Roger Fisher

A Harvard law professor who co-founded the Harvard Negotiation Project and, with William Ury, wrote Getting to Yes in 1981. Its central move looks obvious once stated and is very hard to do: separate the people from the problem, then bargain over interests instead of positions.

Fisher flew weather reconnaissance in the Second World War and lost enough friends to take conflict resolution personally. He worked on real disputes afterwards, including the Camp David talks and negotiations in South Africa and El Salvador. The book has sold in the millions and is still the standard text, largely because the method survives contact with people who have never read it.