The news has been dominated of late with the Prime Minister’s discussions about health reform … or more accurately, with his attempts to ‘win-over’ the Premiers during heavy-duty negotiations.
Watching the commentary about these negotiations got me wondering … why does he think he needs to ‘negotiate’ a reform system that he obviously thinks is in the best interest of the country? Why is it not a discussion or facilitation or think-tank? Unfortunately his approach reflects, I think, our adversarial approach to power – not only in federal and state politics, but also in business. As business owners, we often think we need to negotiate with our staff, and negotiate with our suppliers … and goodness knows, our customers and clients often think they need to negotiate with us to get the best deal. The problem with this approach is it pits the parties against each other … in some kind of competition where someone will win, and someone will lose. Or, if you subscribe to the notion of win-win, where someone will win ‘more’ and the other party will win ‘less’.
What would happen in business if we stopped ‘negotiating’ and started ‘co-creating’?
- There’d be less conflict
- Entering into what is currently seen as ‘difficult’ conversations would be less stressful
- We might create solutions that we hadn’t considered before
- We might actually create something bigger, better, more effective or more enjoyable for everyone
- Synergy
Yes, I appreciate that such a utopian approach isn’t always possible … but I suspect it’s possible more often than we think. Business isn’t really about ‘us vs them’ (whoever the ‘us’ and ‘them’ are) – rather everyone is trying to do their best … to do their best. If we stop thinking adversarially and start thinking collaboratively … wow, the possibilities are literally quite breathtaking. Have you been thinking ‘us vs them’ in your business? What would happen if you shifted that thinking?
