Negotiating the Impossible, Second Edition: How to Break Deadlocks and Resolve Ugly Conflicts (without Money or Muscle)

Award-winning professor from Harvard Business School offers a new and improved edition of his guide to navigating negotiation deadlock, while offering practical advice and stories of success.

Updated with 20% new material, including a brand-new chapter and discussion guide.

Harvard professor and negotiation adviser Deepak Malhotra shows how to defuse even the most potentially explosive situations and to find success when things seem impossible in this fully expanded upon second edition.

Some negotiations are easy. Others are more difficult. And then there are situations that seem completely hopeless. Malhotra identifies three broad approaches for breaking deadlocks and resolving conflicts, and draws out scores of actionable lessons using behind-the-scenes stories of fascinating real-life negotiations, including:

• drafting of the US Constitution
• ending bitter disputes in the NFL and NHL
• and beating the odds in complex business situations.

He also shows how these same principles and tactics can be applied in everyday life, whether in a job interview or even negotiating with children. Brand new to this edition is a chapter on challenges facing today’s world including how to effectively negotiate in virtual spaces, incorporate AI in your toolkit, and tackle increased polarization.

With conflict escalating and no one willing to back down, Malhotra reminds us that negotiation is always, fundamentally, about human interaction. No matter how high the stakes the object of negotiation is to engage with other human beings in a way that leads to better understandings and agreements. The principles and strategies in this book will help you do this more effectively in every situation.

Deepak Malhotra is the Eli Goldston Professor of Business Administration at Harvard Business School. His teaching, research, and advisory work is focused on negotiation, deal-making, and conflict resolution. In 2020, Deepak was named MBA Professor of the Year by Poets & Quants. He has won numerous awards for his teaching and research, including the HBS Faculty Award, and has been twice selected by Harvard MBA students to give the end-of-year speech to the graduating class. In 2014, Deepak was listed as one of the "world's best business school professors" under the age of 40. He currently serves as faculty chair for the Owner/President Management Program for business owners and entrepreneurs.