Getting to Yes¶
Fisher, R., & Ury, W. (1981). Getting to Yes: Negotiating Agreement Without Giving In. Houghton Mifflin.
Retired. This is not a bibliographic entry. Our extractor captured an inline prose definition from an article and stored it as a work. The concept is real; this registry record is a parsing defect. This entry is kept so the citations that pointed at it still resolve, and so the correction is visible rather than silent.
Cited by¶
16 citations across 16 artifacts.
Each citation links to the sentence it supports in the citing article.
Primes¶
- Bargaining Power
- The operative quantity is not wealth, size, or status but the gap between what each party receives under agreement and what it receives under its best available alternative to agreement; the side whose fallback sits closer to the deal can hold out longer and therefore claims more of the jointly created surplus.
This sourceIntroduces the best alternative to a negotiated agreement (BATNA) and argues that relative negotiating strength depends primarily on how attractive not reaching agreement is to each side.
- The operative quantity is not wealth, size, or status but the gap between what each party receives under agreement and what it receives under its best available alternative to agreement; the side whose fallback sits closer to the deal can hold out longer and therefore claims more of the jointly created surplus.
- Bracketing
- Design research: "beginner's mind" disciplines hold in suspense the existing product and the preferred solution to attend to what users actually do. Legal procedure and negotiation: jury instructions to disregard inadmissible evidence; a negotiator bracketing a reservation price while exploring the counterparty's interests, releasing it only at a defined point.
This sourceDevelops the practice of holding one's reservation point (BATNA) in reserve while exploring the counterparty's interests, releasing it only at a defined point.
- Design research: "beginner's mind" disciplines hold in suspense the existing product and the preferred solution to attend to what users actually do. Legal procedure and negotiation: jury instructions to disregard inadmissible evidence; a negotiator bracketing a reservation price while exploring the counterparty's interests, releasing it only at a defined point.
- Counterfactual Subtraction
- Negotiation and performance measurement: BATNA subtraction (deal value minus best alternative); alpha as portfolio return minus benchmark; education value-added as outcome minus predicted-from-baseline outcome.
This sourceIntroduces BATNA (Best Alternative To a Negotiated Agreement) as the baseline against which a deal's value is judged by subtraction.
- Negotiation and performance measurement: BATNA subtraction (deal value minus best alternative); alpha as portfolio return minus benchmark; education value-added as outcome minus predicted-from-baseline outcome.
- Dissonance
- In negotiation and conflict, it is incompatible interests held in the same agreement frame, generating pressure toward concession, walk-away, or reframing.
This sourceIncompatible positions in a shared agreement frame reframed (integrative bargaining) rather than resolved by concession.
- In negotiation and conflict, it is incompatible interests held in the same agreement frame, generating pressure toward concession, walk-away, or reframing.
- Improvisation
- Teaching. The lesson plan is the backbone and the learning objective is the invariant, but which student to call on, which misconception to surface, which analogy to deploy are generated in real time against the observable state of the class. Negotiation and litigation. Negotiators deploy concessions, anchors, and reframings against the developing offer-counteroffer state within the backbone of the parties' fallback options; trial lawyers cross-examine by generating questions against the witness's just-given answers.
This sourceNegotiation as deploying concessions, anchors, and reframings against a developing offer-counteroffer state within the backbone of the parties' fallback options (BATNA).
- Teaching. The lesson plan is the backbone and the learning objective is the invariant, but which student to call on, which misconception to surface, which analogy to deploy are generated in real time against the observable state of the class. Negotiation and litigation. Negotiators deploy concessions, anchors, and reframings against the developing offer-counteroffer state within the backbone of the parties' fallback options; trial lawyers cross-examine by generating questions against the witness's just-given answers.
- Maneuver
- And the fallback-as-position concept from negotiation transfers to project planning's minimum-viable-scope as the position one can always reach.
This sourceIntroduces the BATNA (best alternative to a negotiated agreement); improving one's fallback repositions the negotiation to make the same demand more defensible.
- And the fallback-as-position concept from negotiation transfers to project planning's minimum-viable-scope as the position one can always reach.
- Minimax Strategy
- In negotiation and litigation, a party's best alternative to a negotiated agreement is a minimax value, the floor it can guarantee outside the deal.
This sourceIntroduces BATNA (best alternative to a negotiated agreement) — the guaranteed floor / minimax value a party can secure outside the deal.
- In negotiation and litigation, a party's best alternative to a negotiated agreement is a minimax value, the floor it can guarantee outside the deal.
- Non-Zero-Sum Game
- In negotiation and conflict resolution, the central craft move is to convert perceived zero-sum disputes into non-zero-sum ones by expanding the set of issues, surfacing differing weightings, or restructuring the interaction.
This sourceThe craft of converting perceived zero-sum disputes into non-zero-sum ones by expanding the issue set and surfacing differing valuations.
- In negotiation and conflict resolution, the central craft move is to convert perceived zero-sum disputes into non-zero-sum ones by expanding the set of issues, surfacing differing weightings, or restructuring the interaction.
- Positional Advantage
- In negotiation it is the structural setup and the fallback position: a strong walk-away alternative (a good BATNA) is a high-value position from which the identical demand becomes far more defensible, independent of insistence or concession.
