NPR

How To Negotiate Out Of Shutdown Stalemate? 'Getting To Yes' Author Has Advice

William Ury, co-author of the classic book on negotiating tactics, says Republicans and Democrats should start with their victory speeches — and then work backwards.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi of Calif., center, speaks as she stands next to Senate Minority Leader Sen. Chuck Schumer of N.Y., left, and Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., right, following their meeting with President Trump at the White House in Washington, Wednesday, Jan. 9, 2019. (Susan Walsh/AP)

What do you do when talks are going nowhere?

Amid the weekslong government shutdown, William Ury, co-author of the book “Getting to Yes,” a classic in the art and science of negotiations and diplomacy, has some advice for President Trump and Republican and Democratic leaders in Congress.

Start with victory speeches — and then work backwards.

“You write President Trump’s victory speech in which he says to his base, ‘I won,’ and you write Nancy Pelosi’s victory speech in which he says to her base, ‘I won,’ and then you work back from that and say, ‘OK, how‘s Jeremy Hobson.

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