Never Split the Difference
by Chris Voss
★ Top 5 book of 2016 · #4 on Best Books of 2016
Former FBI hostage negotiator Chris Voss distills techniques from his career, from Kansas City streets to international kidnapping cases, into practical negotiation principles. He shows how they apply to work, buying a car, raises, rent and family life.
Best for: Professionals and everyday people who want to negotiate better at work and home
Never Split the Difference is #4 on BookWard's Best Books of 2016, out of 68 2016 books that cleared our data bar.
What Never Split the Difference is about
Chris Voss policed the streets of Kansas City, Missouri, before becoming the FBI's lead international kidnapping negotiator. Here he lays out what he learned there, along with the lessons he later taught to students in leading business schools. His argument is that good negotiation is less about compromise than about listening, understanding the other person's emotions, and persuading with care. He illustrates the ideas with high-stakes stories, from the dangerous streets of Haiti to a bank robbery in Brooklyn that went wrong.
Voss then turns these crisis skills toward ordinary life. The techniques have helped businesses, MBA students looking for better jobs, and even parents handling their children. Anyone who negotiates a salary, a deal or a family disagreement will find practical, confidently told advice.
Never Split the Difference on the Best Books of 2016
Never Split the Difference came out in 2016. Of the 68 books first published in 2016 that met BookWard's data bar, it ranks #4 on our Best Books of 2016 list.
Why it made the list: 1,606 readers have shelved it on Open Library; readers rate it 4.2 out of 5 (73 ratings); 72 are reading it right now. The list ranks each year’s books on how many readers have picked them up, how highly readers rate them, and how many are reading them right now.
Nearby on the 2016 list
- Dog Man Dav Pilkey, #2
- The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck Mark Manson, #3
- The Hidden Oracle Rick Riordan, #5
- Born a Crime Trevor Noah, #6
See all Best Books of 2016 Best books by year
More years: Best Books of 2015 Best Books of 2017.
The numbers behind it
- Readers: 1,446 want to read it, 72 are reading it now and 88 have read it, according to Open Library.
- Ratings: 4.2 out of 5 from 73 Open Library ratings.
| Signal | This book (0 to 100) | Weight |
|---|---|---|
| Reach | 90 | 55% |
| Reader love | 76 | 25% |
| Being read right now | 90 | 20% |
Questions about Never Split the Difference
When was Never Split the Difference published?
Never Split the Difference by Chris Voss was first published in 2016.
Was Never Split the Difference one of the best books of 2016?
Never Split the Difference is #4 on BookWard's Best Books of 2016, out of 68 2016 books that cleared our data bar. 1,606 readers have shelved it on Open Library; readers rate it 4.2 out of 5 (73 ratings); 72 are reading it right now.
Why is Never Split the Difference on the Best Books of 2016 list?
1,606 readers have shelved it on Open Library; readers rate it 4.2 out of 5 (73 ratings); 72 are reading it right now.
More of the best books of 2016
- It Ends with Us Colleen Hoover, #1
- Dog Man Dav Pilkey, #2
- The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck Mark Manson, #3
- The Hidden Oracle Rick Riordan, #5
- Born a Crime Trevor Noah, #6
- Ikigai Héctor García, #7
See the full Best Books of 2016, the Top 100, or new books on Rising.
How we know
This page uses public data: Open Library reader counts and ratings, and Wikipedia page views for recent years. The description is paraphrased from real source text. Rankings reflect reading interest, not quality or sales, and can be affected by data gaps. Lists update monthly.
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