Reviews (5)

The negotiaton explained
Very decent book, with loads of good cases. It helps you understand the other side's position and options, and guides you to 'reasonable' negotiation.

Conquering Conflict
How many times we have been in a conflict with others may it be of a personal or business in nature. I find this text extremely useful in punctuating the loopholes and pitfalls to avoid in a conflict and means to manage it. When in a conflict we are always trying to send a message to the other party suggesting them that there is something else they should be doing. The text will help in the appropriate way to transfer this message across.

To identify the root cause of a conflict Fisher suggests that one must not be responsive but purposive. As an example when two children are fighting the adult who breaks them apart may ask "why" they hit each other. To this the most likely response may be "because he hit me first". But that response only explains the cause of the fight not its root cause.

Another key ingredient suggested by Fisher is keeping in perspective the situation and mind set the other side is facing. In a ball game it may be easy to not agree with a team change decision a coach has made. But understanding the dynamics and pressure faced by him, we are then in a better position to critique if the decision made was correct. If we had a chance him our opinion this added perspective can aid us to be sensitive to his situation.

Fisher believes that understanding how others view a conflict is knowledge that gives us strength. It enhances our ability to influence them. Through exploring and motivations leading up to a conflict we can increase our understanding of where their perceptions comes from.

No matter how much we disagree with someone we need influenced. It is extremely important that we maintain a level of dialogue; so that we may not push the party away and be faced with a situation we never wish to face. After the overthrow of the shah of Iran in 1979, the U.S unanimously adopted a resolution condemning the government for a hundred executions conducted by the new government. Ironically the U.S had overlooked the thousands of executions of political opponents done during the Shahs regime. It was in the best interest of the U.S to keep Iran engaged and maintain some working relationship to avoid Iran being driven to the Soviet block and preventing the hostage crisis.

This is not a book of answers and solutions to conflicts. The tools suggested in this book are intended to ask or simulate better questions. Better questions are not about who is right or who is wrong, or about one-hot solutions, but the process of dealing with conflicting views about right and wrong and for dealing with the inevitable changes that lie ahead. For e.g. Fisher suggests that instead of starting with the question "What shall I do?" you might want to start with such questions as "What would I like someone else to do?" and "What could I do that would make it easier for them to do it?".

If You Liked Getting to Yes....
If you liked Getting to Yes, you'll appreciate this one too. To me, this book is really about how to think clearly about complex situations. As the authors demonstrate, too often we don't think through the long term consequences of our actions. We react to the past without thinking how our actions will then be interpreted by those we seek to influence. Great book.

Too condensed
This book is simply too condensed for a novice to negotiation to get anything useful out from it.

P.

Beyond Stalled Thinking in International Relations Conflicts
The authors explain their purpose this way, "We are not looking for a perfect solution." In most cases, the perfect solution is unattainable or will be endlessly delayed. A workable solution is much to be preferred. On the other hand, the power of this approach is clearly a major contribution to the conflict resolution literature, and contains insights that you would do well to capture and apply for yourself.

The book references Machiavelli in the title because he first asked the question of what once should advise princes. Since then, there has not been enough progress in answering that question. The book makes good headway in adding new insights and directions.

Although this book is aimed at (and explicitly discusses) conflicts in international relations, the authors also report that those using these techniques in negotiating workshops and exercises found them helpful in resolving business and legal issues as well. Having studied the book, heard Professor Fisher speak about it, and participated in a workshop to use this approach, I agree with that assessment. You can think of this book as the next phase beyond the landmark book, Getting to Yes, that Professor Fisher also coauthored.

Anyone who has gone to law school (which I admit I am guilty of) will recognize familiar elements of the legal analysis process. Yet the application is new and powerful.

Essentially, this book gives you the guidelines and examples you need to create:

-- a checklist of steps to analyze conflict

-- a set of analytic tools to figure out why the conflict is not settled and to offer a new approach that is better

-- an action plan built from a 2 page digest of a proposal, a 1 page list of talking points, and a to-do list for each party as next steps.

You are exhorted to focus on points of choice for the adversary, looking to your purposes in planning your moves rather than just reacting to what the other side does, and carefully choosing your purposes.

The process basically involves role playing that begins with seeing the problem from the point of view of the other side (this is nicely summarized in tables that show side-by-side comparisons of views on the same conflict elements); focusing on the choices open to the other side and influencing those choices (using tools of message analysis to get to intent); generating fresh ideas (by looking at the problem, diagnosing choices, looking at the approach being used, and reviewing action plans); formulating good advice ("What decision do you want the adverary to choose?"); and helping remove the causes of conflicts with process changes (creating new mediators, training people in this way of thinking, etc.).

The examples in the book cover every major conflict that you are likely to be familiar with in the last 40 years. They provide a useful reference point to the book's principles.

I was particularly impressed with the discussion of how to determine which advice is moral, and how to frame solutions so they would be well understood.

The key to this approach is to break down your thinking into step-by-step, smaller pieces. Those of you who have read Six Thinking Hats will recognize the benefits this can bring. By doing this, you can dissipate your own in-going perspective to capture the perspective of the person you want to convince.

Well done!

Good luck in using this approach to overcome misconception, communication, disbelief, procrastination, and bureaucratic stalls!

... Read more

Book Description

In a new introduction to his classic text, Charles Handy demonstrates how the key concepts of culture, motivation, leadership, power, role-playing, and group-working remain as important today as when the book was first published."Organizations are not objects.They are micro-societies."This core business text gives students and professionals the tools to analyze and improve these "micro-societies." ... Read more

Reviews (3)

Great research into organisations
Charles Handy is one of Britain's management gurus. This original edition of this book was written while he was professor at the London Business School. Although this book is not simple to read and is very comprehensive, it is an excellent introduction to understanding organisations (yes, just like the title).

The book consists of three parts. Part I introduces a set of models/frameworks, for better understanding of people and organisations. Handy selected six themes common to organisations - motivation, roles and interactions, leadership, power and influence, workings of groups, and cultures of organisations. Each of these themes receives an excellent, extremely in-depth literature review, which all have been updated in this 4th edition to include the latest literature and trends. Handy looks at each of these themes from various angles and does not really push the reader into any dominant one; "This book is eclectic. ... It is wise to be eclectic, to pick from each anything that helps, to compile the sort of personal anthology which is what book aims to be." In addition, Handy uses a large number of quotes from other academics to explain his comments.

