-- Shares Facebook Twitter Reddit Email “Conflict has become a growth industry,” says author and educator William Ury. “The real question now is, how do we deal with it?” It’s a question Ury has been searching for answers to for over 40 years now, beginning with 1981’s groundbreaking “Getting to Yes” (coauthored with Roger Fisher), the perennial bestseller that set the template for modern negotiation technique. Now, several decades, books and successful corporate and political negotiations later, Ury is back with a fresh perspective on how to manage the conflicts in lives, from thorny work situations to day-to-day disputes with our family members.
Describing himself as a “possibilist,” Ury explains in his new book “Possible: How We Survive (and Thrive) In an Age of Conflict ” why we should lean in to conflict rather than avoid it, and how to achieve more by sometimes saying less. It’s a refreshingly humane, common sense approach that takes the pressure of "win-lose" out of our most potentially fraught interactions, compelling enough that President Biden was recently spotted conspicuously carrying a copy . Speaking with Salon recently, Ury revealed why we need to go "the balcony" before getting heated, and what's beyond even the "win-win.
" This conversation has been edited and condensed for clarity. "Not only is conflict natural, but conflict is surging." Tell me why we need to rethink our understanding of conflict.
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