MyLeverage

Library / Understanding Is Leverage

Sources & Further Reading

The principal works and studies behind this book, grouped by theme. Per-chapter "Sources & notes" give the specific citations; this is the consolidated map of where the ideas come from, and where to read further. Throughout, this book distinguishes Christopher Voss's branded method from the wider research it sits within, and flags science that is contested or popularly distorted.

The core negotiation traditions

  • Christopher Voss with Tahl Raz, Never Split the Difference (2016) — tactical empathy and the skill set at this book's spine.
  • Roger Fisher, William Ury, and Bruce Patton, Getting to Yes (1981) — the Harvard "principled negotiation" method and BATNA (Ch 4, 25).
  • William Ury, Getting Past No (1991) — difficult counterparts; "going to the balcony" (Ch 29).
  • Roger Fisher and Daniel Shapiro, Beyond Reason (2005) — emotion in negotiation; Harvard's turn toward Voss's territory (Ch 25).
  • Mary Parker Follett, writings on constructive conflict and integration (the orange parable) (Ch 3).

How people decide (behavioral science)

  • Daniel Kahneman, Thinking, Fast and Slow (2011) — System 1/System 2 (Ch 5).
  • Amos Tversky and Daniel Kahneman, "Judgment under Uncertainty: Heuristics and Biases," Science (1974) — anchoring (Ch 6).
  • Daniel Kahneman and Amos Tversky, "Prospect Theory," Econometrica (1979) — loss aversion, reference points (Ch 6).
  • Adam Galinsky and Thomas Mussweiler (2001) — the first-offer/anchoring advantage (Ch 6).
  • Werner Güth, Rolf Schmittberger, and Bernd Schwarze (1982) — the ultimatum game (Ch 7).
  • Matthew Lieberman et al., "Putting Feelings Into Words," Psychological Science (2007) — affect labeling (Ch 7, 13).
  • Robert Yerkes and John Dodson (1908) — the arousal–performance curve (Ch 8).

The relationship

  • David Maister, Charles Green, and Robert Galford, The Trusted Advisor (2000) — the trust equation (Ch 9).
  • Amy Edmondson, "Psychological Safety and Learning Behavior in Work Teams," Administrative Science Quarterly (1999), and The Fearless Organization (2018) (Ch 10).
  • Google re:Work / Charles Duhigg, NYT Magazine (2016) — Project Aristotle (Ch 10).
  • Arthur Aron et al., "The Experimental Generation of Interpersonal Closeness," PSPB (1997) — the 36 questions (Ch 10).
  • Marwan Sinaceur and Larissa Tiedens (2006); Gerben van Kleef and Adam Galinsky — anger and emotion in negotiation (Ch 11).
  • James Gross — emotion regulation and cognitive reappraisal (Ch 11).
  • Daniel Goleman, Emotional Intelligence (1995) — the EI framework; "amygdala hijack" (presented as a simplification) (Ch 7, 11).

The skills

  • NYPD Hostage Negotiation Team history (Schlossberg and Bolz, 1973); FBI Law Enforcement Bulletin, "Fifty Years of FBI Crisis (Hostage) Negotiation" (Ch 12).
  • Carl Rogers — reflective/active listening (Ch 12, 14).
  • Rick van Baaren et al., mimicry and tipping, Psychological Science / JESP (2003–2004); Tanya Chartrand and John Bargh, "The Chameleon Effect," JPSP (1999) (Ch 13).
  • Daniel Dennett, Intuition Pumps (2013), on Anatol Rapoport's rules / steelmanning (Ch 14).
  • Michael Norton, Daniel Mochon, and Dan Ariely, "The IKEA Effect," Journal of Consumer Psychology (2012) (Ch 15).
  • Nalini Ambady et al., "Surgeons' Tone of Voice," Surgery (2002); Thomas Gordon, Parent Effectiveness Training (1970), on I-messages; the Mehrabian "7-38-55" figure is flagged as a myth (Ch 16).

