What's So Hard About Win-Win?

The term win-win was first coined in the 1920s by human relations and management pioneer Mary Parker Follett.¹  The concept has caught fire in the business world because clients and consumers tend to be far more open to cooperating—say, signing a contract or buying a product—when they believe that their needs are being respected and accommodated. Win-win is an approach to interactions and problem solving that avoids domination and disempowerment and strives to satisfy the deeper, underlying desires of everyone involved.

Such an approach should be readily adaptable to the school setting. Most educators would endorse everyone's need to be valued, heard, successful, and included. Win-win can foster a cooperative school climate by giving individuals a sense of autonomy within a structure that protects everyone's need for dignity, belonging, and respect. It can also foster academic success by supporting the diverse ways in which learners absorb, process, and express information.