In Part II, Handy looks at each of the themes introduced in Part I and their impact on organisations. This part is a lot less academic and Handy tries to apply the models/framework introduced in Part I into practice. "One bookcase for the theorectical models, another for the tips and hints on current practice. The discussion in this part is not intended to be a review of best current practice but rather an interpretation, often a provocative one, of the implications of some of the theories that we say we all subscribe to." Handy applies it to people of organisations and their development, the work of the organisation - and its design, politics and change, being a manager, and the future of organisations.

In Part III, Handy provides a brief overview of the relevant field of theory, makes suggestions on useful sources and gives references to the major studies mentioned in the text. "Part Three is for those who wonder about the sources of my ideas, concepts, and theories, or for those who wish to pursue any topic in greater depth." Handy does this on a chapter-by-chapter basis, which is very useful for any MBA-student or researcher.

This book is a comprehensive piece of work into organisations. It certainly helps you understand organisations better, but do not take this book too lightly as it is not for the fainthearted. It is so extremely comprehensive that I do not see anybody read this book in one go. On the other hand, I must stress that the literature reviewed and covered is spectacular and done fantastically. Handy's ability to bring this into perspective with practice is also very strong. A MUST for MBA-students and all other people interested in organisational studies.

Very useful book on organisational behaviour!
If you want a good grasp of the key concepts in organisational behaviour, Mr Handy has done a fantastic job of putting it in an inexpensively priced book which covers most if not all topics in the subject. In fact, even if you are not taking organisational behaviour as a subject, it is still relevant in Human Resource Management & Development courses. For the established HR practitioner, it would be a useful book to have on your work-shelf which you can occassionally dip in, to refresh yourself on key concepts.

a must read!
great work by Mr. handy. The book gives a deep insight and understanding on organisation effectives. It brings into light the various factors that does affect organisations which other business authors describe in parts. The book is divided into three parts. The first part focuses on the models and the second part on its implications. How theory works in practice. A good buy. ... Read more

Book Description

Morale is down--spirits are low--the workload is mounting. Today's hard-working employees need a break! And nothing feels better than Care Packages for the Workplace from internationally known, lift-your-spirits author Barbara Glanz. This timely gift-book format provides the hard at work with dozens of simple ``brighten-your-day'' ideas such as: beautifying the work space in order to do what Tom Peters recommends--``Fight Bland Dullness!''; putting a personal signature on all work; sharing a joke-a-day, one month at a time; holding grapevine meetings where rumors are openly discussed; partaking in good news hours where positive news is shared; creating special awards for a job well done; scheduling lunches with management. ... Read more

Reviews (9)

Great IDEAS
This book provided a great deal of information and ideas to draw from. I enjoyed that I could read it quickly. I was able to apply some of the ideas or variations of them at work !

Changing the way you look at work
Barbara Glantz has written a life altering book--at least a life at the workplace altering book. It is easy to read and filled with hundreds of big and little things that can change the way you spend 40 hours a week. Very positive, super ideas.

There are better books on the topic...
This book is just okay. There are a lot of examples of how to improve morale at work, but the writing isn't that great, and the book isn't very well organized. There are much better books on the topic...try Managing to Have Fun by Matt Weinstein or 1001 Ways to Energize Employees by Bob Nelson.

"Care Packages" changed the way I work
"Care Packages for the Workplace" is a fun, easy read that will change your attitude toward work and life. I can't recommend this book enough. It is filled with ways to make the workplace more humane on every level. Read it today...you'll go to work tomorrow a different person.

Very disappointing
This book was not at all what I expected. As a member of middle management I was looking for suggestions on motivating employees on more of an individual basis. Most of the ideas in this book I felt need to be implemented by upper management throughout the entire organization. As supervisor of a small department, I do not have the resources or authority to implement these types of changes. Also, most of the ideas would only work in businesses with high customer contact. For those of us that work only within the organization, most of these ideas are not applicable. ... Read more

Amazon

Robert Quinn's Change the World offers profound yet practical guidance for those who truly want to improve their surroundings. Quinn, a University of Michigan professor and author of five books on change and organizational performance, bases Changeon eight "seed thoughts" drawn from the philosophies of Jesus, Gandhi, and Martin Luther King Jr. After relevant quotations from each, he cites contemporary real-life examples to show how these principles--Envision the Productive Community, First Look Within, Embrace the Hypocritical Self, Transcend Fear, Embody a Vision of the Common Good, Disturb the System, Surrender to the Emergent Process, and Entice Through Moral Power--can really be used. "All our lives we have been explicitly and implicitly taught to see human influence as an exercise in domination," Quinn writes. By learning instead to practice a new type of "transformational behavior," he suggests, even "ordinary people" can have "extraordinary impact." The section on asserting moral authority, for example, segues from his own fifth-grade coaching experiences to those of basketball superstar Larry Bird to details on building a bond between "change agents and change targets" that effects desirable modifications. Recommended for anyone open to new ideas on motivation and stimulating change. --Howard Rothman ... Read more

Reviews (6)

real change
"Typically a top management team goes off for three days," writes the author Quinn. "They hole up in a room with lots of flip charts and go to work." Then he says that when they're through they typically write words on small cards and pass them out to employees. Sadly, he observes these cards are "ignored and things go on as before." The premise underlying this book is that Quinn would have us care enough to change this way of thinking. The key, he says, is to stop doing things out of self-interest and start identifying and going after the shared goals of the group. He does a nice job of working good examples into his text. He also points out how risky it is to be a true leader since it involves overcoming a fear of failure when trying something new. He also does a nice job of making clear that hierarchy in itself is not a bad thing; it's only bad when they're perceived as mechanisms that result in getting nothing done. "Hierarchies become frozen bureaucracies due to the failure of human courage." He makes a compelling case for why it's crucial to skip the hollow words and dare to lead toward change. Only then can organizations hope for real change.

