William Ury – The Power of a Positive No: How to Say No and Still Get to Yes

The Power of a Positive No: How to Say No and Still Get to YesAuthor:  William UryRead by: William UryBook February 27, 2007CD Audio February 27, 20076 Compact Discs UnabridgedApprox 7 hrs 15 MinutesMP3 encoded @ 64 kbps(I understand that this is still a fairly large bitrate for simple recordedhuman voice but fewthings annoy me more than a book sounding like it’s being read by a robo with ahead coldt)———-No is perhaps the most important and certainly the most powerful word in thelanguage. Every day we find ourselves in situations where we need to say No-topeople at work, at home, and in our communities-because No is the word we mustuse to protect ourselves and to stand up for everything and everyone thatmatters to us.But as we all know, the wrong No can also destroy what we most value byalienating and angering people. That’s why saying No the right way is crucial.The secret to saying No without destroying relationships lies in the art of thePositive No, a proven technique that anyone can learn.This indispensable book gives you a simple three-step method for saying aPositive No. It will show you how to assert and defend your key interests; howto make your No firm and strong; how to resist the other side’s aggression andmanipulation; and how to do all this while still getting to Yes. In the end, thePositive No will help you get not just to any Yes but to the right Yes, the onethat truly serves your interests.Based on William Ury’s celebrated Harvard University course for managers andprofessionals, The Power of a Positive No offers concrete advice and practicalexamples for saying No in virtually any situation. Whether you need to say No toyour customer or your coworker, your employee or your CEO, your child or yourspouse, you will find in this book the secret to saying No clearly,respectfully, and effectively.In today’s world of high stress and limitless choices, the pressure to give inand say Yes grows greater every day, producing overload and overwork, expandinge-mail and eroding ethics. Never has No been more needed. A Positive No has thepower to profoundly transform our lives by enabling us to say Yes to whatcounts-our own needs, values, and priorities.Understood this way, No is the new Yes. And the Positive No may be the mostvaluable life skill you’ll ever learn!———-Review”William Ury brings a marvelous blend of experience, insight, integrity andwarmth to his work. In this wonderful book he teaches us how to say No-withgrace and effect-so that we might create even better Yes”.-Jim Collins, authorGood to Great”Almost any brief comment on The Power of a Positive No would be trite. Sufficeit to say that if I’d had and used this book for the last 25 years, I would havedoubtless avoided innumerable heartaches and headaches and tattered personal andprofessional relationships. ‘Original’ is an embarrassingly overused word onbook dust jackets, but, simply, this all-important book stands alone on asubject that underpins, like no other, jndividual and organizationaleffectiveness.”-Tom Peters, author of In search of Excellence”The world’s biggest shared secret is that most of us say yes when we reallywant to say no, in both our professional and private lives. Bill Ury generouslyprovides us with insights and techniques to turn this malady into win-winsolutions. This is a wise and powerful book.”-John Naisbitt, author ofMegatrends”No matter whether you are negotiating compensation with the toughest CFO or acurfew for your teenager, this book teaches us a critical and counterintuitivelesson.  You can say no and still be nice.  Simple, straightforward and easy toread, The Power of a Positive No is a YES on our reading list.”-Linda KaplanThaler and Robin Koval, authors of The Power of Nice: How to Conquer theBusiness World with Kindness