Foreword

The past 25 years have been an exciting time in the field of negotiation. We moved past the era of “win-lose” negotiations training and beyond the simplicity of “win-win” messages. Leading thinkers in negotiation now realize that it is critical to think simultaneously about creating value and claiming your share. Fortunately, new writing leads us toward logical strategies and process, and Strategic Negotiation is an important part of that movement.

As the coauthor (with Margaret Neale) of Negotiating Rationally, I have been fascinated with exploring the question of how to help professionals make wiser decisions in negotiations. My applied work has attempted to take the current state of research and bring it into a useful format for managers. In 1996, Brian Dietmeyer left his position as vice president of sales at Marriott and took the lead in creating a new training firm, Think Inc.! I am proud to be a part of Think Inc.!

Strategic Negotiation brings Brian’s efforts from Think Inc.! to a broader audience. It is based on fascinating new research in the field of negotiation, some of it covered in Negotiating Rationally and some developed in the decade since the publication of that book. At the same time, Strategic Negotiation adds the experience Brian brought from Marriott and developed in his curriculum development and teaching at Think Inc.! Rob Kaplan adds amazing skill with words to bring the message to a professional audience.

Strategic Negotiation adds to the negotiation literature by turning the current state of negotiation training into a process that organizations can institutionalize—a process that helps organizations create measurable business value for themselves and for their customers. As such, it can help you and your organization negotiate more effectively and will earn its place as part of the toolkit for all serious negotiators.

—Max H. Bazerman, Jesse Isador Strauss Professor of Business Administration–Harvard Business School, and Vice-Chair of Research–Program on Negotiation, Harvard Law School