Although there are many how-to books on negotiating, they provide little useful guidance on how to conduct complex realworld negotiations. Advice on conducting two-party negotiations about a modest number of issues isn’t hard to come by, but few negotiations are that simple. While dealing with the other side, negotiators typically also have to manage difficult internal negotiations, work to prevent disputes from escalating, and build supportive coalitions. The models of the negotiation process presented in how-to books are therefore misleadingly oversimplified. To treat negotiations as interactions involving a couple of parties and sharply delineated issues is inevitably simplistic, because few actual negotiations conform to that tidy scenario. It’s equally unrealistic (and potentially dangerous) to expect, as many authors on negotiation assume, that negotiators’ interests and alternatives will remain static as the process unfolds. As we will see, golden opportunities flow from the ability to shape others’ perceptions of their interests and alternatives in a dynamic negotiating game.

Breakthrough Business Negotiation is a definitive guide to negotiating in any business situation. This smart and practical book by Michael Watkins, a leading expert in negotiation at Harvard Business School, presents principles that apply to any negotiation situation and tools to achieve breakthrough results. Step by step, Breakthrough Business Negotiation demonstrates how to diagnose a situation, build coalitions, manage internal decision making, persuade others, organize a deal cycle, and create strategic alliances. Watkins also explains how to prevent disputes from poisoning deals.