Brian Gunia

“The Bartering Mindset: A Mostly-Forgotten Framework for Mastering Your Next Negotiation” (2019)

Ever wonder why negotiating is so hard—why many of us don’t get the critical raise, can’t convince the teenager to get home on time, and never leave the car dealer feeling very good? According to The Bartering Mindset, the answer lies all around us—in our many daily monetary transactions. In particular, the book suggests that our daily exposure to money leads us to use think about negotiations as monetary transactions (adopt a "monetary mindset"), which inevitably prompts us to make counterproductive assumptions about negotiation and thus negotiate badly.So is everyone in a monetary economy fated to fail? Luckily not, since money is far from the only metaphor we can use for negotiations. The Bartering Mindset argues that by thinking about negotiations as bartering trades instead (adopting the "bartering mindset"), we can all learn to negotiate better and more productively. And it trains you to do just that through a straightforward, five-step process. Ultimately, The Bartering Mindset reminds you of a "mostly forgotten" mindset that will make even the most challenging, money-focused negotiations negotiable!