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What it argues
Deepak Malhotra is a professor at Harvard Business School who has spent decades studying how people resolve conflicts that appear completely intractable. Negotiating the Impossible draws on historical case studies — the end of the Cuban Missile Crisis, the negotiations that concluded the US Civil War, the settlement of labor strikes, the peace deals after major wars — to extract principles that apply to any high-stakes negotiation.
The book's organizing claim is that negotiators who succeed in seemingly impossible situations almost always use one of three approaches: they reframe the problem so the other side can say yes without losing face; they shift who is at the table and on what terms; or they use process and sequencing strategically rather than jumping to the substance. Malhotra calls these the three levers — framing, process, and empathy — and illustrates each with multiple cases where negotiators either discovered them accidentally or deployed them with skill.
What it gets right
- 1.
Framing matters as much as substance. A deal that fails because the other side can't accept it without losing face often succeeds if you reframe what accepting it means.
- 2.
Process is a negotiation tool. How and when you discuss issues — the sequence, the forum, the pace — can unlock agreements that direct bargaining over substance cannot reach.
- 3.
Empathy is not softness. Understanding why the other side needs what they say they need, rather than just what they are asking for, is how you find solutions that satisfy both parties without either making unnecessary concessions.
What it covers
Who wrote it
Deepak Malhotra is a professor at Harvard Business School, where he teaches negotiation in the MBA and executive programs. He has advised governments, corporations, and sports organizations on high-stakes negotiations and conflict resolution. His research focuses on how parties reach agreement in situations where interests appear completely incompatible. He is also the author of Negotiation Genius, co-written with Max Bazerman, which is widely used in business school curricula. He lives in the Boston area.
