Bruce Patton Books
Douglas Stone, Bruce Patton, and Sheila Heen are affiliated with the Harvard Negotiation Project.
Known for: Difficult Conversations Don't Have to Be Difficult: A Foolproof Method for Handling Tough Talks, Difficult Conversations: How to Discuss What Matters Most, Getting to Yes: Negotiating Agreement Without Giving In
Books by Bruce Patton
Difficult Conversations Don't Have to Be Difficult: A Foolproof Method for Handling Tough Talks
This book provides a practical framework for managing challenging conversations with confidence and empathy. Drawing on years of research at the Harvard Negotiation Project, the authors explain how to...
Difficult Conversations: How to Discuss What Matters Most
This book provides a practical framework for handling tough conversations with clarity and empathy. Drawing on years of research at the Harvard Negotiation Project, the authors explain how to navigate...
Getting to Yes: Negotiating Agreement Without Giving In
Getting to Yes is a foundational work on negotiation that introduces the concept of principled negotiation, focusing on interests rather than positions. The authors present a method for reaching mutua...
Key Insights from Bruce Patton
The Three Layers of Every Difficult Conversation
When most people think about a “difficult conversation,” they focus on what was said. But words are just the surface. The quality of any interaction is determined by the structure underlying it. In truth, every difficult conversation involves three intertwined talks: the facts, the feelings, and the...
From Difficult Conversations Don't Have to Be Difficult: A Foolproof Method for Handling Tough Talks
The Facts Conversation: From Proving Right to Discovering Truth
On the surface, most conflicts seem factual. “You said you’d finish the project by Thursday.” “No, I said I’d try.” But what we’re really debating is meaning—the intention behind behavior and who’s to blame when things go wrong. Understanding the facts conversation begins with clearing up three comm...
From Difficult Conversations Don't Have to Be Difficult: A Foolproof Method for Handling Tough Talks
The Three Layers of Every Difficult Conversation
When most people think of a difficult conversation, they think of the words exchanged. They focus on what they said or what the other person said. But the truth is that what we say is only the outer shell of something much deeper. Beneath every difficult conversation are three layers that unfold sim...
From Difficult Conversations: How to Discuss What Matters Most
The 'What Happened?' Conversation
At the surface level, conflicts often seem to revolve around what happened: “You said you’d finish the project by Thursday.” “No, I said I’d try.” Yet rarely are we arguing just about facts. We are arguing about meanings—what intentions lay behind actions, and who deserves blame. Understanding the ‘...
From Difficult Conversations: How to Discuss What Matters Most
From Positional Bargaining to Principled Negotiation
When we first began studying negotiation at Harvard, we noticed a recurring pattern. People treated negotiation as a contest of wills. Each side took up a position, argued for it, made threats or concessions, and hoped that the other side would eventually give in. This is what we call positional bar...
From Getting to Yes: Negotiating Agreement Without Giving In
Separate the People from the Problem
Negotiation is not conducted in a vacuum. It is conducted by people, and people come with emotions, values, histories, and perceptions. When these human elements are entangled with the substantive problem at hand, the discussion derails. That is why the first principle of principled negotiation is t...
From Getting to Yes: Negotiating Agreement Without Giving In
About Bruce Patton
Douglas Stone, Bruce Patton, and Sheila Heen are affiliated with the Harvard Negotiation Project.
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Douglas Stone, Bruce Patton, and Sheila Heen are affiliated with the Harvard Negotiation Project.
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