Bernhard Schieber

Principled Negotiation: Expand the Bargaining Space Without Losing Walk-Away Discipline

Communication · Executive Insight Brief · 406

Expand the options and protect the exit

Principled negotiation separates relationships from substantive interests, generates options, tests proposals against independent standards, and keeps the BATNA visible before agreement.

Premise

Principled negotiation changes bargaining by treating stated positions as claims to investigate rather than as the complete conflict. Roger Fisher and William Ury presented the method in the 1981 first edition of Getting to Yes as an alternative to positional bargaining. The executive value is diagnostic and economic: uncovering the interests beneath demands can reveal dimensions for trade, while objective criteria and a credible alternative to agreement constrain the urge to settle merely because a negotiation is underway.

Principled Negotiation — Expand the options and protect the exit. Executive Insight Brief 193 by Bernhard Schieber.

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