Advanced strategy and the wider sciences of influence

  • Nicolas Guéguen and Alexandre Pascual (2000) and Christopher Carpenter's meta-analysis (2013) — the "but you are free" technique; Jack Brehm, reactance theory (1966) (Ch 18).
  • Nassim Nicholas Taleb, Fooled by Randomness (2001) and The Black Swan (2007); the de Vlamingh discovery (1697) (Ch 19).
  • Sarah Brosnan and Frans de Waal, "Monkeys Reject Unequal Pay," Nature (2003); Thibaut, Walker, and Tyler on procedural justice (Ch 20).
  • Ellen Langer, "The Illusion of Control," JPSP (1975) (Ch 21).
  • Peter Gollwitzer and Paschal Sheeran, "Implementation Intentions and Goal Achievement," Advances in Experimental Social Psychology (2006) (Ch 22).
  • Chris Janiszewski and Dan Uy, "Precision of the Anchor Influences the Amount of Adjustment," Psychological Science (2008); the Ackerman model via Voss (Ch 23).
  • Robert Cialdini, Influence (1984) and Pre-Suasion (2016); David Strohmetz et al., "Sweetening the Till," JASP (2002) (Ch 24).
  • Robert Axelrod, The Evolution of Cooperation (1984); John von Neumann and Oskar Morgenstern; John Nash; Thomas Schelling, The Strategy of Conflict (1960) (Ch 26).

Negotiation in the world

  • Deborah Mitchell, J. Edward Russo, and Nancy Pennington (1989), prospective hindsight; Gary Klein, "Performing a Project Premortem," HBR (2007); Atul Gawande, The Checklist Manifesto (2009) (Ch 27).
  • Linda Babcock and Sara Laschever, Women Don't Ask (2003); Hannah Riley Bowles, Linda Babcock, and Lei Lai (2007), on backlash (Ch 28).
  • The U.S. Constitutional Convention and the Connecticut/Great Compromise (1787); Aubrey Mendelow, stakeholder grid (1991) (Ch 29).
  • Justin Kruger et al., "Egocentrism Over E-Mail," JPSP (2005); Richard Daft and Robert Lengel, media richness theory (1986) (Ch 30).
  • Edward T. Hall, Beyond Culture (1976); Erin Meyer, The Culture Map (2014); Geert Hofstede, cultural dimensions (Ch 31).
  • George Mitchell and the Good Friday Agreement (1998); U.S. Institute of Peace materials (Ch 32).
  • John Gottman, Why Marriages Succeed or Fail (1994) and The Seven Principles for Making Marriage Work (1999) — the Four Horsemen (Ch 33).
  • Bryce Ryan and Neal Gross, "The Diffusion of Hybrid Seed Corn in Two Iowa Communities," Rural Sociology (1943); Everett Rogers, Diffusion of Innovations (1962) (Ch 34).
  • K. Anders Ericsson, Ralf Krampe, and Clemens Tesch-Römer, "The Role of Deliberate Practice," Psychological Review (1993); Ericsson and Robert Pool, Peak (2016); Malcolm Gladwell, Outliers (2008, the "10,000-hour rule," critiqued); Jeffrey Pfeffer and Robert Sutton, The Knowing-Doing Gap (2000) (Ch 35).

A note on the evidence

Social science is provisional, and this book has tried to be honest about it. Several findings cited here are robust and heavily replicated (anchoring, loss aversion, affect labeling); others are real but contested or context-dependent (the "but you are free" effect, displayed anger, emotional intelligence as a unified trait); and several popular claims are distortions this book corrects rather than repeats (the Mehrabian "93% of communication is nonverbal" figure, the Cuban Missile Crisis "Trollope ploy," the "10,000-hour rule," "70% of change efforts fail"). Where a single dramatic statistic appears, treat it as illustrative rather than definitive — the underlying principles, not any one study, are what carry the weight.