This sourceIntroduces BATNA (best alternative to a negotiated agreement) as the positional asset from which a demand becomes defensible.
- In negotiation it is the structural setup and the fallback position: a strong walk-away alternative (a good BATNA) is a high-value position from which the identical demand becomes far more defensible, independent of insistence or concession.
- Zero Sum Game
- Distributive-versus-integrative bargaining into conflict resolution: the negotiation-theory diagnostic transferred into mediation, peacebuilding, and labour relations, with the consistent finding that perceived zero-sumness blocks available positive-sum settlements, so the intervention — test for joint moves before haggling over the split — ports intact.
This sourceStandard reference on integrative negotiation: test for joint-gain moves before treating a negotiation as a fixed-pie distributive split; transfers to mediation and conflict resolution.
- Distributive-versus-integrative bargaining into conflict resolution: the negotiation-theory diagnostic transferred into mediation, peacebuilding, and labour relations, with the consistent finding that perceived zero-sumness blocks available positive-sum settlements, so the intervention — test for joint moves before haggling over the split — ports intact.
Domain-specific¶
- Middle Ground Fallacy
- taught beside false dilemma and false equivalence as the trio of option-set fallacies. Argumentation theory — classified as a positional fallacy drawing warrant from the geometry of the option space, sibling to ad populum, ad antiquitatem, and ad novitatem. Science communication and journalism — "false balance" coverage of settled-science topics (climate, vaccines, evolution) is the fallacy at scale, with its own quantified media-criticism literature (Boykoff & Boykoff). Negotiation and dispute resolution — split-the-difference under anchoring, where the same probe separates a principled value compromise from an exploited one (Fisher & Ury)
This sourceThe case against positional bargaining from extreme openings and for settling on objective criteria rather than splitting positions.
Supported in partVerified against the source
- taught beside false dilemma and false equivalence as the trio of option-set fallacies. Argumentation theory — classified as a positional fallacy drawing warrant from the geometry of the option space, sibling to ad populum, ad antiquitatem, and ad novitatem. Science communication and journalism — "false balance" coverage of settled-science topics (climate, vaccines, evolution) is the fallacy at scale, with its own quantified media-criticism literature (Boykoff & Boykoff). Negotiation and dispute resolution — split-the-difference under anchoring, where the same probe separates a principled value compromise from an exploited one (Fisher & Ury)
Mechanisms¶
- Agenda Ordering Rule
- … is that it works entirely on legitimate structure: it changes when questions are asked, not what anyone is allowed to want, so it prevents stalemate without coercing concessions — the negotiation equivalent of a single negotiating text that keeps parties working one evolving draft instead of trading ultimatums.
This sourceDescribes a one-text procedure in which an intermediary repeatedly revises a single draft using both sides' criticism instead of having the parties trade competing positions.
- … is that it works entirely on legitimate structure: it changes when questions are asked, not what anyone is allowed to want, so it prevents stalemate without coercing concessions — the negotiation equivalent of a single negotiating text that keeps parties working one evolving draft instead of trading ultimatums.
- Indirect Negotiation Route
- A credible fallback, in the sense of a well-understood best alternative to a negotiated agreement
This sourceDefines BATNA as the best alternative available if no negotiated agreement is reached—a walk-away fallback.
- A credible fallback, in the sense of a well-understood best alternative to a negotiated agreement
- Integrative Negotiation
- Its strength is escaping zero-sum: by working from interests rather than positions and inventing options for mutual gain, it can produce an agreement both sides prefer to any compromise — the core of Fisher and Ury's principled, interest-based negotiation.
This sourcePresents principled negotiation as moving beyond fixed-position bargaining by focusing on interests and inventing options for mutual gain.
- Its strength is escaping zero-sum: by working from interests rather than positions and inventing options for mutual gain, it can produce an agreement both sides prefer to any compromise — the core of Fisher and Ury's principled, interest-based negotiation.
- Mutual-Gains Negotiation Protocol
- Its strength is that it reliably surfaces trades a positional fight conceals — the core insight of interest-based bargaining, where focusing on interests rather than positions and inventing options for mutual gain routinely enlarges the deal before it is divided.
This sourceAdvocates focusing on interests rather than positions and inventing options for mutual gain so negotiators can uncover trades and enlarge joint gains before dividing them.
- Its strength is that it reliably surfaces trades a positional fight conceals — the core insight of interest-based bargaining, where focusing on interests rather than positions and inventing options for mutual gain routinely enlarges the deal before it is divided.
- Stop-Point Preference Model
- The walk-away term is essentially the counterparty's BATNA: its best alternative to a negotiated agreement
This sourceDefines BATNA as the best alternative to agreement and uses it as the floor against which proposed settlements are evaluated.
- The walk-away term is essentially the counterparty's BATNA: its best alternative to a negotiated agreement
Verification¶
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Links previously used in the corpus¶
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- https://archive.org/details/gettingtoyesnego0000fish_z1w8 ×2
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- https://books.google.com/books/about/Getting_to_Yes.html?id=H9lOAAAAMAAJ ×1
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