Look Within: That's Where Change Management Begins
Hopefully, you have already read some (if not all) of Quinn's earlier books, especially Deep Change which serves as an excellent introduction to this one. In the Preface, he explains that this book "is about changing the world. It is about coming to a deep understanding of human beings and human relationships." He then adds, "The book focuses on vision, unconditional confidence, and profound impact. It is about the mastery of human influence, transformational power, and the capacity to accomplish extraordinary things. It argues that everyone of us is a change agent." It is important to add, that Quinn advocates "deep change" as opposed to "incremental change." Moreover, no organization can achieve deep change unless and until those within that organization achieve deep change. So as I understand it, each of us must assume full authority as well as responsibility for (and have control of) our personal development. "There is a language of transformation. Yet most of us are cut off from that language. All our lives we have been explicitly taught to see human influence as an exercise in domination." Even the most sensitive among us is shaped by this paradigm or worldview. But this outlook prevents us from seeing more deeply into the actual workings of human systems. This book demonstrates an alternative system."

Quinn recalls the remark by Oliver Wendell Holmes that he placed little value in simplicity that lay on this side of complexity but a great deal of value on simplicity that lay on the other side. The framework within which Quinn presents his material comes from the "seed thoughts" of people who have mastered "the language of transformation." By "seed thoughts" Quinn means some of the "core notions that masters of transformation hold in common, the simplicity they send us from the other side of complexity." Specifically, Jesus, Gandhi, and Martin Luther King, Jr.

Quinn focuses on eight (8) "seed thoughts" (eg Envision the Productive Community, First Look Within, Embrace the Hypocritical Self), providing brief quotations from each of the three "masters of transformation" which he correlates with each of the eight "seed thoughts." His objective is to explain how Advanced Change Theory (ACT) can enable individuals to achieve deep change in their own lives and then within their organizations. The title of this book (Change the World) may be somewhat misleading. I wholeheartedly agree with Quinn that "ordinary people can accomplish extraordinary results", both individually and as members of a group. I also agree that Jesus, Gandhi, and King were "masters of transformation" within their respective spheres of influence as were Carnegie, Edison, Ford, Morgan, and Rockefeller within their own. Quinn's basic idea is sound. He and I may differ only when defining terms such as "change" and "world."

I urge you to read this book, to consider very carefully what ACT offers to you (personally) and to your organization, and then to select whatever is most appropriate. Quinn provides an eloquent and convincing argument in support of his concept of deep change; better yet, he suggests all manner of strategies and tactics to achieve and sustain it; even better yet, almost anyone who reads this book already has the resources required. If you need help to organize and allocate those resources, and truly powerful encouragement to support your efforts in process, look no further.

The Golden Rule Applied to Leadership for Stallbusting
Most books on change posit the concept that the leader has to change herself or himself before the organization or community can improve. This book sets a high standard by encouraging ordinary people to follow the examples of Jesus, Gandhi and Martin Luther King, Jr.

I heard Norman Schwartzkopf speak once about leadership. He said, "Be the leader you would like to have." That's the essence of this book.

Each principle is established by showing a quote from each of the three models, and then is followed by stories of ordinary people as well as those in major organizations.

The principles expressed here entail going several psychological levels lower into the human psyche than I have seen in other leadership books.

"Envision the productive community" is important as a first step, because chances are no one else sees the way that the people could cooperate to create much more. Human beings have trouble imagining what they have not yet seen, so those who are good at this can provide very valuable guidance to the others.

"First look within" is a good second step because it concentrates oneself on why one wants to change. It is very easy to want the change for the wrong reasons (pride, self-esteem, or misdirected ego). You have to purge that and focus on selfless reasons for changing.

"Embrace the hypocritical self" was very impressive to me as a concept. Almost every leader I know is actually partly driven by hypocritical motives. Even the Stephen Covey books show examples where he seems to have been operating hypocritically. I sense this issue in many of my consulting projects, and find that it is difficult for people to address this.

"Transcend fear" is good advice, too, because trying to make such large changes will undoubtedly encourage unusual levels of fear. Working through the fear is good for the leader and those who will benefit from the change.

"Embody a vision of the common good" is essential inspiration to carry the vision forward both internally and by drawing support from others.

"Disrupt the system" is based on complexity science. By creating disruption, you create the largest potential for self-organizing solutions to be generated.

"Surrender to the emergent process" is a follow-on application of complexity science. You have to trust what is working, because it will lead to other self-organizing improvements. Trying to "manage" this process at this change will simply shortchange its potential.

"Entice through moral power" is something that needs to permeate each of the earlier stages. There is a compelling quality to moral power that draws attention and commands respect and action. Here, the leader must be clearly acting from beyond self-interest to attract the collective support of those who respect the same moral tenets.

I found this combination to be a unique synthesis of how change leadership can be accomplished. I can recognize the model from cases I have seen that worked and missing elements from the model in cases that did not work. I think the author has made an important step forward with this thinking. My only quibble is that the ordinary person reading this book may still have a conflict between the original reasons for seeking a change and the realities of how to pursue such a change. Almost everyone is attracted to making a difference initially because of a desire for self-aggrandizement. Early in the process, people may not be able to abandon that ego-based need for a selfless one. I suspect that more help is needed in this area than the book provides.

Overcome your disbelief and misconception stalls about making beneficial changes!

Interesting, Different and Useful
This book is an action guide providing organisation leaders, managers, parents and everyone else with the creative power and revolutionary impact to change the world. The idea that inner change makes outer change possible has always been part of spiritual and psychological teachings. Change the World presents eight principles that each of us can follow to make individual and organisational change happen. These principles were inspired by the teachings of Jesus Christ, Mahatma Gandhi and Martin Luther King, Jr.-three historical leaders who successfully used personal change to change the world.

Author Robert Quinn introduces each principle with inspiring quotations from these three leaders. He then uses stories from everyday life to demonstrate his message. Every thought-provoking chapter is imbued with ideas and information that can help us step out of our old roles, approach the world with a sense of enlightenment and adventure, and live a more empowered and empowering life.

Faced with the complexities of today's world, it's all too easy to view ourselves as passive observers or powerless victims. We want to change our realities, but lack the motivation to do so.

