Let's Give Each Other a Chance: What our Business Mind can Teach our Civic Mind

The most challenging business negotiation of my career came at the end of last year. The Challenge: Zero Sum.  

My counterparty believed that there was no such thing as a win-win solution. He insisted that one of our clients was going to be the winner and one the loser. Ultimately, we ended up in mediation, where a skilled mediator helped his client achieve a win-win solution.

Over the past two election filled weeks, I have reflected on this idea of “win-win” versus “zero sum”. I am asking myself: Have we become a country that believes only in zero sum outcomes? 

In trying to answer this question, I have reflected back on my political science background, remembering what James Madison observed in Federalist #10. Madison was concerned with how to guard against the danger of groups of citizens with interests contrary to the rights of others or to the interests of the community as a whole. He called these groups "factions".  These ideas became the guiding principle behind the balance of powers and representative democracy.

We clearly have a divided country, but worse, it feels like we are becoming two larger and larger factions fighting a zero sum war against each other.

The ideas of our time. The solutions to complex problems. The path to equity and inclusion. No one person, party or group has the answers. We thrive on diversity of thought. We thrive when we listen to and understand others. We thrive when we create solutions that include as many of us as possible - and don’t leave the most vulnerable among us behind.

As we move forward as a country, our civic mind can benefit from our business mind. 

The path to win-win starts with an honest reflection of your needs, benefits from an understanding of your counterparty’s positions and ends with creative solutions that recognize that – like that prisoner in a dilemma – we do better together than apart. 

Let’s give each other a chance.