It’s funny how many of us resist the notion of win-win; in fact, we resist most things that come up on a regular basis to the extent that they start sounding like a fad or become clichéd, irrespective of their actual merits. This seems to be especially so with something like win-win – I guess it doesn’t sound, well, tough enough for us. It sounds like that soft stuff – but that’s probably a topic for another day.
The thing we tend to forget about win-win is that it’s an imperative, a strategic imperative if you like, whenever we have an ongoing relationship with the other person – and most times we do. Most of the time, our approach is win-lose or lose-win even if this is no longer a conscious thing.
The trouble is twofold: most of the time we are dealing with people with whom we have an ongoing relationship, and win-lose and lose-win inevitably turns into lose-lose at some stage and, accordingly, impacts negatively on that relationship, and the context of the relationship! And, really, where does lose-lose get us?
Wouldn’t we prefer to have something that is mutually beneficial?