This book is for ordinary people who have the ordinary need to have extraordinary impact. It is written for everyone of us who want to use personal transformation to make a positive impact on our families, organisations, businesses, and the world at large. Indeed, this is the central message of the book. Ordinary people have the need to be profoundly effective change agents, and ordinary people can be extraordinary change agents.

Robert E. Quinn is the M.E. Tracy Distinguished Professor of Organisational Behaviour and Human Resource Management at the Michigan Business School and the author of a number of books including Deep Change and Diagnosing and Changing Organizational Culture. His research focuses on change.

Great insights!
Robert Quinn is a great man, and I'm always anxious to read anything he writes. This book was no exception. I was excited for it's publication and quickly read it. I was so impressed with the content. Robert Quinn has once again inspired ordinary people to do extraordinary things. ... Read more

Book Description

Edwin Hartman argues that ethical principles should not derive from abstract theory, but from the real world of experience in organizations. He explains how ethical principles derive from what workers learn in their communities (firms), and that an ethical firm is one that creates the good life for the workers who contribute to its mission. His approach is based on the Aristotelian tradition of refined common sense, from recent work on collective action problems in organizations, and from social contract theory. ... Read more

Book Description

As increasing numbers of Americans do business in international markets, they are finding that knowledge of cultural differences can significantly help the negotiation process and increase the success rate of new ventures. Bargaining Across Borders is a practical, "how-to" guide to negotiating successfully in virtually any foreign culture, from Latin America to the countries of the Pacific Rim. It describes how specific cultural differences impact on business and discloses easily accomplished negotiating strategies for leaping the cultural barriers that obstruct success. ... Read more

Reviews (2)

Very informative
My company recently entered into contract negotiations with a company in China. I found this book to be very helpful and informative as we went through this process.

International Business
I found Mr. Foster's book to be an insightful analysis of the need for increased cultural sensitivity both in and out of the world of business. His descriptions of various cultural practices and norms are fascinating and informative. A highly readable book;I look forward to future works by this cross cultural expert. ... Read more

Reviews (5)

Dissappointing
Negotiating Rationally seemes promising but falls short. It provides food for thought on the interface between distributive and integrative bargaining and on biases that get in the way of a good solution. But as a framework for negotiation, Negotiating Rationally is inadequate. Getting to Yes is a far better structure and is easier to understand -- both for the novice and the experienced negotiator.

A Must Read for Anyone Involved in Negotiating
Absolutely excellent! Read it 3 times, highlighted important information on nearly every page. Now I refer back to it and study it prior to any important negotiations. In chapter 1 (on page 2!), Bazerman outlines negotiating strategy and seven methods for improving one's negotiating skills. The next 7 chapters systematically address each principle in clear and concise detail. It's a must read book. (It even has some very interesting facts about home buying or selling.)

A review from an instructor who uses the book
The review by Payne from Thunderbird appearing in this website is too harsh. Bazerman's strength as a negotiation author comes from his background in decision-making. This book does an excellent job of laying out the cognitive aspect of negotiations (far better than Raiffa's classic, for example). Admittedly, the book may be a bit simplistic to be the primary reading in a rigorous MBA course, but it is a good supplement and of great value for the executive or professional who is several years or more removed from his or her schooling.

Kelloggs needs to feed its professors some more fiber!
I imagine for some, my comments will be taken as some sort of school rivalry, and for those who choose to take this view, so be it. I challenge you to find anything really substantive though that hasn't already been written about.

That said, the book was a complete let down. The authors, from the prestigious Kellogs Graduate School of Management at Northwestern University, are clearly leveraging their affiliation with the school. Unfortunately, the book falls well short of what one would expect from two "Distiguished Professors of Dispute Resolution and Organizations."

While the authors bring in many real life examples of various studies, the book is too simplistic and fails to dig beyond the obvious. One such study explained that experienced negotiators who had completed a training course, did better in a controlled negotiation than experienced negotiators who had not undergone the same training. Experience alone will not make you a good negotiator. Then of course, there is the insightful "Smiling made her seem more friendly so she got more tips." (paraphrased)

I was also dissappointed in the authors' consistent reference to the other negotiator as the "opponent." How does one expect to expand the pie and be thought of as "friendly" when you are always thinking of the other side as an opponent?

Check it out at the library if you must, but save your money.

Excellent resource for the new or experienced negotiator.
I recently took Max's Negotiating Strategies course at Northwestern. Much of the class material is taken from his research in this book. He covers the potential pitfalls, offers alternatives, and them applies these in a very readable format. He uses illustrations and cases affectively to challenge one to think through the negotiating situation. ... Read more

Book Description

An indisputable contract is the foundation for building stronger advertiser/agency relationships. The ANA's updated Guidelines for Advertiser/Agency Contracts offers advertisers clear and concise advice on the three fundamental phases of contract development:

1) initial negotiation of terms;
2) drafting an Interim Letter of Understanding; and
3) final contract refinement.

Written by Lawrence J. Flink, agency veteran and agency contract consultant, this guide concisely outlines the key aspects of a strong contract, including: defining agency services and compensation; conducting annual reviews; and establishing agreements on ownership of materials and conflict standards.

A sample contract is also included. Anyone responsible for agency relations will find this book an indispensable reference. ... Read more

Book Description

Collaborative skills have never been more important. At work, you can't afford to be defensive, hostile, or even too cynical. It's never easy, but getting along with your colleagues or customers is imperative, whether you're on a long-term assignment, a temporary project, or a virtual team where you're connected to colleagues only by cell phone and e-mail.

Radical Collaboration: Five Essential Skills to Overcome Defensiveness and Build Successful Relationships is a how-to manual for anyone who wants to be more skillful at building relationships, both professional and personal. James W. Tamm and Ronald J. Luyet will show you how to gently look inside yourself for the answers, with page after page of thoughtful exercises and probing tools that will increase your skills. The four introspective skills you will learn are: Collaborative Intention, Truthfulness, Self-Accountability, and Self-Awareness and Awareness of Others.

You also have to get what you need from the world around you. That's why Radical Collaboration teaches a critical fifth skill: Problem Solving and Negotiating. Tamm and Luyet teach you how to negotiate using the highly effective interest-based approach to problem solving.

