“Negotiate to Win” – Review

I was excited about this book: Author Kurt Georg Schiebel wrote “Negotiate to Win” on the cover, implying that we must finally put an end to striving for a win-win situation when negotiating. But does the book deliver on its promises? review.

I have supported clients in negotiating situations for over 15 years, whether that be selling businesses or negotiating contractual terms. For this reason, I am always eager to learn more about the topic of negotiation.

What is the concept of Harvard?

In particular, I have always liked the idea behind the Harvard concept. The Harvard concept is a negotiation concept developed in the late 1970s. It emphasizes a collaborative problem-solving approach to negotiation rather than an adversarial approach.

A key element of this approach is the separation of personal feelings and perceptions from the problems at hand. This way, the parties can focus on finding an objective solution to the problem and avoid personal attacks or emotional reactions that escalate conflicts.

The second point is to focus on the interests (i.e. basic needs, wants or concerns) and not on the positions (specific demands) of the party. By focusing on interests, negotiators can see common ground and find creative solutions that meet the needs of both parties, rather than being stuck to certain positions.

“Negotiate to Win” – Review

the book Negotiating to Win by Kurt Georg Schieble now wants to do away with this approach. This is exactly why I was looking forward to this book. Because I experience time and again in negotiations that seeking a win-win situation, that is, a situation in which both sides emerge from negotiations as a winner and not as a loser, is not always appropriate.

This is exactly the author’s starting point. As part of the introduction, he explains that negotiations are about meeting each other as equals. It often turns out that a win-win situation is a compromise. Rather, the goal should be for everyone to emerge from the negotiations as winners.

However, this presupposes that “all negotiating parties have a good feeling during the talks and can also see the outcome without disturbance, even with satisfaction; when everyone achieves a result in their long-term favour”. (Compare p. 17).

So that the reader can now achieve this goal, the basic elements of good negotiation are described in 9 chapters. It begins with briefing, through analysis and research, as well as goal setting, through coaching, training and simulation, and finally negotiation and follow-up.

Chapters are short and concise

What I like about it is that Scheible briefly and concisely describes what the individual chapters are about. He explains that without careful preparation, which also includes the negotiation team and the relationships among themselves, as well as without a clear goal and recognized alternatives, meaningful negotiation is only possible with difficulty.

In particular, it makes sense to accurately define the goal and the ways to achieve it. The author writes that “one often enters negotiations with the idea that there is only one solution, rather than considering alternatives” (cf. p. 33). I can’t help but agree.

I often experience that the negotiating party assumes that they only have one negotiation outcome. But when you then realize that there is not just one satisfactory outcome, but several, new negotiation options suddenly arise.

Intelligent principle and environmental examination

And as far as the goal is concerned, one cannot help but say it over and over again: it must be clearly formulated. In this context, Scheible refers to the smart principle, i.e., the goal should be specific, measurable, attractive, realistic and time-bound.

If not, you may have a vague idea of ​​what you want to achieve. But it is not tangible. By applying the smart principle, it becomes clear. But Scheible goes one step further. It extends the clever principle with something called “environmental screening” (see page 63), which stands for cost-effectiveness.

Because in terms of the Smart Goal, the cost-benefit still needs to be considered. This is based on the consideration that goal is often associated with risk. Thus, the benefits, i.e., the achievement of the objective, are offset by the costs, although these costs do not always have to be viewed in purely monetary terms. The goal may then have to be reconsidered due to costs.

In addition, Scheible clearly describes the role coaching, mentoring, and simulation play in negotiation and how these differ from each other. In particular, it becomes clear what is the meaning of these individual elements and how they affect the success of the negotiations.

Negotiate to Win: Follow up on negotiations

I like the fact that Scheible describes exactly what the negotiating party can achieve by training and what by training, but also where it makes sense to start with training – that is, with beliefs and not (first) with behavior (see p. 102).

Finally, in the final chapter, Scheible deals with follow-up negotiations. In my opinion, this is very important, but it is often overlooked. It is not only about carefully preparing the outcome of the negotiations, but also recording what went well, what did not go well and what were the reasons in each case.

Careful follow-up lays the foundation for improvements. Scheible distinguishes between the factual level and the relationship level and offers tips for improving future conversations through meaningful follow-up.

Many practical examples, little depth?

In short, I can say that the book did not disappoint. It is systematically structured, providing many practical examples and concrete advice on how to achieve more negotiation success in practice. In addition, at the end of each chapter are helpful summaries of the aspects covered in the chapter.

If I had to criticize two things, it’s in terms of the extent of the explanations in the individual chapters and the lack of subdivisions for these chapters. Subheadings in the individual chapters would have helped to better separate the different contents.

If you’re looking for something in a chapter, it’s hard without these subheadings. In addition, I had the feeling at times that there was too much to say about the individual aspects of the chapters. Much has been processed and also handled in a compact way, but sometimes the feeling that the surface is just scratched remains. At least more comments or references would be helpful here.

Review: “Negotiate to Win” – Conclusion

On the other hand, at the end of the book, I wondered if the author really wanted to abandon the Harvard concept. Instead, my impression was that he took elements of the Harvard concept and developed them further. In particular, the focus on alternatives, focus on the relationship between negotiating teams and each other, and clarity of goal and strategy show similarities to the Harvard process.

But perhaps it is not even necessary to distance himself so rigidly from the Harvard concept. In the end, as Scheible stresses, the parties must negotiate with good feeling and looking at the outcome. And that is ultimately what it is about. This book certainly helps to approach negotiations systematically. This makes it highly recommended in my opinion.

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