learn what it does for you and how you can build deals out
of it.
“Yes” and “Maybe” are often worthless. But “No”
always alters the conversation.
“NO” STARTS THE NEGOTIATION
My fascination with “No” in all its beautiful nuance began
with a conversation I had a few months before my
negotiation career began.
I started my career with the Bureau as a member of the
FBI SWAT team in the Pittsburgh Division but after nearly
two years I was transferred to New York, where the FBI
attached me to the Joint Terrorism Task Force (JTTF). It was
an amazing post: We spent our days and nights tracking
suspected terrorists, investigating their cells, and assessing
whether or how they might strike. We were untying knots of
human anger in the midst of America’s biggest city, making
life-and-death decisions on who was dangerous and who
was just blowing hot air. The work fascinated me.
Ever since my first days with the Bureau, I had been
obsessed with crisis response. The immediacy of the task
enthralled me. The stakes were high. Lives hung in the
balance.
The emotional terrain was complex, changing, and often
conflicting. To successfully gain a hostage’s safe release, a
negotiator had to penetrate the hostage-taker’s motives, state
of mind, intelligence, and emotional strengths and
weaknesses. The negotiator played the role of bully,