William Ury is the co-founder and senior fellow at Harvard University’s Program on Negotiation. These are my notes from his interview at the Global Leadership Summit.
- Negotiation is the act of reaching agreement
- The greatest obstacle to negotiation and agreement is ourselves. We are the biggest barrier to our own success
- When angry you will make the best speech you will ever regret
- One of the greatest powers of negotiation that we have is the power not to react
- 4 Tips to successful negotiation:
- #1 People:
- Separate the people from the problem.
- Be soft on people and hard on the problem.
- Listen, put yourself in the shoes of the other person and offer respect
- Interests:
- Focus on interests not positions.
- What are the underlying interests and issues?
- Options:
- Develop multiple options.
- Creative options that meet the interests of all parties
- Criteria:
- The power of objective criteria and fairness, insist that the result be based on some objective standard.
- Go into the conversation within a bottom line that you would walk away without agreement but still be happy with your walk away plan
- #1 People:
- Less talk, more walk
- “Do I not destroy my enemy when I make them my friend?” Abraham Lincoln
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