Are you interested in hiring William Ury to speak at your event, conference, trade show, meeting, or convention?
As a keynote speaker, he knows how to command a stage where he can deliver a powerful presentation that will captivate your audience.
On this page you can contact William Ury’s speaker booking agency to learn more about his speaking fees and availability.
A booking agent will respond to you within two business hours to let you know if they are available and how much they cost.
Request SpeakerSpeaker Bio
William Ury is a highly-sought keynote speaker and expert covering such topics as negotiation, communication, and conflict resolution. He is a best-selling author, consultant, media pundit, and thought-leader who has spoken at many conferences around the world where he gives leaders the skills they need to deal with fast, big changes in society, the workplace, and education.
William Ury is hired to speak at events and conferences where he can give expertise on important global business affairs. He is a mediator, writer and speaker, working with conflicts ranging from family feuds to boardroom battles to ethnic wars. He’s the author of “Getting to Yes.” He offers negotiation and advanced negotiation seminars internationally in events organized by HSM. He has presented seminars in the United States and across the world, including Brazil, Italy, Germany, Spain, Argentina, Mexico, Malaysia, and Thailand.
He has taught negotiation to tens of thousands of executives, managers, nonprofit leaders, government officials, military officers, teachers, lawyers, doctors, union officials, coal miners, UN peacekeepers, diplomats, and others.
William also has served as a consultant to nonprofit organizations and dozens of executive and leadership teams at Fortune 500 companies, including Marriott International, Price Waterhouse Coopers, Ford Motor Company, First Data, Schering-Plough, Prudential Insurance, Pepsi Cola, Novellus, and AT&T. In addition, William has served as a negotiation and mediation advisor for the White House and the State Department.
William L. Ury co-founded Harvard’s Program on Negotiation and is currently a Senior Fellow of the Harvard Negotiation Project. He is the author of The Power of a Positive No: How to Say No & Still Get to Yes, and co-author (with Roger Fisher) of Getting to Yes: Negotiating Agreement Without Giving In, translated into 30+ languages. He is also author of the award-winning Getting Past No: Negotiating with Difficult People and Getting To Peace (released in paperback under the title The Third Side).
Over the last 30 years, Ury has served as a negotiation adviser and mediator in conflicts ranging from corporate mergers to wildcat strikes in a Kentucky coal mine to ethnic wars in the Middle East, the Balkans, and the former Soviet Union. With former president Jimmy Carter, he co- founded the International Negotiation Network, a non-governmental body seeking to end civil wars around the world. During the 1980s, he helped the US and Soviet governments create nuclear crisis centers designed to avert an accidental nuclear war. In that capacity, he served as a consultant to the Crisis Management Center at the White House. More recently, Ury has served as a third party in helping to end a civil war in Aceh, Indonesia, and helping to prevent one in Venezuela.
When teaching negotiation, Ury focuses on five key principles:
- Focus on people, and their underlying needs.
“Separate people from the problem. Then you can be soft on the person and hard on the problem.”
“Giving people basic human respect costs you nothing but means a lot to the other person in the negotiation.”
- Focus on interests, not positions.
“Always ask the question Why? Understand the why behind the what.”
Think of a position as what you say you want but an interest as what you need. Ury used the story of the sisters arguing over an orange. They each wanted the orange (position) but had different interests: one wanted juice and the other rind for baking. Understanding interests allowed them to both fulfill their desires.
- Create multiple options.
Go beyond single solutions. The more options you can identify, the greater the chance for a successful outcome.
- Identify criteria: insist that the result be based on objective criteria.
- Use BATNA: best alternative to a negotiated agreement.
This is your walk away alternative. No deal is better than a bad deal.
“Often people reach an agreement that is bad for them.”
This is different from a bottom line which is an either/or that means you haven’t considered alternatives for satisfying your interests other than win/lose.
Request SpeakerSpeaking Fees
William Ury’s speaking fees can vary depending on the type of event you are producing and where it is located.
His speaking fee can also vary depending on whether you need them to deliver a live or virtual presentation.
Please note we do not work with organizations looking for speakers to speak for free, do podcasts or interviews, or do non-paid charity work.
Contact William Ury
To inquire about his speaking fees and costs, contact Keynote Speakers Agency today to book William Ury for a live or virtual event, meeting, special appearance, conference, or trade-show.
Our agent will respond within two business hours.