Never Split the Difference: Negotiating as if Your Life Depended on It

walking near the bank. Griffin shot off so many rounds—
more than one hundred in all—that the police used a
garbage truck to shield one officer as he was being rescued.
Waving the nine bank employees into a small office at
2:30 p.m., Griffin told the manager to call the police and
deliver a message.
Outside, FBI agent Clint Van Zandt stood by while
Rochester police officer Jim O’Brien picked up the phone.
“Either you come to the front entrance doors of the bank
at three o’clock and have a shoot-out with him in the
parking lot,” the manager blurted through her tears, “or he’s
going to start killing hostages and throwing out bodies.”
Then the line went dead.
Now, never in the history of the United States had a
hostage-taker killed a hostage on deadline. The deadline
was always a way to focus the mind; what the bad guys
really wanted was money, respect, and a helicopter.
Everyone knew that. It was a permanent and inalterable
known known. It was the truth.
But that permanent and inalterable truth was about to
change.
What came next showed the power of Black Swans,
those hidden and unexpected pieces of information—those
unknown unknowns—whose unearthing has game-changing
effects on a negotiation dynamic.
Negotiation breakthroughs—when the game shifts
inalterably in your favor—are created by those who can
identify and utilize Black Swans.