Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Getting to Yes, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Effective Negotiation
Negotiation as the Pursuit of Interests
The Value of Working Relationships
Power Imbalance
Preparation and Flexibility
Summary
Analysis
The authors close with three short takeaway points. First, they point out that readers probably intuitively knew many of the book’s points before even reading it. This is the point: the authors want to help people explicitly understand principles that are already part of common sense. This allows readers to apply this common sense more consciously and effectively.
While the authors are presenting a largely new theory of principled negotiation, this theory is based on a systematic analysis of things that most people already know, on some level, about how to effectively deal with others. While some readers might feel offended that the authors appear to be claiming common sense for themselves, in reality they are just clearly pointing out its implications for how people should approach a wide range of negotiation scenarios.
Themes
Secondly, the authors declare that reading about negotiation principles is only a start: like with any other activity, real learning comes through practice.
Negotiation is an art, not a science. In other words, it is a practical skill that has to be implemented, not a set of information that can merely be learned. All of the tactics the authors recommend throughout the book have to be carefully applied in the appropriate scenarios, which means that nobody becomes a master negotiator merely by reading Getting to Yes.
Themes
Finally, the authors point out that “winning” a negotiation does not mean securing more for oneself—rather, it really means finding the best “process for dealing with your differences.” This process is principled negotiation, which lets people get what they want without sacrificing their relationships.
If readers are to take one thing away from Getting to Yes, it is this basic, core insight of principled negotiation: a negotiation should be a collaborative process, not a competitive one. Conflict makes negotiations worse, and it is certainly not necessary, contrary to popular belief. “Winning” should not mean the other side has to “lose,” but rather that everyone has found an acceptable “process for dealing with [their] differences.”
Themes
