What You Do Away From The Bargaining Table Can Make – Or Break – Your Most Important Deals.

Stuck in a “win-win versus win-lose” mind-set, most negotiators focus on the face-to-face process at the table. In 3-D Negotiation, David Lax and James Sebenius urge bargainers to look beyond tactics at the table. Persuasive tactics are only the “first dimension” of the authors’ pathbreaking approach, developed from their decades of doing deals and analyzing great dealmakers. Through moves in the “second dimension”—deal design—3-D Negotiators know how to unlock economic and noneconomic value by systematically envisioning and creatively structuring agreements.

But what really sets the 3-D approach apart, is its “third dimension”: setup. Before showing up at a bargaining session, 3-D Negotiators “set the table” by arranging the most promising possible situation—laying the groundwork for adroit tactical interplay later. Acting away from the table, the bargainers ensure that the right parties have been approached in the right sequence, to deal with the right issues, engaging the right set of interests, at the right table, at the right time, under the right expectations, and facing the right no-deal options. This new arsenal of moves away from the table often exerts the greatest impact on the negotiated outcome.

Packed with practical steps and engaging examples, 3-D Negotiation enables you to reach remarkable agreements once you arrive at the table—deals that would be unattainable by standard tactics, no matter how skillful.

“…..a first-rate piece of work. Readers facing tough deals, along with generations of Harvard MBAs and executives, will benefit greatly from this lucid book and its enormously relevant case studies. I recommend it highly.”  --- Peter G. Peterson, Senior Chairman and Cofounder, The Blackstone Group.

“Lax and Sebenius capture what I’ve seen great deal makers take years to perfect.”  --- Stephen Friedman, former Chairman and Senior Partner, Goldman Sachs & Co.,  President’s Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board.

“At last, practical advice on how to overcome obstacles that prevent us from getting to yes.”  --- Roger Fisher, coauthor of Getting to Yes.