At the heart of the book is a theory of human relationships called Fundamental Interpersonal Relations Orientation, or FIRO. It explains how unmet emotional needs can sabotage our efforts to collaborate.

How does the online profile work? When you get to chapter 7, you will be directed to a unique code number printed on a sticker on the inside back flap of this book. Take this number to the Web site for the book, www.radicalcollaboration.com. Here, you will be able to take a free relationship profile called the FIRO Element B. This profile will increase your awareness of how you behave in relationships and give you information about your behavior in three areas that strongly influences your ability to collaborate. The test will measure how important control is to you, how important it is for you to be included, and how comfortable you are being open about yourself.

Are you are defensive and fearful? Is that preventing you from collaborating? Use the exercises in this book to identify your habits, and then learn how to moderate them. You will quickly become more effective at work and at home.

Book Description

Unless you live alone in a cave, you spend a good part of each day negotiating – with your boss, your staff, your vendors, or clients, with your spouse, your kids, and even your neighbor with the rambunctious rottweiler. Negotiating is all about getting what you want in life. And whether it’s closing a multimillion-dollar deal, buying a home, or debating body-piercings with your teenager, the basic negotiating skills required are always the same.  You’d be surprised how quickly you can master those skills, with the right coach to guide you, and you’d be amazed at how you’re life can be transformed once you do.

Get ready to be transformed. Negotiating For Dummies offers a new approach to getting what you want in life, based on personal integrity and persuasion, not tricks and coercion. In plain English, master negotiators Michael and Mimi Donaldson explain the six steps to successful negotiations and arm you with tested-in-the-trenches techniques that help you:

• Get people to do what you want without threats or deceit
• Always negotiate from a position of strength
• Achieve win-win results in every negotiation
• Build trust, goodwill, and mutual respect
• Communicate more clearly and effectively
• Advance your career
• Reduce stress in your everyday life

Stop spinning your wheels in endless debate and miscommunication. Discover how much easier and more rewarding life can be once you’ve mastered the simple, easy-to-master methods for:

• Identifying your values and creating a mission statement
• Developing a plan based on thorough research and putting it into action
• Setting limits and sticking to them
• Maintaining your emotional distance
• Fine-tuning your listening skills
• Communicating clearly and handling hot -button issues with grace
• Reading signs of resistance and receptivity
• Dressing for success
• Monitoring and controlling your body language
• Closing the deal

How well you do, how happy you are , and whether you get what you want, or get passed over, have a lot to do with how good a negotiator you are. Let Negotiating For Dummies show you how to become a master negotiator. ... Read more

Reviews (7)

Dry and humorless
The "For Dummies" series is way over-done. The original publisher made a lot of money and has moved on, and maybe so should you. Like the vast majority of its siblings, Negotiating for Dummies is dry, poorly organized, poorly indexed, and just not funny. If someone is really a dummy he'd expect a clear step-by-step guide, which this book is not. ...

A definite for those who are new to the negotiating game.
Having spent time negotiating sports sponsorship contracts, I have a new found love for negotiating. In reading this book, the authors have laid out a clear and concise program in which to begin, work through and close negotiatings. A great book for beginners and a good brush up for intermediates and pros.

GREAT BOOK
This book gives you everything you need and then some.

Look elsewhere
This book is very unorganized and not well presented. It's obvious that the author, who is a lawyer, has no experience writing books. I strongly believe that the author and the publisher have the ability to do a better job.

You have to dig through a lot to get negotiating nuggets.
There were a few good tips on negotiating in this tape but they were burried among lots of other almost meaningless stuff. For instance, the author makes it a point to set your mission and values before beginning negotiations. OK, good point. But then he proceeds to spend 10 minutes or so on the subject instead of referring the reader to a book on the subject. Other suggestions include speaking clearly ... making sure the other party hears "five" instead of "fine". Later in the tape he cuts short some negotiating tips for lack of time and suggests that the listener buy the book! ... Read more

Book Description

An indisputable contract is the foundation for building stronger advertiser/agency relationships. The ANA's updated Guidelines for Advertiser/Agency Contracts offers advertisers clear and concise advice on the three fundamental phases of contract development:

1) initial negotiation of terms;
2) drafting an Interim Letter of Understanding; and
3) final contract refinement.

Written by Lawrence J. Flink, agency veteran and agency contract consultant, this guide concisely outlines the key aspects of a strong contract, including: defining agency services and compensation; conducting annual reviews; and establishing agreements on ownership of materials and conflict standards.

A sample contract is also included. Anyone responsible for agency relations will find this book an indispensable reference. ... Read more

Book Description

Collaborative skills have never been more important. At work, you can't afford to be defensive, hostile, or even too cynical. It's never easy, but getting along with your colleagues or customers is imperative, whether you're on a long-term assignment, a temporary project, or a virtual team where you're connected to colleagues only by cell phone and e-mail.

Radical Collaboration: Five Essential Skills to Overcome Defensiveness and Build Successful Relationships is a how-to manual for anyone who wants to be more skillful at building relationships, both professional and personal. James W. Tamm and Ronald J. Luyet will show you how to gently look inside yourself for the answers, with page after page of thoughtful exercises and probing tools that will increase your skills. The four introspective skills you will learn are: Collaborative Intention, Truthfulness, Self-Accountability, and Self-Awareness and Awareness of Others.

You also have to get what you need from the world around you. That's why Radical Collaboration teaches a critical fifth skill: Problem Solving and Negotiating. Tamm and Luyet teach you how to negotiate using the highly effective interest-based approach to problem solving.

At the heart of the book is a theory of human relationships called Fundamental Interpersonal Relations Orientation, or FIRO. It explains how unmet emotional needs can sabotage our efforts to collaborate.

How does the online profile work? When you get to chapter 7, you will be directed to a unique code number printed on a sticker on the inside back flap of this book. Take this number to the Web site for the book, www.radicalcollaboration.com. Here, you will be able to take a free relationship profile called the FIRO Element B. This profile will increase your awareness of how you behave in relationships and give you information about your behavior in three areas that strongly influences your ability to collaborate. The test will measure how important control is to you, how important it is for you to be included, and how comfortable you are being open about yourself.

