Finally Read: Getting to Yes
Photo by Julian Lozano on Unsplash
I’ve been keeping a list of books to read and finally started really getting through them. Since most of these have come from notes from talks or seminars, the list is business-heavy at the moment.
Is there a better way to remember what I read than publicly publish a summary? Yes, but this is where we’re at.
Getting to Yes by Roger Fisher and William L. Ury.
It’s a book about negotiating. It isn’t long. I’ve heard this title come up a few times so it was about time to read it.
The main points I got out of it were:
- Separate the person from the problems at hand
- Negotiate against principles rather than a position
- Brainstorm solutions but wait to criticize
- Know the alternative to the negotiation (BATNA: Best Alternative to Negotiated Agreement)
- If the other side is using sketchy tactics, call ’em out but don’t take it personally (and mind the BATNA.
The brainstorming technique was familiar: get people together and throw ideas out. Agree to not criticize until later. This allows ideas to flow freely. I’ve used the same process in software development. It can be refreshing.
BATNA came up recently in a Venture Deals program by Foundry Group and Tech Stars. It comes down to knowing your options (and theirs). If all hell breaks loose, at least there’s the BATNA.
I didn’t expect to see such parallels between negotiation and software design. At the core, both are types of problem solving. “Negotiating on principles” is about focusing on the problem at hand and setting aside the solutions (or positions) we already think will work. Software developers like having a solution to problem ready and design sessions can fall apart when arguments focus on the merits of those solutions. In the end, it’s better to get agreement on the problem to solve, then when that is done, move on to solving the problem.