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THE ART OF NEGOTIATION
How to Improvise Agreement in a Chaotic World
Michael Wheeler
Simon & Schuster
304 pages; Rs 599

GETTING MORE
Stuart Diamond
Portfolio (Penguin)
386 pages; Rs 399

Negotiation is a skill that everyone uses in daily life. Whether it's the best deal for your new car, or the question of whether you or your spouse should be dropping the children to school, swinging the deal in your favour requires a certain level of expertise in negotiation. And since there is negotiation in almost every aspect of life, there are tonnes of books on negotiation. But most of the literature on negotiation is either heavy on theory or it takes a problem-solving approach. Under the second category, you have either the buyer's approach to negotiation or the salesperson's approach. An overwhelming majority tends to approach negotiation within a win-lose framework, the idea being to demonstrate how to get the most possible value at the least possible risk.

The two books under review clearly break away from that format. The common message in both books is to think win-win rather than win-lose. In other words, they advocate seeking ways to increase the size of the pie so that both the parties at the negotiating table can take home a large part of what they had set out to achieve.

Michael Wheeler develops a three-part loop to show how to accomplish this - learn, adapt, influence - and, based on these elements, divides The Art of Negotiation into four parts. The first three, titled "A sense of direction", "Improvising" and "Managing the process", correspond to the three elements of the loop. Part four, titled "Mastery", tells readers how the three elements come together to close the loop.

Stuart Diamond, in contrast, doesn't start with a theoretical construct. He, instead, offers options you could pick based on the circumstances through many interesting anecdotes and real-life cases.

So, what does it really take to be a good negotiator?

Mr Diamond says: focus on other people and their needs to figure out what you can give them so that they can give you something in return. You have to be empathetic but dispassionate. If your are emotional, you lose. It is important to focus on your goals; make sure that your actions are meeting your goals and that you're not getting distracted. And, finally, you have to be able to treat each situation differently. There are no stereotypes. The only rule is that every situation is different; you need to discover the tools and methods for each situation. We have to be future-oriented because we cannot fix yesterday.

Mr Wheeler says: too many negotiators fail to distinguish facts from assumptions when they prepare. They may believe, for example, that there is little room between what they have to offer and what their counterpart will accept. They could be right, but they should open their minds to the possibility that there is much more to be gained (and that it is also possible that there is no room at all for a deal). An important task in the early part of a negotiation is to test your assumptions and adjust your approach according to what you discover.

As I pointed out in the beginning, both books advise the reader not to look for winners and losers at the end of a negotiation process. Outcomes are a poor measure of how you've performed as negotiators, says The Art of Negotiation. Perhaps the deal you reached was only a little better than your walkaway, but it's possible that it was the very best your counterpart would have offered. Look, instead, at how you negotiated, not what you negotiated. There will always be surprises, but if you sharpen your sense of anticipation, there will be fewer of them.

Both books emphasise "emotion" as a deciding factor. Mr Diamond points out that only eight per cent of decisions have to do with facts and that all sorts of decisions, including corporate, are influenced by emotions. Some decades ago, in the United States, former football player O J Simpson was on trial for murdering his ex-wife. He walked free despite a yard of DNA evidence against him. Why? Simply because the jury did not like the prosecutor. So it really doesn't matter whether you're right, says Mr Diamond - in other words, you won't get people to agree unless they like you.

Mr Wheeler agrees. Anxiety can make people defensive and distrustful, he says. Anger can make people walk away from deals that really are in their interest. But empathy can foster trust, spark creativity, and be the basis of a mutually beneficial relationship.

For Mr Wheeler, luck has an important role to play in determining the outcome of a negotiation process. For example, you cannot control whether your counterparts are in a good or bad mood when they come to see you. Nor can you do much about an attractive offer that they just got from one of your competitors. That's life. But skill is important, too, especially in understanding other parties, in encouraging them to be constructive, and to solve problems creatively.

Just as bridge and poker players do, master negotiators too make the best of whatever hand they've been dealt.