Are you are defensive and fearful? Is that preventing you from collaborating? Use the exercises in this book to identify your habits, and then learn how to moderate them. You will quickly become more effective at work and at home.

Amazon

Robert Quinn's Change the World offers profound yet practical guidance for those who truly want to improve their surroundings. Quinn, a University of Michigan professor and author of five books on change and organizational performance, bases Changeon eight "seed thoughts" drawn from the philosophies of Jesus, Gandhi, and Martin Luther King Jr. After relevant quotations from each, he cites contemporary real-life examples to show how these principles--Envision the Productive Community, First Look Within, Embrace the Hypocritical Self, Transcend Fear, Embody a Vision of the Common Good, Disturb the System, Surrender to the Emergent Process, and Entice Through Moral Power--can really be used. "All our lives we have been explicitly and implicitly taught to see human influence as an exercise in domination," Quinn writes. By learning instead to practice a new type of "transformational behavior," he suggests, even "ordinary people" can have "extraordinary impact." The section on asserting moral authority, for example, segues from his own fifth-grade coaching experiences to those of basketball superstar Larry Bird to details on building a bond between "change agents and change targets" that effects desirable modifications. Recommended for anyone open to new ideas on motivation and stimulating change. --Howard Rothman ... Read more

Reviews (6)

real change
"Typically a top management team goes off for three days," writes the author Quinn. "They hole up in a room with lots of flip charts and go to work." Then he says that when they're through they typically write words on small cards and pass them out to employees. Sadly, he observes these cards are "ignored and things go on as before." The premise underlying this book is that Quinn would have us care enough to change this way of thinking. The key, he says, is to stop doing things out of self-interest and start identifying and going after the shared goals of the group. He does a nice job of working good examples into his text. He also points out how risky it is to be a true leader since it involves overcoming a fear of failure when trying something new. He also does a nice job of making clear that hierarchy in itself is not a bad thing; it's only bad when they're perceived as mechanisms that result in getting nothing done. "Hierarchies become frozen bureaucracies due to the failure of human courage." He makes a compelling case for why it's crucial to skip the hollow words and dare to lead toward change. Only then can organizations hope for real change.

Look Within: That's Where Change Management Begins
Hopefully, you have already read some (if not all) of Quinn's earlier books, especially Deep Change which serves as an excellent introduction to this one. In the Preface, he explains that this book "is about changing the world. It is about coming to a deep understanding of human beings and human relationships." He then adds, "The book focuses on vision, unconditional confidence, and profound impact. It is about the mastery of human influence, transformational power, and the capacity to accomplish extraordinary things. It argues that everyone of us is a change agent." It is important to add, that Quinn advocates "deep change" as opposed to "incremental change." Moreover, no organization can achieve deep change unless and until those within that organization achieve deep change. So as I understand it, each of us must assume full authority as well as responsibility for (and have control of) our personal development. "There is a language of transformation. Yet most of us are cut off from that language. All our lives we have been explicitly taught to see human influence as an exercise in domination." Even the most sensitive among us is shaped by this paradigm or worldview. But this outlook prevents us from seeing more deeply into the actual workings of human systems. This book demonstrates an alternative system."

Quinn recalls the remark by Oliver Wendell Holmes that he placed little value in simplicity that lay on this side of complexity but a great deal of value on simplicity that lay on the other side. The framework within which Quinn presents his material comes from the "seed thoughts" of people who have mastered "the language of transformation." By "seed thoughts" Quinn means some of the "core notions that masters of transformation hold in common, the simplicity they send us from the other side of complexity." Specifically, Jesus, Gandhi, and Martin Luther King, Jr.

Quinn focuses on eight (8) "seed thoughts" (eg Envision the Productive Community, First Look Within, Embrace the Hypocritical Self), providing brief quotations from each of the three "masters of transformation" which he correlates with each of the eight "seed thoughts." His objective is to explain how Advanced Change Theory (ACT) can enable individuals to achieve deep change in their own lives and then within their organizations. The title of this book (Change the World) may be somewhat misleading. I wholeheartedly agree with Quinn that "ordinary people can accomplish extraordinary results", both individually and as members of a group. I also agree that Jesus, Gandhi, and King were "masters of transformation" within their respective spheres of influence as were Carnegie, Edison, Ford, Morgan, and Rockefeller within their own. Quinn's basic idea is sound. He and I may differ only when defining terms such as "change" and "world."

I urge you to read this book, to consider very carefully what ACT offers to you (personally) and to your organization, and then to select whatever is most appropriate. Quinn provides an eloquent and convincing argument in support of his concept of deep change; better yet, he suggests all manner of strategies and tactics to achieve and sustain it; even better yet, almost anyone who reads this book already has the resources required. If you need help to organize and allocate those resources, and truly powerful encouragement to support your efforts in process, look no further.

The Golden Rule Applied to Leadership for Stallbusting
Most books on change posit the concept that the leader has to change herself or himself before the organization or community can improve. This book sets a high standard by encouraging ordinary people to follow the examples of Jesus, Gandhi and Martin Luther King, Jr.

I heard Norman Schwartzkopf speak once about leadership. He said, "Be the leader you would like to have." That's the essence of this book.

Each principle is established by showing a quote from each of the three models, and then is followed by stories of ordinary people as well as those in major organizations.

The principles expressed here entail going several psychological levels lower into the human psyche than I have seen in other leadership books.

"Envision the productive community" is important as a first step, because chances are no one else sees the way that the people could cooperate to create much more. Human beings have trouble imagining what they have not yet seen, so those who are good at this can provide very valuable guidance to the others.

"First look within" is a good second step because it concentrates oneself on why one wants to change. It is very easy to want the change for the wrong reasons (pride, self-esteem, or misdirected ego). You have to purge that and focus on selfless reasons for changing.

"Embrace the hypocritical self" was very impressive to me as a concept. Almost every leader I know is actually partly driven by hypocritical motives. Even the Stephen Covey books show examples where he seems to have been operating hypocritically. I sense this issue in many of my consulting projects, and find that it is difficult for people to address this.

