Instead of pursuing a win-lose outcome where one party achieves more than the other, decision-making and negotiation experts push the idea of achieving a Win-Win resolution whereby both parties benefit.
The idea of a Win-Win has become so deeply ingrained in how leaders think about good outcomes, it has now become a part of how leaders speak about and act on workplace negotiations and disagreements.
They commonly tell everyone that they are after an outcome where everyone wins. After all, what could possibly be the drawback of a Win-Win solution?
As it turns out, a Win-Win is less than ideal.
Win-Win focuses on the goal of agreement where all parties feel they have gained some benefit, typically through collaboration and a back-and-forth exploration of what works best for everyone.
Unfortunately, a mutually acceptable deal that satisfies the interests of all sides invariably involves compromise. The tradeoffs that balance competing priorities, values, and timing allow everyone to win, but also require that they give up on issues that are important to them.
While certainly superior to an outcome where one party wins and the other loses, the Win-Win isn’t all it’s cracked up to be. Win-Win solutions almost always require concessions on the part of both sides.
This means both parties give up something important to them in return for reaching a deal or settlement. But once the solution is put into action, concessions can lead to feelings of resentment, dissatisfaction, and frustration, as sacrifices are seldom perceived to be equally shared.
What’s more, the compromise of Win-Win solutions often glosses over deeper issues and the ongoing tensions that gave rise to the agreement in the first place.
Thankfully, there is a better way.
A Total-Win negotiation stresses the creation of innovative solutions that generate the maximum value for both parties.
This means finding or creating a resolution that advances the most important goals of both parties.
In the most creative remedies to a dispute or negotiation, both parties gain what is vital to their interests. In a Total-Win solution, neither party believes they are compromising or giving up anything material.
If a Win-Win looks for a third alternative (beyond the two win-lose scenarios), a Total-Win seeks an integrated solution that wasn’t on anyone’s radar and creates an entirely new pathway forward.
Achieving a Total-Win outcome is never easy and requires thinking outside of the negotiation box, challenging the assumptions and possibilities both parties arrive with. In more cases than not, a Total-Win solution can be created if all sides look for an alternative reality that charts new ground and thinking.
Creating mutual benefit without compromise usually means finding or creating a brand-new solution neither party ever thought of before the negotiation. This is why the very idea of a Total-Win is so powerful.
When leaders ask those involved to generate a solution that doesn’t require concessions or compromise, people get creative. They don’t always find a Total-Win, but even looking for one usually points to what is possible when both parties truly collaborate.
Before settling for a Win-Win, the best leaders seek an outcome where everyone wins without compromise.
When leaders limit themselves to choices that seem reasonable and practical, they often disconnect themselves from what is possible.
In that case, all that is left is a set of trade-offs.
A Daily Dispatch from the Front Lines of Leadership.
