• Bargaining with the Devil

  • When to Negotiate, When to Fight
  • By: Robert Mnookin
  • Narrated by: Robert Mnookin
  • Length: 7 hrs and 44 mins
  • 4.2 out of 5 stars (351 ratings)

Prime logo Prime members: New to Audible?
Get 2 free audiobooks during trial.
Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, Originals, and podcasts.
Access exclusive sales and deals.
Premium Plus auto-renews for $14.95/mo after 30 days. Cancel anytime.
Bargaining with the Devil  By  cover art

Bargaining with the Devil

By: Robert Mnookin
Narrated by: Robert Mnookin
Try for $0.00

$14.95/month after 30 days. Cancel anytime.

Buy for $13.46

Buy for $13.46

Pay using card ending in
By confirming your purchase, you agree to Audible's Conditions of Use and Amazon's Privacy Notice. Taxes where applicable.

Publisher's summary

One of the country's most eminent practitioners of the art and science of negotiation offers practical advice for the most challenging conflicts - when you are facing an adversary you don't trust, who may harm you, or who you may even feel is evil.

The head of Harvard's famed Program on Negotiation, Robert Mnookin provides tools for confronting devils of all kinds - in business, politics, and family life. Bargaining with the Devil guides the listener on how to make wise decisions about whether to negotiate or fight. Mnookin explains what it means to make a "wise decision" and identifies the emotional, strategic, and political traps to avoid.

Drawing from a remarkable range of real-life stories, Mnookin offers his thoughtful guidance in disputes of all sorts where the temptation is to demonize: The CEO of a small high-tech company learns that his joint-venture partner, a big foreign corporation, has been secretly cheating him under a license agreement; IBM discovers that Fujitsu, its largest competitor, has copied its software; the San Francisco Symphony is torn apart by poisoned labor-management relations; divorcing spouses, each feeling wounded and betrayed, disagree about custody and support; three siblings are in conflict about what to do with a jointly inherited vacation property.

Mnookin also examines decisions made in conflicts with evil regimes, where lives and liberty were at stake. This lively, informative, indispensable book identifies the tools one needs to make wise decisions about life's most challenging conflicts.

©2010 Robert Mnookin (P)2010 Simon & Schuster

What listeners say about Bargaining with the Devil

Average customer ratings
Overall
  • 4 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    185
  • 4 Stars
    93
  • 3 Stars
    37
  • 2 Stars
    19
  • 1 Stars
    17
Performance
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    183
  • 4 Stars
    61
  • 3 Stars
    31
  • 2 Stars
    16
  • 1 Stars
    6
Story
  • 4 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    164
  • 4 Stars
    61
  • 3 Stars
    37
  • 2 Stars
    15
  • 1 Stars
    16

Reviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.

Sort by:
Filter by:
  • Overall
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

Morally questionable

i thought the book was alright up until the story of Brenda. The author advised a lying, cheating, greedy, house wife who he liked. This woman cheated on her husband, denied it, then finally angrily filed for divorce and wanted everything. The author tried to help this person... I stopped at this point and did not finish the book.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

15 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    3 out of 5 stars

BEWARE! This is an ABRIDGED version. Minus 2 stars

Nowhere in the summary or description could I find anything stating this was an abridged version. I was livid when I found out I paid full price for an abridged version of this book. I feel I may not have been so disappointed with the content if this had been the full version of the book. Of course I can't say because I can't go wasting my credits buying the same book twice.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

5 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars

Important Topic, but I Now Hate Case Studies

The book asks the fundamental question, when you should bargain with someone who is evil, either someone who is not bargaining in good faith or someone who might escape justice through negotiation. His answer is more often than you and I probably do but clearly not always. Sometimes you have to dig in and fight. It???s just that we tend to do that too much.

I???ve recently notices people taking pot-shots at the case study method. A Harvard graduate writing about Wall Street devotes several pages to condemnation of the case study method. In another instance an author demonizes Clayton Christenson (a personal hero) for his public defense of the case study method. I wondered what was going on, and where were the editors. But after reading this book I???m ready to make a small political donation to the anti-case-study league.

I found it painful to listen to 30 pages of story, for example about some couple getting divorced, for the 3 pages of payoff at the end where the author somewhat weakly attempts a synthesis. Perhaps its age; by I have plenty of stories to throw against the authors ideas, and I don???t usually rebel against any idea I can???t pretend is my own.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

5 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Compelling Stories

This book is narrated by its own author, so it automatically gets 5 stars for performance.
Unless you have an insurmountable speech impediment, please authors... narrate your own books?!?!

The stories are excellent here. Normally I'm disappointed in books that bill themselves as instructive, but are mostly stories. This one is an exception.

So, should you negotiate with the "devil" ?
The author ends up saying "not always, but more often than you feel like."

Start with whatever your gut tells you, whether to fight or negotiate.
Then imagine you have a buddy who bears a striking resemblance to Spock (from Star Trek).
Now give Spock a fair chance to talk you out of it.
If he can't, go ahead.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

2 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    2 out of 5 stars

so many better books on negotiating out there.

this book is fine if you have already plowed through all of the classics and all of the new ones books on negotiating strategy and preparation. it is taught as a series of cases but none of which are particularly easy to follow or relevant

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

2 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars

Interesting but does not live up to its title

I liked that this book explored dealing with opponents who you have a negative visceral response to. It seemed that the stories (which were very interesting) were longer than the few ideas presented here. While it fell short of delivering on the title it is still worth reading.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

2 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    1 out of 5 stars

Getting to yes is no longer the worst

This is useless, is emptier than getting to yes, I’m getting my credit back. There s nothing here, appealing to sophisticated causes made this even less relatable than it already was.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    3 out of 5 stars

good food for thought

I got this book after listening to never split the difference by chriss voss, in chriss book he mentions this book as influential to him. overall I thought this book was ok, good food for thought overall but not quite in the league as what brought me here in terms of essential readings.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Two words. Emotional logic

Writer Puts things into perspective very good. Very Excellent story telling and very well written

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    3 out of 5 stars

Despite the titans

Despite the really interesting stories and methodologies utilized to resolve each circumstance by the individual or organizational global titan indicated in this book, I was hoping to get a view into an FBI Directors bargaining or negotiating behavioral techniques more in depth.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!