The brainstorming tool called the Circle Chart represents the authors’ broader view of how openminded, principled negotiations can generate creative solutions to diverse problems. The Circle Chart presents four steps in a clockwise circle: identify the problem, analyze it, generate possible approaches to solving it, and finally convert those general approaches into specific action steps that, in turn, will address the initial problem. This process can be repeated indefinitely, and new proposals developed along the way should be recorded and explored on their own merits. The sequential, cyclical nature of the Circle Chart thus symbolizes the ease of solving problems when all parties are clearly focused on the issue at hand rather than simply proving themselves right—and how approaching problems in this way is formulaic and applicable in virtually any negotiation.
The Circle Chart Symbol Timeline in Getting to Yes
