BEYOND SPLITTING THE DIFFERENCE:

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A Rejoinder to Chris Voss

By Mark Young

President, Rational Games Foundation

February 1, 2026

In almost every negotiation seminar we have offered in recent months, at least one participant has asked what we think of Chris Voss and Never Split the Difference.

Why are this book and the accompanying Master Class so wildly successful?

Is this, in Simon Sinek’s language, a “worthy rival” to our own negotiation pedagogy?

And so we read the book in its entirety. And there is indeed much to like there: it is

well-written, even gripping, with very practical advice. Hostage stories are suspenseful.

We loved his emphasis on empathy, paraverbal signals and “black swans”. And he

correctly unpacks the idea of the nonrational in negotiation.

Nevertheless, we have at least three serious concerns impeding any effort to transfer

this to negotiations in the business world:

Even in a hostage situation, following the Vossian method is problematic. Win-win is by definition impossible, as the interests of the hostage taker, the hostage and the paid negotiator are directly at odds, not to mention those of multiple parties away from the table, starting with the police. Also, since this book is now available in every airport, chances are that any smart hostage-taker has read it and knows its tools already, robbing them of their efficacy.
Attempts to transfer this to the business world are also doomed, as in those negotiations, there is always a clear relationship dimension, an implementation period and a short as well as a long-term consideration. As a rule, hostage negotiators are not looking for any kind of lasting relationship with the hostage-taker after the short-term emergency is resolved.
Finally, I would raise the question of ethics. What I would view as “dirty tricks” such as tactical empathy, “late night” voiceovers and the like fall beyond the boundary of ethical negotiation. And I am firmly convinced that skipping such tricks does not reduce power but enhances it. See the example of Nelson Mandela.

The Harvard Negotiation published a more comprehensive version of this piece

Journal in December, available at:

https://direct.mit.edu/ngtn/article/doi/10.1162/NGTN.a.38/134142/Building-on-the-

Differences-A-Rejoinder-to-Chris

Full text at www.rationalgames.com. Comments welcome!