William Ury

Last updated
William Ury
BornSeptember 12, 1953 Chicago, Illinois
NationalityAmerican
Education
Occupation(s)Author, academic, anthropologist, negotiation expert
ChildrenGabi
Christian
Thomas
Relatives Brendon Urie (cousin)

William Ury is an American author, academic, anthropologist, and negotiation expert. He co-founded the Harvard Program on Negotiation. [1] Additionally, he helped found the International Negotiation Network with former President Jimmy Carter. Ury is the co-author of Getting to Yes with Roger Fisher, which set out the method of principled negotiation and established the idea of the best alternative to a negotiated agreement (BATNA) within negotiation theory. [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7]

Contents

Background

Ury was educated at Le Rosey and at Phillips Andover where he graduated in 1970. [8] In college, Ury studied anthropology, linguistics, and classics. [8] Ury received his B.A. from Yale and his PhD in social anthropology from Harvard. [4] [5] In 1979 he co-founded the Harvard Negotiation Project of which he is currently a Distinguished Fellow. In 1981, he helped found the Program on Negotiation at Harvard Law School. [2] [4] [6]

Books

Ury co-authored Getting to Yes with Roger Fisher as a guide for international mediators. It was first published in 1981, then published in a second edition in 1991 with Bruce Patton credited as a contributing author. A third edition was published in 2012. [2] [6] [9] [10]

Other books written by Ury include:

International work

Ury has worked as a negotiation adviser and mediator in conflicts in the Middle East, the Balkans, the former Soviet Union, Indonesia, Yugoslavia, Chechnya, and Venezuela among other countries. [3] [5] [6] [16] [17]

Ury founded and served as the director of the Harvard Nuclear Negotiation Project. In 1982, the United States Arms Control and Disarmament Agency requested that the Harvard Negotiation Project compile a report applying its understanding of human communication to the issue of superpower restraint to reduce the risk of a war started by accident, terrorism, mistake, runaway escalation, or misperception. Together with Richard Smoke, Ury interviewed U.S. and Soviet specialists and government officials, and published the report for the government in 1984. The report was the basis for Ury's book Beyond the Hotline. [3] [5] [11] During this time, he also acted as a consultant to the Crisis Management Center at the White House, working to create Nuclear Risk Reduction Centers in Washington and Moscow, which were the subject of the first arms control agreement signed by President Ronald Reagan and General Secretary Mikhail Gorbachev. [4] [11]

Together with former President Jimmy Carter, Ury co-founded the International Negotiation Network, which worked to end civil wars around the world. [4] The International Negotiation Network was led by a council that included Carter and Desmond Tutu. Other notable people involved with the Network include Javier Pérez de Cuéllar, Sonny Ramphal, and Sir Brian Urquhart. [5]

Ury teaches negotiation to international corporate executives and labor leaders to reach mutually profitable agreements with customers, suppliers, unions and joint-venture partners. [5] [14]

In 2001, Ury co-founded the e-Parliament with Nicholas Dunlop. The website serves as a global forum for international elected officials to work on issues of common interest. [4] [18] The e-Parliament has given birth to the Climate Parliament, which links thousands of elected officials from 50 different countries to work together informally on issues of renewable energy and climate. [5]

Abraham Path

In 2007, Ury founded the Abraham Path Initiative, a long-distance walking trail across the Middle East which connects the sites visited by Abraham as recorded in ancient religious texts and traditions. [19] The Abraham Path Initiative was incubated at the Harvard Negotiation Project and is endorsed by the United Nations World Tourism Organization, the United Nations Alliance of Civilizations and other international partners. [20] The non-profit, non-religious and non-political initiative aims to support local partners in developing the Abraham Path as:

  • a catalyst for socioeconomic development and sustainable tourism
  • a place of meeting and connection between people from the Middle East and people around the world
  • a creative space for stories that highlight the unique culture, heritage and hospitality of the region [21]

In April 2014, the Abraham Path was listed in National Geographic Traveler (UK) magazine as number one on its list of the ten best walking trails in the world. [22]

Awards

Ury is the recipient of the Whitney North Seymour Award from the American Arbitration Association. He also received the Distinguished Service Medal from the Russian Parliament for his work on the resolution of ethnic conflicts. [4] [5] He received the 2012 Peacemakers Award from Mediators Beyond Borders. [23] On March 11, 2022, Ury received the International Advocate for Peace Award from the Cardozo Journal of Conflict Resolution—the country's preeminent legal journal of arbitration, negotiation, mediation, settlement, and restorative justice [24] —as part of its Melnick Annual Symposium. [25]

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Negotiation</span> Dialogue intended to reach an agreement

Negotiation is a dialogue between two or more parties to resolve points of difference, gain an advantage for an individual or collective, or craft outcomes to satisfy various interests. The parties aspire to agree on matters of mutual interest. The agreement can be beneficial for all or some of the parties involved. The negotiators should establish their own needs and wants while also seeking to understand the wants and needs of others involved to increase their chances of closing deals, avoiding conflicts, forming relationships with other parties, or maximizing mutual gains. Distributive negotiations, or compromises, are conducted by putting forward a position and making concessions to achieve an agreement. The degree to which the negotiating parties trust each other to implement the negotiated solution is a major factor in determining the success of a negotiation.

