In their book “Getting to Yes”, Roger Fisher and William Ury develop four principles of negotiation, which can be used effectively on almost any type of dispute.
The four principles are:
1) separate the people from the problem;
2) focus on interests rather than positions;
3) generate a variety of options before settling on an agreement;
4) insist that the agreement be based on objective criteria.
Read more on http://www.negotiations.com/book-reviews/getting-to-yes/ or http://www.colorado.edu/conflict/peace/example/fish7513.htm
Photo By Joe Shlabotnik (Flickr)
I found that book really inspiring. They develop also the concept of BATNA, which is an interesting one, meaning the “the Best Alternative to a Negotiated Agreement” . BATNA is the course of action that will be taken by a party if the negotiations fail and an agreement cannot be reached. A party should generally not accept a worse resolution than its BATNA.