Negotiation is one of the core challenges or at least responsibility of many players in the nonprofit sector. In my experience, no day goes by without some need to negotiate some aspect of working on Mission. My tutorials from Getting Past No (William Ury)) and Getting to Yes (W. Ury, R. Fishman and B. Patton) and subsequent teaching the subject of negotiation have helped me understand and promote processes and understanding that can help make each day and perhaps many moments in the day more successful.
And while I thought I didn't really need to know more about the negotiation process, having practiced and taught this over and over, Negotiating While Black: Be Who You Are to Get What You Want by Damali Peterman arose. I must say, my eyes have been opened wider and while it is unlikely I shall ever be as conscientious and accomplished as M. Peterman, I am better off having read this volume.
Damali Peterman introduces the subject of negotiation using par excellent story telling (I think she should use these skills to dabble in fiction as well) and both detailing, highlighting and summarizing key points to essentially teach what we wearing a professional hat or a personal hat would do well to understand particularly about what makes us tick to even be able to and then actually, negotiate.
While the "master" authors (Ury, Fishman and Patton) have laid out the fundamentals, no one in my reading has so specifically detailed what goes on within us and even from where we come to enable us to apply any negotiation process as has Damali Peterman. And yes, the lens of being a negotiator who is Black but also an attorney and professor (among her many apparent skills) adds a dimension that the master authors have not been able to reflect so when considering added value to the subject of negotiation, Peterman has nailed it.
Nonprofit board chairs, execs, staff, volunteers and yes, their customers - all would do well to discuss and apply the key points captured well at the end of each chapter and pass the learnings on until there is no longer a need.