It comes up for me when someone defends a proposal, program or policy as a “win-win.”
“It’s win-win,” they say. Cut and dry.
Of course there are many lenses to look at something through. But, it is a black/white, good/bad, world. It is polarized and divided between us and them. So, win-win is sufficient.
Win-win’s are exclaimed, often with a sense of accomplishment, and with exuberance.
As a result, the losers (there are always losers) who have been ignored, minimized and overlooked, are further marginalized.
Everything is much more complex than a simple win-win solution accomplishes. It is better than a win, where just one party is winning, but not much. It’s not good enough.
Sometimes, this is rather sheepishly acknowledged when the winners will say, “this is a win-win-win.” Well done! Pats on backs all the way around. We eeked out another winner in the mix.
We know that when that person proclaims the win! All of the “losers” identify themselves. Sometimes, they just quietly mutter to themselves about how the loss feels, or how it is going to feel. Sometimes they are quite vocal, like the person who stands up in the Council chamber, rebukes them, and then storms out. Other times it percolates, and the impact grows larger and larger until it cannot be ignored any longer and something needs to be done.
As a decision maker, it is a useful little script to have running in the background.
A) Remember the person, the group, the species, the ecosystem that is losing.
B) Recognize that the complexity of things is not represented in the simplicity of win-win’s.
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