In negotiation theory, the best alternative to a negotiated agreement or BATNA refers to the most advantageous alternative course of action a party can take if negotiations fail and an agreement cannot be reached. The BATNA could include diverse situations, such as suspension of negotiations, transition to another negotiating partner, appeal to the court's ruling, the execution of strikes, and the formation of other forms of alliances. BATNA is the key focus and the driving force behind a successful negotiator. A party should generally not accept a worse resolution than its BATNA. Care should be taken, however, to ensure that deals are accurately valued, taking into account all considerations, such as relationship value, time value of money and the likelihood that the other party will live up to their side of the bargain. These other considerations are often difficult to value since they are frequently based on uncertain or qualitative considerations rather than easily measurable and quantifiable factors.

Roger D. Fisher was Samuel Williston Professor of Law at Harvard Law School and director of the Harvard Negotiation Project.

Conflict resolution is conceptualized as the methods and processes involved in facilitating the peaceful ending of conflict and retribution. Committed group members attempt to resolve group conflicts by actively communicating information about their conflicting motives or ideologies to the rest of group and by engaging in collective negotiation. Dimensions of resolution typically parallel the dimensions of conflict in the way the conflict is processed. Cognitive resolution is the way disputants understand and view the conflict, with beliefs, perspectives, understandings and attitudes. Emotional resolution is in the way disputants feel about a conflict, the emotional energy. Behavioral resolution is reflective of how the disputants act, their behavior. Ultimately a wide range of methods and procedures for addressing conflict exist, including negotiation, mediation, mediation-arbitration, diplomacy, and creative peacebuilding.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service (United States)</span> Independent agency of the US government

The Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service (FMCS), founded in 1947, is an independent agency of the United States government, and the nation's largest public agency for dispute resolution and conflict management, providing mediation services and related conflict prevention and resolution services in the private, public, and federal sectors. FMCS is tasked with mediating labor disputes around the country; it provides training and relationship development programs for management and unions as part of its role in promoting labor-management peace and cooperation. The Agency also provides mediation, conflict prevention, and conflict management services outside the labor context for federal agencies and the programs they operate. The FMCS headquarters is located in Washington, D.C., with other offices across the country.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Zone of possible agreement</span>

The term zone of possible agreement (ZOPA), also known as zone of potential agreement or bargaining range, describes the range of options available to two parties involved in sales and negotiation, where the respective minimum targets of the parties overlap. Where no such overlap is given, in other words where there is no rational agreement possibility, the inverse notion of NOPA applies. Where there is a ZOPA, an agreement within the zone is rational for both sides. Outside the zone no amount of negotiation should yield an agreement.

The Program on Negotiation (PON) is a university consortium dedicated to developing the theory and practice of negotiation and dispute resolution. As a community of scholars and practitioners, PON serves a unique role in the world negotiation community. Founded in 1983 as a special research project at Harvard Law School, PON includes faculty, students, and staff from Harvard University, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Tufts University, and Brandeis University.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Rogerian argument</span> Conflict-solving technique

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The Mutual Gains Approach (MGA) to negotiation is a process model, based on experimental findings and hundreds of real-world cases, that lays out four steps for negotiating better outcomes while protecting relationships and reputation. A central tenet of the model, and the robust theory that underlies it, is that a vast majority of negotiations in the real world involve parties who have more than one goal or concern in mind and more than one issue that can be addressed in the agreement they reach. The model allows parties to improve their chances of creating an agreement superior to existing alternatives.

<i>Getting to Yes</i> 1981 book about negotiation methods by Roger Fisher

Getting to Yes: Negotiating Agreement Without Giving In is a best-selling 1981 non-fiction book by Roger Fisher and William Ury. Subsequent editions in 1991 and 2011 added Bruce Patton as co-author. All of the authors were members of the Harvard Negotiation Project.

Richard Smoke was an American historian and political scientist.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lawrence Susskind</span>

Lawrence E. Susskind is a scholar of conflict resolution and consensus-building in urban planning. He is one of the founders of the field of public dispute mediation and is a practicing international mediator through the Consensus Building institute. He has taught at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology since 1971, where he is Ford Professor of Environmental Planning.

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jewish-Palestinian Living Room Dialogue Group</span>

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Abraham Path</span> Cultural route

The Abraham Path is a cultural route believed to have been the path of the patriarch Abraham's ancient journey across the Ancient Near East. The path was established in 2007 as a pilgrims' way to mimic the historical believed route of Abraham, between his birthplace of Ur of the Chaldees, believed by some to have been Urfa, Turkey, and his final destination of the desert of Negev.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">2013–2014 Israeli–Palestinian peace talks</span> Failed peace talks between Israel and the Palestinian Authority

The 2013–2014 Israeli–Palestinian peace talks were part of the Israeli–Palestinian peace process. Direct negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians began on 29 July 2013 following an attempt by United States Secretary of State John Kerry to restart the peace process.

