Negotiation of Industry and World

In business, there are relationships just as there are in personal life, and negotiation takes place constantly as a part of every interaction in both.

Joel Peterson, in his video Conducting Effective Negotiations, gives a highly detailed and personal account of utilizing most of the concepts that are described in the book Getting to Yes by Roger Fisher and William Ury. Joel deconstructs each of the techniques that may be employed during a negotiation to deceive or gain power and discusses how to handle them with the audience. He offers a real world perspective of principled negotiation with personal stories to create a meaningful connection with his audience. Besides covering the basic topics of objective criteria, separating the people from the problem, and mutual benefits, he covers other topics relative to the entertainment business such as describing how positive branding can result from upholding principled negotiation and common substance for business agreements.

William Ury, one of the authors of Getting to Yes, describes in his video Negotiating for Sustainable Agreements, how in a negotiation there is often a third side that is not obvious to the two parties negotiating, that he refers to as a third stage or balcony. For each party to come to an agreement that is mutual, they must take a step back from their current positions to contemplate the important issues of each others interests on this balcony that oversees the two parties as "us" instead of "you and I", and clears a path to peace by becoming the third side. To me, this is described in his book by separating the people from the problem. Once you are able to move the focus away from positions then you are able create options for mutual gain. William Ury uses storytelling of conflict in the Middle East to identify strategies for joint problem solving and can similarly apply to negotiations within the entertainment industry, which can at times seem like a war of positions, for example, as with the Writers strike of 2007.

In his video The walk from "no" to "yes", William Ury gives an in depth look at the story of Abraham from the Bible and explains how its message can apply to negotiation. By addressing a pressing issue in today’s world like terrorism, Ury suggests that tourism, inspired by the walk that Abraham and his family took throughout the Middle East, may unite more than just countries by changing the game, and essentially changing the world.