An interview with Roger Fisher and William Ury

Roger Fisher is director of the Harvard Negotiation Project, Williston Professor of Law Emeritus at Harvard Law School and co-author of Getting to Yes: Negotiating Agreement Without Giving In. William Ury is co-founder of Harvard's Program on Negotiation. He co-authored Getting to Yes. In an interview, they discuss Getting to Yes. Fisher worked for the government, in the Solicitor General's office. Ury's background is anthropology. Ury says that when the book came out, there was a stigma about negotiation. There was the thought that only the weak negotiate. Fisher says that every book on negotiation before Getting to Yes was about how to be a better adversary and how to dominate. According to Ury, 95% of negotiations are with people with whom there is an on-going relationship. He says the concept at the heart of the book was the distinction between positions and interests.