"Never Split the Difference" by Christopher Voss (Book Review)

Voss, Christopher. 2016. Never Split the Difference: Negotiating as if your life depended on it. London: Penguin Random House.

Negotiations happen on a daily basis. Every interaction a person faces is a form of negotiation that goes unnoticed. Be it getting a coffee at a cafe or crossing the street during rush hour, all these types of interactions are negotiations that people have become accustomed to and do not really pay close attention to. However, each of those interactions are passing opportunities of negotiating without splitting the difference, which Christopher Voss explains in great detail in his book Never Split the Difference: Negotiating as if Your Life Depended on It.

Christopher "Chris" Voss had an extraordinary career as a negotiator during his 24 year tenure at the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). He was the lead international kidnapping negotiator of the FBI, working many high profile kidnapping and criminal stand-off cases with domestic and foreign law enforcement. Voss also went on to represent the United States Government at two international G-8 conferences as an expert in kidnapping cases. Voss has also served as the lead Crisis Negotiator for the New York City Division of the FBI, as well as working 14 years at the New York City Joint Terrorist Task Force. His training ranges from FBI negotiation program to Scotland Yard in the United Kingdom to Harvard Law School. He retired from the FBI in 2007 and founded his own negotiation consulting group The Black Swan Group. Voss has also taught business negotiation in various MBA programs around the United States and the world, notably University of Southern California, Georgetown University, Harvard University, Northwestern University, the IMD Business School in Lausanne, Switzerland, and the Goethe School of Business in Frankfurt, Germany. In 2009, Voss worked with Insite Security as their Managing Director of the Kidnapping Resolution Practice. His expertise in negotiation is immeasurable and he pours his knowledge into this book, which makes it an interesting read with many tips and tricks explained using interesting and exciting anecdotes from his professional career.

Voss' book is a breath of fresh air in the field of negotiations and brings the reader down to Earth. Scholars and academics tend to stay too focused on the technicalities of negotiations, mentioning terms like "BATNA" (Best Alternative To a Negotiated Agreement) and "ZOPA" (Zone Of Possible Agreement), to name a few. Furthermore, many scholars consider the counterpart in a negotiation as a "party" or "delegation," where these terms define a broad team, rather than an individual. While scholars seem to be in the clouds of academic intellect, Voss dives deeper in the discussion and brings the idea of negotiation down to the ground level by identifying the counterpart as human, or rather a person with emotion, empathy, and moral conscious, and discusses ways to influence this person to follow along one's own agenda in the negotiation using "Jedi mind tricks." In fact, these "Jedi mind tricks" are not some secret spell, but rather the act of getting to know the person sitting across the table, be it a CEO during a pay rise negotiation or the ambassador at an international diplomatic meeting. Voss focuses his book on how to tactically break down mental and physical defences to push negotiations towards one favour and delves into the critical details that could change the opponents' minds. There is a lot of psychology and philosophy involved in his discussion that could be opened up further, which is an opportunity Voss leaves open for discussion and continues to add on to in his Black Swan Group trainings. The most amazing part of Voss' book and his exploration of negotiation is that all these tactics can be enhanced using words.

The limitations of this book lie in the lack of academic discussion. This book reads like a talk between the reader and Voss, which is what the book was designed to do. However, the lack of academic discussion makes Voss' book unseen to many scholarly eyes. Voss makes many interesting observations that could add significant value to the academic research done in the field of negotiations, but perhaps due to its colloquial level of discussion, not many academics are turning to this book for reference, which truly is a shame. Hopefully this book will receive higher acclaim among academics and will be incorporated in not only classroom discussions in education, but also in international discussion about the art of negotiation.

In conclusion, Chris Voss adds significant amount of knowledge to the field of negotiations with his book. It is an easy read with many anecdotes that make concepts and ideas simple to understand. The book is approachable for anyone, ranging from people with no experience in negotiation to people with the highest level of experience in negotiation. By the end of the book, one will definitely be more knowledgeable about negotiations and more wary of common tactics to make the most of common negotiations in life. All in all, Voss' message of "don't be afraid of conflict and use conflict to negotiate without splitting the difference" is truly an inspiring message and one that will remain close to the heart of anyone who reads this book.

Book Length: 245 pages

Review Rating: 4.5 / 5

Find Out More About Christopher Voss:

Biography: https://www.blackswanltd.com/our-team/chris-voss

The Black Swan Group: https://www.blackswanltd.com/home

The Black Swan Group YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/user/NegotiationCEO

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