The Harvard Negotiation Project is a project created at Harvard University which deals with issues of negotiations and conflict resolution.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sven Koopmans</span> Dutch international lawyer and European diplomat

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ethiopia–Tigray peace agreement</span> Peace treaty signed in 2022

The Ethiopia–Tigray peace agreement, commonly called the Pretoria Agreement or the Cessation of Hostilities Agreement (CoHA), is a peace treaty between the government of Ethiopia and the Tigray People's Liberation Front (TPLF) that was signed 2 November 2022, wherein both parties agreed to a "permanent cessation of hostilities" to end the Tigray War. The agreement was made effective the next day on 3 November, marking the two-year anniversary of the war.

References

  1. ↑ "Harvard Negotiation Project". Program on Negotiation: Harvard Law School. Retrieved 19 December 2014.
  2. 1 2 3 "An Interview with Roger Fisher and William Ury". The Academy of Management Executive (1993–2005). Vol. 18, no. 3. Academy of Management. August 2004. pp. 101–108.
  3. 1 2 3 "Speaker: William Ury". TED . Retrieved 19 December 2014.
  4. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 "William Ury". Program on Negotiation: Harvard Law School. 26 March 2010. Retrieved 19 December 2014.
  5. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 William Ury (18 November 2009). "From the Boardroom to the Border: Negotiating for Sustainable Agreements" (PDF). Joan B. Kroc Institute for Peace & Justice. Retrieved 19 December 2014.
  6. 1 2 3 4 Doug Stewart (1 November 1997). "Expand the Pie Before You Divvy It Up". Smithsonian Magazine.
  7. ↑ "Confianza, tema fundamental para cualquier negociación: William Ury" (in Spanish). Aída UlloaView Profile. El Universal [Mexico City]. 3 October 2007.
  8. 1 2 "Bill Ury". Integral Life. Archived from the original on 23 December 2014. Retrieved 19 December 2014.
  9. ↑ Roger Fisher; William Ury (1981). Getting to Yes: Negotiating Agreement Without Giving In. Houghton Mifflin. OCLC   7575986 . Retrieved 19 December 2014.
  10. ↑ Roger Fisher; William Ury; Bruce Patton (1991). Getting to Yes: Negotiating Agreement Without Giving In. Penguin Books. Bibcode:1991gtyn.book.....F. OCLC   24318769 . Retrieved 19 December 2014.
  11. 1 2 3 Seidenbaum, Art (21 April 1985). "Beyond the Hotline by William L. Ury (book review)". Los Angeles Times.
  12. ↑ "Must We Fight?". Program on Negotiation: Harvard Law School. Retrieved 19 December 2014.
  13. ↑ Peter Stanford (25 May 2007). "The lighter side of Mr No: Peter Stanford meets self-help guru William Ury who believes there are good and bad ways of not saying yes". The Daily Telegraph. p. 22.
  14. 1 2 William Ury (January 2011). "The Power of a Positive No" (PDF). Oxford Leadership Journal. Archived from the original (PDF) on 24 August 2015. Retrieved 19 December 2014.
  15. ↑ Lee, MJ (March 1, 2024). "Biden's weekend reading: A book on how to 'break through the toughest conflicts'". cnn.com.
  16. ↑ "The walk from "no" to "yes"". TED. November 2010. Retrieved 19 December 2014.
  17. ↑ Alasdair Northrop (5 June 2009). "Negotiation guru brings new ideas; 'Recession boosts mediation skills'". Business 7 (UK). p. 9.
  18. ↑ "History". e-Parliament. Retrieved 19 December 2014.
  19. ↑ Ilene R. Prusher (13 February 2007). "Tracing Abraham's path to Mideast peace ; Two researchers are following the footsteps of the religious patriarch in the hope that people will rediscover their common roots". The Christian Science Monitor.
  20. ↑ "Abraham's Path". Program on Negotiation: Harvard Law School. Retrieved 19 December 2014.
  21. ↑ Moshe Gilad (1 July 2014). "Hiking in Abraham's footsteps, from Turkey to the Holy Land". Haaretz. Retrieved 19 December 2014.
  22. ↑ Ben Lerwill (6 March 2014). "10 of the best new walking trails". National Geographic Traveller. Retrieved 19 December 2014.
  23. ↑ "Past Congresses". Mediators Beyond Borders International. Retrieved 21 June 2022.
  24. ↑ "Who We Are". Cardozo Journal of Conflict Resolution. Retrieved 21 June 2022.
  25. ↑ "William Ury Receives International Advocate for Peace Award as Part of Melnick Annual Symposium". Cardozo School of Law. Retrieved 21 June 2022.
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