"Transcend fear" is good advice, too, because trying to make such large changes will undoubtedly encourage unusual levels of fear. Working through the fear is good for the leader and those who will benefit from the change.

"Embody a vision of the common good" is essential inspiration to carry the vision forward both internally and by drawing support from others.

"Disrupt the system" is based on complexity science. By creating disruption, you create the largest potential for self-organizing solutions to be generated.

"Surrender to the emergent process" is a follow-on application of complexity science. You have to trust what is working, because it will lead to other self-organizing improvements. Trying to "manage" this process at this change will simply shortchange its potential.

"Entice through moral power" is something that needs to permeate each of the earlier stages. There is a compelling quality to moral power that draws attention and commands respect and action. Here, the leader must be clearly acting from beyond self-interest to attract the collective support of those who respect the same moral tenets.

I found this combination to be a unique synthesis of how change leadership can be accomplished. I can recognize the model from cases I have seen that worked and missing elements from the model in cases that did not work. I think the author has made an important step forward with this thinking. My only quibble is that the ordinary person reading this book may still have a conflict between the original reasons for seeking a change and the realities of how to pursue such a change. Almost everyone is attracted to making a difference initially because of a desire for self-aggrandizement. Early in the process, people may not be able to abandon that ego-based need for a selfless one. I suspect that more help is needed in this area than the book provides.

Overcome your disbelief and misconception stalls about making beneficial changes!

Interesting, Different and Useful
This book is an action guide providing organisation leaders, managers, parents and everyone else with the creative power and revolutionary impact to change the world. The idea that inner change makes outer change possible has always been part of spiritual and psychological teachings. Change the World presents eight principles that each of us can follow to make individual and organisational change happen. These principles were inspired by the teachings of Jesus Christ, Mahatma Gandhi and Martin Luther King, Jr.-three historical leaders who successfully used personal change to change the world.

Author Robert Quinn introduces each principle with inspiring quotations from these three leaders. He then uses stories from everyday life to demonstrate his message. Every thought-provoking chapter is imbued with ideas and information that can help us step out of our old roles, approach the world with a sense of enlightenment and adventure, and live a more empowered and empowering life.

Faced with the complexities of today's world, it's all too easy to view ourselves as passive observers or powerless victims. We want to change our realities, but lack the motivation to do so.

This book is for ordinary people who have the ordinary need to have extraordinary impact. It is written for everyone of us who want to use personal transformation to make a positive impact on our families, organisations, businesses, and the world at large. Indeed, this is the central message of the book. Ordinary people have the need to be profoundly effective change agents, and ordinary people can be extraordinary change agents.

Robert E. Quinn is the M.E. Tracy Distinguished Professor of Organisational Behaviour and Human Resource Management at the Michigan Business School and the author of a number of books including Deep Change and Diagnosing and Changing Organizational Culture. His research focuses on change.

Great insights!
Robert Quinn is a great man, and I'm always anxious to read anything he writes. This book was no exception. I was excited for it's publication and quickly read it. I was so impressed with the content. Robert Quinn has once again inspired ordinary people to do extraordinary things. ... Read more

Book Description

Dr. William L. Ury shows listeners how to overcome serious obstacles to negotiation.Whether dealing with an unruly teenager or an office bully, Dr. Ury's method will help listeners gain control in even the most difficult situations.Most importantly, GETTING PAST NO gets results. ... Read more

Reviews (1)

Remarkable book for negotiators
This book has a real wow factor. I was amazed at how much ground it covers - game theory, pscyhology, decision analysis, negotiation stuff. There's a great balance of technical help with easy-to-read conversations between hypothetical negotiators making the tricky concepts easier to understand. You probably won't want to read it from cover-to-cover but every chapter has really useful insights on how to negotiate better with positive or negative counterparts. ... Read more

Book Description

This best-selling textbook is unique because of its focus on the political side of bureaucracy. Designed to present bureaucracy as a political institution, this book provides coverage of the controls on bureaucracy and how bureaucracy makes policy. ... Read more

Reviews (1)

Brief introduction to policymaking
Meier's book skims over policymaking in the bureaucracy and focuses mainly on the federal bureaucracy. This slim volume has good examples but one would hope for more depth considering the book's hefty price. In addition, the author's liberal slant can be a bit distracting. However, it does present some interesting ideas for public policy students to consider. ... Read more

Book Description

"It is well, well done -- I will indeed recommend it . . . this type of work has been long needed in our field."
--Robert J. Vandenberg, University of Georgia

Organizational researchers and managers have never had a single easy-to-use resource for validated measures, often relying on a selection of journal articles or improvised solutions to meet immediate needs. Taking the Measure of Work: A Guide to Validated Scales for Organizational Research and Diagnosis provides researchers, consultants, managers, and organizational development specialists validated and reliable ways to measure how employees view their work and their organization.

Whether preparing questionnaires or interviews for an employee survey, organizational assessment, dissertation or research program, this book guides users to a summary level understanding of each topic area, the measurement issues in the area, and a selection of measures to choose from. The measures cover the areas of:

• Job Satisfaction
• Organizational Commitment
• Job Characteristics
• Job Stress
• Job Roles
• Organizational Justice
• Work-Family Conflict
• Person-Organization Fit
• Work Behaviors
• Work Values

About the Author

Dail L. Fields (Ph.D., Georgia Tech, 1994) is Associate Professor at the Regent University School of Business. His research interests include measurement of employee perspectives on work, cross-cultural management, human resource management strategies, and leadership and values in organizations. He is a member of the Academy of Management and the Academy of International Business. Prior to beginning an academic career in 1994, he was a management executive with MCI Communications Corp. and a management consultant with Touche Ross & Co. 

