If you're tempted to throw back your head and guffaw when you hear the word "negotiation" linked with "Congress" and "fiscal cliff," please, don't hesitate.

Because what you're seeing play out publicly between congressional Republicans and Democrats and the White House bears little resemblance to negotiation.

"The game that's being played is the same game that's been played over the past few years — brinksmanship, and hard positional bargaining," says William Ury, who knows negotiation when he sees it...

In light of last week’s Republican defeat of the "Paycheck Fairness Act" -- which would have created  federal grants to improve women's salary negotiation skills-- now seems as good a time as any to once again explore the question, “Why do women allegedly still suck at negotiation?” and, more importantly, “What can we do about it?"

For answers, I went to William Ury, cofounder of Harvard's Program on Negotiation and bestselling author of "The Power of Positive No: How to Say No and Still Get to Yes." I was surprised to learn that women's so-called lack of negotiation skills may soon cease to be a problem in the workplace -- but not for the reason you might think...

SaoJose Polo Magazine Interview, 2012

Entrevista exclusiva com o major mediador de conflitos do mundo...

To view PDF, click here.

From the debt-ceiling debacle to the NBA lockout, today’s news would make you think the terms “negotiation” and “take it or leave it” are interchangeable. One side wants one thing, the other wants something else, and the path between polarized ends is an obstacle course of ever-changing hurdles and jagged maneuvers that leads, too often, right back to a stalemate.

“Conflict is a growth industry,” write Roger Fisher and William Ury, authors of the 2011 edition of the best-selling 30-year-old book “Getting to Yes."

No. It’s one of the shortest words in the English vocabulary, but it’s also one of the most difficult for many of us to say.

We all know that setting limits will lower our stress level and save our sanity, but sometimes we are caught off guard by people who simply won’t take no for an answer. Read on to learn how to put your foot down with these master manipulators.

"All the different language groups are in touch in a way that was never true before in human history, and like many family reunions, it’s not all sweetness and harmony,” Ury said, adding that humanity faces both major opportunities and major hurdles when it comes to handling disputes in a positive manner...

Many people think fear is the most effective tool for getting results.  Author William Ury explains how fear can be used as an access to valuable information your own intuition has to offer you.

In a live, video-taped interview, William Ury shares the strategies he has developed at the Harvard Negotiation Project for creating sustainable agreements in diplomacy and business. Ury is presented by the Institute for Peace & Justice at the Joan B. Kroc School of Peace Studies at the University of San Diego.

The linked pdf file is an edited compilation of an interview with William Ury conducted by Dee Aker, deputy director of the Joan B. Kroc Institute for Peace & Justice (IPJ), and a private meeting with graduate students from the Joan B. Kroc School of Peace Studies and the International Master of Business Administration program at the University of San Diego (USD).

To view the pdf transcript, click here.

To watch the video version click here

Political conflict between Scotland and England may never end and it is as important to find ways to handle disputes as it is to decide whether Scotland becomes independent or stays devolved...

"I think the negotiation revolution is in full sway," explains Dr Ury when asked about the changes to dispute techniques. "Every country I have gone to in the last 30 years faces the problem that they have all these conflicts and differences and all of these deals to be made. To get what you need or want, you are compelled to negotiate."

Twenty-seven years ago, Roger Fisher and I co-authored a book called Getting to Yes, which focuses on how to reach an agreement that is beneficial to both sides.  It became an international bestseller, I believe, because it reminds people of the commonsense principles they may already know but often forget to apply.

The public debate on Iraq is framed around two main alternatives: to stay or to withdraw. Neither solution is particularly attractive. William Ury illustrates another alternative, involving the Third Side.

Fears of another devastating grocery strike are rising in California. "People everywhere approach conflicts with an adversarial mind-set, intending to win and make the other side lose. And people everywhere have to learn the hard lesson that in interdependent relationships, as in this case between employees and management at Albertsons, Ralphs and Vons, destructive conflicts almost invariably end in both sides losing. 'An eye for an eye makes the whole world blind,' as Mahatma Gandhi once observed."

"We spend a huge part of life in situations that require negotiation...Along the way we have learned, often the hard way, to develop some negotiation skills. But formal training is rare - and, if it occurs, is usually limited to one brief course. A handful of new books, either in bookstores now or coming soon, is aiming to fill the void. The best of the bunch, 'The Power of a Positive No,' is by William L. Ury, director of the Global Negotiation Project at Harvard."

"Saying no has become a crucial life skill for two-income families with increasing hours at work. But many people are afraid of that two-letter word." Journalist Hannah Clark interviews William Ury about "The Power of a Positive No."

"Although we may intuitively understand how to effectively say no, we often don't because of other concerns swirling in our head. Yet today...in a world with more information, more options and more demands for productivity than ever before, the stakes are incredibly high," writes reviewer Barbara Kiviat.

O antropologo americano especialista em tecnicas de negociacao, explica como fazer para resolver conflictos de forma pacifica.

Segundo o consultor, um dos maiores especialistas do mundo no assunto, a receita para chegar a um bom acordo e saber resolver o problema do outro.

Two articles marking the 25th anniversary of "Getting to Yes" tell the story of how it was written and how it's affected the theory, practice, and teaching of negotiation.

In this interview with Julian Portilla, William Ury talks about his approach to conflict. He tells Portilla, "In the 25 years I've worked at the situation just looking for the toughest, most intractable conflicts, I've seen nothing that convinces me that conflict cannot be transformed. It takes time; it's the hardest thing you can do. It may take more time than in a Western conception of time; it might take 20 or 30 or 40 years, but I've seen remarkable turnarounds." (Full transcript available.)

La comunicacion nunca es facil, ni aun entre personas que tienen muchos meritos o valores y experiencias comunes. Pero, sin comunicacion no hay negociacion. Un extraido del libro "Si de acuerdo!" de Roger Fisher, William Ury, y Bruce Patton.