You Can Negotiate Anything

A bestselling text on negotiation, You Can Negotiate Anything was first published in the 1980s. It became an instant classic, credited as bringing negotiation out of the boardrooms of the world and into everyday life. Herb Cohen is a corporate and government negotiator and strategy consultant, so he knows his stuff. His thesis: negotiation isn’t just for diplomats, lawyers, or executives. It’s an art anyone can master.

Cohen defines negotiation as any attempt at influencing behaviour. Asking for a pay rise, deciding what to eat for dinner, dealing with customers, or persuading a student to actually do their work. The caveat is that almost anything is negotiable. Many fixed rules are actually flexible, if approached correctly.

There are three fundamentals — power, time, and information. Power in the sense of actual power, and perceived power. How much we have, and what the other side thinks we have. Time in the sense of patience, and avoiding giving away too much information (i.e. leverage). Information in the sense of knowing the other side’s needs, constraints, and motivation. Knowing these things puts you in a stronger position, and asking questions is more productive than simply making appeals.

The biggest takeaway, for me at least, would be that negotiation happens all around us, and we have more power and leverage than we might think.

The eighties may seem like a faraway time that’s almost mythical in status, but there is one very important historical note with this text. Cohen advocated for “win-win” negotiations before win-win was even a thing. That is, not crushing your opposition entirely, but negotiating a solution that benefits all parties involved. Position is not the same as interest, and once everyone’s interests are understood, that’s when one can start to come up with some creative solutions.

Of course, You Can Negotiate Anything is a text that relies heavily on anecdotes. Cohen tells all kinds of stories, from buying appliances, to dealing with bureaucracies, to international diplomacy. One could take it as being pragmatic rather than academic in its approach.

In this day and age, one might wonder who the text is for. If you enjoy Gavin de Becker’s The Gift of Fear, Ryan Holiday’s The Obstacle Is the Way, or Donald Robertson’s How to Think Like a Roman Emperor, then You Can Negotiate Anything might be of interest. Cohen’s emphasis on observation, patience, and understanding the motivations of the people around you might inform in ways you’d never expect. And if you prefer a good story over cold, hard, empirical data, then it’s a good read.