Author
Chris Voss
The FBI's former lead international kidnapping negotiator, who brought hostage tactics to everyday deals.
1 book on BookYol
The story and the impact
Chris Voss spent more than two decades with the FBI, rising to lead international kidnapping negotiator, and worked cases across the world before teaching negotiation at business schools and founding The Black Swan Group, a consultancy that trains companies in his methods.
Never Split the Difference, written with Tahl Raz and published in 2016, argued that the hostage negotiator's toolkit, built for situations where compromise is not an option, works better in business and daily life than the classical win-win model. It became the negotiation book of its decade.
The signature
Voss's signature is tactical empathy: making the other side feel understood as the fastest route to influence, without conceding anything. His tools are listening tools, mirrors, labels and calibrated questions, and his voice is direct and unsentimental. He is skeptical of splitting the difference, of yes as a goal, and of any theory that forgets people are emotional first.