Win Win

Win Win by Michael Beale

When two or more people genuinely work together with a win win approach they are likely to produces exceptional results.


Win Win describes one of the possible outcomes from a transaction between two people.

Possible outcomes are:

• Win - Win I win You win
• Win - Loose I win You loose
• Loose - Win I loose You win
• Loose - Loose I loose You loose
• 'No play' Either of us decides to leave the transaction

In many situations a Win Win situation is the best one to aim for; although this can be creatively challenging if we start with conflicting objectives or outcomes. Or almost impossible is either party doesn’t know what they want.

The following approaches are more likely to lead to lead to a Win Win situation:

We both know what we want.

We’re prepared to open about our needs and what’s important to us; and are prepared to invest in the time needed to explore and clarify them.

We are, and communicate that we are prepared to walk away rather that accept anything other than a Win Win agreement

We’re prepared to explore the reasons we need what we want; and whether there are alternative ways in which we can get them

We focus on our interests, what’s behind them and how to achieve them rather that on specific positions. (e.g. I want a 20% discount to meet my year target rather than appear to randomly ask for a 20% discount)

We explore the other persons proposal before making a counter proposal

We stick to facts rather than exaggerate

We’re open about how we feel about where we are

We summarise and clarify what we’ve agreed throughout the interaction We leave the final bargaining and ‘street trading’ until we have a workable agreement on the table.

Michael Beale is a member of the 'Executive and Business Coaching Network'