Book Description

Nearly every professional interaction you have during your career will involve a negotiation of some sort. Whether you're closing a million-dollar deal with a client, bargaining over your own terms of employment, or delegating duties among your coworkers, the key to successful negotiation is possessing intelligence. But intelligence doesn't mean just having smarts. It means knowing your opponents inside and out: how they respond under stress, what tricks they try to pull to catch you off guard, and how to negotiate a fair deal that makes both sides happy. It means knowing what they will ask for before they ask, what they are willing to give before they give, and where they will draw the line before they walk away from the table.
The Intelligent Negotiator is your complete and practical guide to understanding and mastering effective negotiating skills. Author and negotiation expert Charles Craver goes beyond the basic principles of negotiation and gets down to the nitty-gritty steps of the process, including what kinds of clothes to wear to help you succeed, where to sit in a room during an important negotiation, what questions to ask, how to listen and watch effectively, how to present your offers, and, most importantly, when to give and when to take. Mr. Craver has taught the ins and outs of effective negotiation to more than 60,000 professionals from around the globe over the past 25 years. In this easy-to-use book, he reveals his never-fail techniques that will give you the confidence and persuasiveness of a seasoned pro. You'll discover how to:
·Identify the different types of negotiating techniques, when to use each one, and how to counter them
·Close a deal properly to avoid last-minute demands
·Walk away from a deal without losing your cool
·Prepare for the unexpected, master the mental game, and avoid psychological entrapment
·Understand the different stages of the negotiation process and what to do in each
·And much, much more
Packed with interactive exercises, insightful anecdotes from the author's own career, and invaluable lessons on building a personal negotiating style, this is your complete guide to bargaining and deal-making the right way—with intelligence. ... Read more

Reviews (3)

Valuable For International Negotiations, Too
As a consultant in International and Cross-Cultural Management, I found this book particularly valuable. That's because it not only is a great and comprehensive compendium on effective negotiating (as others already pointed out), but it also covers techniques negotiators may be less likely to find used in the US but are likely to run into when abroad. Examples are extreme openings, time pressure, large negotiation teams, and so on. This makes the book very valuable in preparing for overseas negotiation, for instance in Asia.

Outstanding
Charles Craver is the Leroy S. Merrifield Research Professor of Law at George Washington University (Washington, D.C.) where he teaches negotiating. Through his work at the Law School and in workshops throughout the world, Professor Craver estimates that he has taught negotiating skills to some 60,000 attorneys and businesspersons.
The Intelligent Negotiator is a book that fulfills the promise of its title. Craver provides the reader with the techniques and skills to become a true master of the craft.
Unquestionably, The Intelligent Negotiator will prove invaluable for the beginning negotiator and a solid source for refining the skills of the more experienced practitioner. Refreshingly, in a field in which so much has been written and is often unacknowledged, Craver credits and draws upon the research and findings of its authors. Additionally, although he has a preferred approach to negotiations, the author provides a fundamental negotiating skills book that does not rest upon the adoption of a singular negotiating style.
"Don't even try to adopt just one negotiating style or philosophy," Craver tells his reader in the first sentence of his work, "for there is no single approach that can effectively govern all bargaining transactions" (p.3). The intelligent negotiator, in Professor Craver's view, is a person who is comfortable working within a suite of negotiating styles. The reader who understands that premise is on the way to wisdom.
The experienced negotiator knows that no matter what the hopes, not every negotiation expands the pie. Negotiators come in all stripes and are driven by differing motives. Success in negotiations requires that its participants understand and adapt easily to the reality of functioning with an arena encompassing widely disparate styles.
Craver notes three major approaches that the intelligent negotiator must master. The first of these is the Competitive-Adversarial. This is the stuff of win/lose negotiations, the zero sum game in which the pie is presumed to be fixed and one participant wins more if the other loses more. The second he defines as the Cooperative-Problem-Solving approach. In this style, the parties seek to expand the pie through engaging in a joint creative enterprise and thereby enable the participants to realize a win/win outcome. The intelligent negotiator recognizes that this second style has inherent rewards and significant risks of exploitation depending upon the true commitments of the parties at the bargaining table to the cooperative negotiating style.
Both styles remain predominant in negotiating and Craver introduces the reader to some of the research on the effectiveness of practitioners of these two dominant negotiating styles. It is interesting research.
Craver cites a study of the negotiating styles of practicing attorneys conducted by Professor Gerald Williams of Brigham Young University some twenty years ago that may surprise many readers. According to Professor Williams' research, most practicing lawyers do not use an adversarial style in their negotiations. Two thirds of the attorneys, as viewed by their colleagues, used a cooperative approach and only twenty-five percent of the lawyers were seen as practitioners of an adversarial style of negotiations (p.10).
More importantly, peer assessment concluded that cooperative negotiators fared far better than adversarial attorneys in the negotiating arena. Fifty-nine percent of the cooperative style negotiators were viewed as effective negotiators and only a miniscule 3 percent were considered ineffective. Only 25 percent of the adversarial style negotiators were deemed effective by their peers and a staggering 33 percent were judged to be ineffective. A more recent study reported last year by Professor Andrea Kupfer Schneider, found over half of adversarial style negotiators were considered ineffective by their peers (p.10).
There is much that the negotiator can draw from these findings, not the least of which is that the intelligent negotiator must be able to adapt and operate successfully in an arena of diverse approaches. Reliance on a singular style, as Professor Craver well illustrates is a recipe for disaster.
Given this, Craver offers a third style as the best primary style for the intelligent negotiator. The Innovator approach, as the author calls his preferred style, is a hybrid of both of the preeminent negotiating approaches. Its hallmarks are beginning with principled offers, matching one's counterpart on how much and what is disclosed, relying on objective criteria and recognizing that the primary goal of the negotiator is to obtain beneficial results for themselves and secondarily for the opponent.
The core of the book, however, is far from a discourse on a singular approach, but rather the teaching of the underlying fundamental skills and techniques that every negotiator regardless of their approach requires to succeed in practicing the art. The book, therefore, is an intelligent negotiator's guide to the practice of negotiations.
Craver explores the process thoroughly and leads his reader through the tough issues confronting every negotiator with concise and well-reasoned advice. The author shows the reader the importance of setting high goals, even increasing them before negotiations begin. He gives the reader solid advice on how to construct an opening offer and coaches the negotiator on its critical impact on the psychology and course of the negotiations to follow. The reader learns how an opening offer operates as an anchor, its role in bracketing the negotiating settlement range and its use in framing the other party's perception of gain and loss in the potential agreement. If these concepts are not clear to you, they are