How to Negotiate Like a Child: Unleash the Little Monster Within to Get Everything You Want by Bill Adler

Product Details
Amazon Sales Rank: #702377 in Books
Published on: 2005-10-28
Number of items: 1
Binding: Hardcover
160 pages
Editorial Reviews

MarketingProfs Today e-newsletter
"a tongue-in-check but eminently practical handbook to get you what you want."

Review

"MarketingProfs Today e-newsletter: ""a tongue-in-cheek but eminently practical handbook to get you what you want.""


Library Journal: ""This droll little work will do well on public library shelves.""


The Globe and Mail (Toronto): ""The book is humorously written, fun to read -- and potentially useful in expanding your negotiating approach. But Mr. Adler stresses that getting your child to clean his or her room is beyond the scope of the book."""

The Globe and Mail (Toronto)
The book is humorously written, fun to read -- and potentially useful in expanding your negotiating approach.
Customer Reviews

Water it down with some sarcasm
Just found a book called "How to Negotiatve Like a Child: unleash the little monster within to get everything you want." (by Bill Adler, JR., NY: AMACOM, 2006). I picked up this book because the publisher was AMACOM. AMACOM surely has published lots of practical business skills books, and some of which are quite genuinely innovative, and justifiably controversial, such as "Disicpline without Punishment", "Your CEO is Your Customer" etc.



This "Negotiate like a child" book looks quite thought-provoking, but I guess I don't need to read it page to page, line by line. I am a parent by profession, and I know all about it. So, browsing it would be sufficient. However, I kind of regretted browsing it, because the many principles listed here forced me to see kid behaviors in a new, eerie way, and I dislike that. I see them strategize against me. It's awkward. It's evil. Kids are kids. They try various ways to gain what they want because they are so powerless. They have to improvise and do whatever they can. You don't call them strategies, do you? Only McKinsey does that. I have not heard enough of the song of innocence. All of a sudden, you are tuning in to the song of experience. That's way too much.



The author didn't even stop there. He applies these principles as "negotiation skills" for real negotiation with people who are so less lovely than your child, people like a bad-tempered professor. I use the word "professor" for illustration only. Most of them are cute, I think.



Whether you are going to like this book depends on how much humor you see in this book. If it is Bill Cosby writing it, I would feel everything is right. But it looks like that the humor element is downplayed to allow more room for practical use, and that's where all sorts of problems arise. Behave like kids? One doesn't have to change diapers for the negotiation partner, I hope.



But if you do take it with a sense of irony and sarcasm, you'll enjoy this book. For instance, you see the first principle for negotiation is to throw a tandrum. And there is much truth in what the author has to say: "The calm person feels as if he is the better business person, but the tantrum thrower has walked waway with the prize. ...But don't overuse this ploy, otherwise nobody will want to have lunch with you. You will run a business based on fear rather than respect. You'll mostly be known for your bad temper." This is brilliant stuff.



More interestingly, the author also offers counter startegies if your negotiation partners uses this ploy:



Enlist the support of others;
Just let the tantrumer have his rants;
Pretend the tantrum didn't happen;


I thought this one was great too. Next time some guys I work with gave me trouble, I will ask one of the younger assistants here to throw a tandrum. Roll on the floor. Stomp his or her feet, etc.



But I wouldn't try "win through cuteness" strategy. Because this would spoil all the fun. It would terminate the negotiation process too early. If old men like me try to be cute, I am sure that the negotiation partner will simply throw himself or herself out of the window in an order to escape.



This said, the author gave an impressive list of negotiation skills, some of which are conflicting, which is exactly the way things work for children, and negotiators. As Bill Bryson would say about bears in the Appalachia, sometimes a strategy saves. At another time, exactly the same strategy kills.

These negotiation tactics may be inspired by children, but they offer some real insights
Bill Adler Jr.'s How To Negotiate Like A Child: Unleash The Little Monster Within To Get Everything You Want uses the premise that kids are the best negotiators in the world to show how the qualities of determination and stubbornness might translate well to a business environment. These negotiation tactics may be inspired by children, but they offer some real insights; from using tantrums as a 'secret weapon' (if Bill Gates can do it, so can others) to changing the rules and appearing needy.

These negotiation tactics may be inspired by children, but they offer some real insights
Bill Adler Jr.'s How To Negotiate Like A Child: Unleash The Little Monster Within To Get Everything You Want uses the premise that kids are the best negotiators in the world to show how the qualities of determination and stubbornness might translate well to a business environment. These negotiation tactics may be inspired by children, but they offer some real insights; from using tantrums as a 'secret weapon' (if Bill Gates can do it, so can others) to changing the rules and appearing needy.