Getting to Yes

By: Roger Fisher, William Ury

Narrated by: Dennis Boutsikaris

Length: 6 hrs and 21 mins

Publisher's Summary

Getting to Yes is a straightorward, universally applicable method for negotiating personal and professional disputes without getting taken - and without getting angry.

It offers a concise, step-by-step, proven strategy for coming to mutually acceptable agreements in every sort of conflict - whether it involves parents and children, neighbors, bosses and employees, customers or corporations, tenants or diplomats. Based on the work of the Harvard Negotiation Project, a group that deals continually with all levels of negotiation and conflict resolution, from domestic to business to international, Getting to Yes tells you how to:

• Separate the people from the problem
• Focus on interests, not positions
• Work together to create opinions that will satisfy both parties
• Negotiate successfully with people who are more powerful, refuse to play by the rules, or resort to "dirty tricks"

©2011 Roger Fisher, William Ury, and Bruce Patton (P)2011 Simon & Schuster

Maybe I Could Go to Four and One-Half Stars

This is a great book on principled negotiation. As a lawyer and mediator, the concepts in this book were not new to me, but the book puts things together in a very organized and easily understood package. I will certainly be recommending it to some of my clients.

If there is one thing that detracts from the book, it is that many of the examples remain dated. I am afraid that, to a younger listener, the book might seem somewhat obsolete. Of course, that is not true at all -- the concepts and principles, which are actually rather new in the grand scheme of things -- remain very valid.

Perhaps this would not have jumped out to me except for the fact that the authors make the point at the beginning that this is a revised and updated edition of a classic. Revised, maybe. Updated? Not so much.

Still, the book contains many timeless and valuable lessons.

59 of 60 people found this review helpful

Articulated what we all know. It helped me focus.

If you could sum up Getting to Yes in three words, what would they be?

Efficient, effective, yes.

What did you like best about this story?

I feel like I just went from baby negotiator to toddler! Before I could grunt and cry to get what I needed, but now I have words to articulate exactly what I am thinking. This has helped me when I am talking to others because instead of taking the time to think through what the other person is saying I can sum it up by saying "oh, they are using aggression, maybe apply some negotiating jujitsu here".

Which character – as performed by Dennis Boutsikaris – was your favorite?

The "real life" examples in book were hard for me to relate with, and I think there was a handful of gloating going on. It was not to difficult to come up with my own personal examples as well though.

Did you have an extreme reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?

The way the book makes things so black and white and turned each negotiation into a step by step process, if they say try to attack you personally then you..., it makes you want to negotiate everything everywhere! Just to try out different tactics in different situations.

Any additional comments?

Great book, it was good to re-read a chapter or two right before any negotiations that I had planned for that day, just to get the juices flowing.

21 of 22 people found this review helpful

Learn how to come out the good guy

What did you love best about Getting to Yes?

This book has a lot of information in it! This helped me very much when I had to go into a family meeting with the lawyers. It doesn't just teach you how to get to a yes, but it teaches you how to listen too! Great book! No matter what your career is, or who you are, you should read this book!

12 of 13 people found this review helpful

Very valuable content

What made the experience of listening to Getting to Yes the most enjoyable?

This book provides a very interesting and perhaps correct insight into why people make the choices they do and the "why" that should be at the heart of successful organizations.

5 of 5 people found this review helpful

Worth reading

If you could sum up Getting to Yes in three words, what would they be?

Lots of useful information that can be applied to daily life, you can use it as a manual to check up yourself whenever you are going to argue with someone.

4 of 4 people found this review helpful

Good but not great

This book was good, but not great. Much of what is in it is relevant information. However the book did not continuously capture my attention and I am not sure how much of it I will use in my future negotiations.

3 of 3 people found this review helpful

Great ideas but so-so narration. Worth buying yet.

As one whose makeup leads to conflict avoidance in most negotiations, I thought -- correctly -- that Getting To Yes might contain a few concepts, approaches, and tactics which would be valuable to me. I can confirm that there is much wisdom in this book, but I did find the narration to be a little difficult to follow. The 30-second replay was employed many, many, times during the listening of this book in order to jump back in an effort to understand what was just said. I am going to buy the print (e-book) version of this title so that I might more fully understand the teachings; bulleted lists and section headings are fine in print, but in this case did not translate well to the spoken word. Even with the troublesome narration, I found this book to be well worth the money.

7 of 8 people found this review helpful

Good if you can dedicate your time to listening

Would you say that listening to this book was time well-spent? Why or why not?

The information is good but its difficult to follow due to the narration style.

How did the narrator detract from the book?

The narrator really detracted from the information presented. The tone was very monotonous and dry. The delineation between the headers and the content is not as clear as it could be. This might be a book that's easier to read than to listen to.

18 of 23 people found this review helpful

Too hard to listen to

The content of the book is great. There are some good take aways but I found the book to be very hard to comprehend. The language used in the book is so academic that makes it hard to listen to. I had to listen to it twice before understanding the whole thing. It makes me feel like reading my boring lecture notes back in my university days. You learn stuff but the process is painful.

I may not have picked up this book if I can choose again.

2 of 2 people found this review helpful

I learned so much

The original reason I purchased this audiobook was because it was a required School reading. However, shortly after beginning I really began to see the value of negotiating in everyday life. I think the audio book was a better format of getting the information across and the narrator did a good job with inflicting the important parts. I will definitely be listen to this book again for personal reasons.

2 of 2 people found this review helpful