

On the other hand, at the end of the book, I wondered whether the author really wanted to shelve the Harvard concept. Rather, my impression was that he adopted elements of the Harvard concept and developed them further. In particular, the emphasis on alternatives, the focus on the relationship between the negotiating teams and each other and the clarity of the goal and strategy show similarities to the Harvard process.

But perhaps it is not even necessary to strictly dissociate oneself from the Harvard concept. In the end, and as Scheible emphasizes, the parties must negotiate with a good feeling and look at the result. And that’s ultimately what it’s about. This book definitely helps to approach negotiations systematically. And that makes it recommendable in my opinion.

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