Split the Pie: A Radical New Way to Negotiate

Axiom Award Gold Medalist for Sales

From a leading Yale expert and serial entrepreneur, a radical, principled, and field-tested approach that identifies what’s really at stake in any business negotiation and ensures you get your half―so you can focus on growing the pie. 

Negotiations are incredibly stressful and can bring out the worst in people. Wouldn’t it be better if there were a principled way to negotiate? Wouldn’t it be even better if there were a way to treat people fairly and get treated fairly in a negotiation?

Split the Pie offers a new negotiation strategy that does both―a field-tested method that reframes how negotiations play out. Barry Nalebuff, a professor at Yale School of Management, helps identify what’s really at stake in a negotiation: the “pie.” The negotiation pie is the additional value created through an agreement to work together. Seeing the relevant pie will change how you think about fairness and power in negotiation. You’ll learn how to get half the value you create, no matter your size. 

Filled with examples and in-depth case studies, Split the Pie is a practical approach to deal making grounded in game theory. You’ll see how it helped reframe a high-stakes negotiation when Coca-Cola purchased Honest Tea, a company Barry cofounded with his former student Seth Goldman. The pie framework also works for everyday negotiations. You’ll learn how to deploy logic to determine truly equitable solutions and employ empathy to expand the pie and sell your solution. Split the Pie allows both sides to focus their energy on making the biggest possible pie―to have your pie and eat it too.

How can you ensure you get your fair share while making the pie bigger for everyone?

• A Radical New Framework: Stop fighting over the whole pie and learn to identify the additional value created by an agreement―the only part that’s truly up for grabs.
• The Power of Fairness: Discover why both parties, regardless of size, have equal power in creating the pie, and how to use this powerful logic to get your half.
• Conflict Resolution: See how this method was used in the high-stakes acquisition of Honest Tea by Coca-Cola and how it applies to everyday situations, from breaking a lease to business partnerships.
• Grow the Pie: Move beyond zero-sum thinking with actionable strategies that use logic and empathy to create the biggest possible pie for everyone involved.
• Principled Negotiation: Replace stress and posturing with a clear, theory-based approach that ensures you treat others fairly―and get treated fairly in return.

Barry Nalebuff is the Milton Steinbach Professor at the Yale School of Management, where he has taught for over thirty years. An expert on game theory, he has written extensively on its application to business strategy. His bestsellers include Thinking Strategically, The Art of Strategy, and Mission in a Bottle. This is his seventh book. He has advised the NBA in their negotiations with the Players Association and several firms in major M&A transactions. Nalebuff has been teaching the Split the Pie method to MBAs and executives at Yale and online at Coursera. His Introduction to Negotiation course has over 350,000 enrolled students and a 4.9/5.0 rating. He is also a serial entrepreneur; his ventures include Honest Tea, Kombrewcha, and Real Made Foods. A graduate of MIT, a Rhodes Scholar, and a Junior Fellow at the Harvard Society of Fellows, Nalebuff earned his doctorate at Oxford University.