Esperanza Herrera
Professor See
MGMT 430
18 October 2015

YouTube Assignment “The Walk From “No” to “Yes” The video “The Walk From “No” to “Yes,” by William Ury, Mr. Ury explains the difficulties in negotiation. William Ury uses his personal stories to demonstrate to the audience that even in the hardest negotiation there is always a way to find peace and reaching an agreement. In a negotiation there are usually two sides fighting each other, rarely do those party realize that there is another party that can be involve in the argument the “third party”. Ury’s views of negotiation can be apply into daily life by using the “going to the balcony” theory, rethink and reframe your options in hand, thinking about others point of view. William Ury began his speech by telling the story of a Middle Eastern man that willed his three sons seventeen camels. The sons were to split the camels accordingly, the first son was to get one half of the camels, the second son was to get one third of the camels and the last the third son was to get one ninth of the camels. Since the seventeen camels could not be split evenly, the three sons went to ask an elderly lady for advice, but she was unable to help them. The elderly lady decided to give them one of her camels, now the three sons had eighteen camels. They split the camels accordingly the first son got nine camels, the second son got six and the youngest got two camels. They then had one camel leaf-over they decided to give it back to the old lady. If the brothers from the beginning had solve that problem they wouldn’t had needed to go to the lady and lake her camel.
The second story was about how the South Africa tribe of the San Bushmen resolve their problems. The San Bushmen are known for their hunting and own arrows with poison tips. When an argument arises someone goes around and collects all the arrows in the tribe and hides them. The whole tribe them sits in a circle and talk about the conflict in hand, they go for days on. If the conflict is not resolve one of the issue parties is then send off to some family menders far from the tribe.
The third story was about how Mr. Ury helped out in a peace negotiation between Chechnya and Russia in times of war. The meeting did not begin in the best possible way, the Chechnya vice-president began accusing Russia of war crimes. Telling them they had to stay there and pay for their crimes. Then the vice-president directed his anger to Ury saying the conflicts between the United States and Puerto Rico. Which to Ury had nothing to do with the problem that they were originally to solve. Ury remain calm and went to a place in his mind were he thought about the whole picture and brought the conversion back to the main topic of peace treaty, to stop the blood-shed between the Chechnya country and Russia.
The last story and maybe the main focus of William Ury talk, thinking outside of the box looking at the bigger picture when it comes to a conflict and its solution. Ury began talking about the worlds most complicated conflict is in the Middle East. He asked the audience who could be the third party in that conflict, someone that has a total different view from those at war. He asked the audience it they have ever worry about the Middle east, and what they could do to help to solve the conflict? Many feel a connection to the Middle Eastern problems because of the story not just the politics but the whole conflict, because it matters to us. He explain the he personally did not have a plan in how to solve the problem either, but he had a first step that the Middle East can follow. He told the audience to think about the Prophet Abraham, how the prophet’s views can be used as the third party. Abraham’s life can be used as a path way for others to follow.
Throughout, the four stories Ury said that we as the third party have to think about all sides of the story. This was mainly on the last story about the conflict in the Middle East, how Prophet Abraham could be the third side of the story. The prophets Abraham was a man who walked across the Middle East thousands of years ago. Prophet Abraham main values were to be respectful and show kindness to strangers. Ury talked about a lady in a Middle Eastern town were poverty levels are high, this woman’s husband was sick and couldn’t help bring money home. The lady choose to cook to travelers passing by the town and earn some money by doing so. Ury then told the audience that the lady was rejected by the town because of her poverty, but the kind travelers showed her kindness and now she is able to buy food for her family and sale food to passing travelers. Ury showed the audience how hostility can be change to hospitality and how terrorism can be change into tourism. Therefore, Prophets Abraham hospitality to others can be used as the third party, in being the first step to solve the conflict in the Middle East.
Around, three years ago I ran over a cow. Back in my hometown there are ranches that have dairy cows. One day after a stressful day at school I decided to go through the back roads, because I did not want to go through traffic. Now, that I think about it I should have just gone through the freeway. I was driving and saw that in the distance there were some large figures, I did not think much of it, until I go a bit closer and saw that it was three cows in the middle of the road. I got so scared but kept calm, I then notice that one of the cows was a male and another female and well they were about to do the nasty. The female cow run away and smashed into my car, she was not hurt and seen fine, my car on the other hand was not fine at all my bumper was damage. I called my cousin right away and he went to talk to the ranch owner. A couple of hours later the man was on my case yelling that I was at fault because I was distracted, that I had to pay him because due to the crash the cow would not be able to produce milk and the rancher would be losing money due to that. I called my uncle who works at a dairy farm, when he got there he explain that I was not at fault, it was an accident that could not being stop. That we had to call our insurance and have them deal with it. The rancher did not want to involve the insurance so he told me he was going to pay for the repairs to my car. We called it even, now that I think about it my uncle pay a part as the third party. He was calm used his knowledge and lead both parties into the best possible solution. Hospitality can be practice by everyone that has an open mind about helping others, a stranger can become the best ally in the future.
At the end of his presentation Ury told the audience that in his last thirty year of experience resolving problems there is no conflict that cannot be solve. That is true there is always a way the conflicting parties can reach an agreement they just have to think about it and an answer will be found. Even if it is not easy to find and answer it is never impossible, we must have to think outside of the box, take a step back and see the bigger picture. That when two parties cannot find the answer it is the responsibility of the third party to help out, the third party can be anyone of us a community member of a friend or family member, even if it does not pertain to them it’s always best to have more people to solve a problem.