Healthy and long-term working partnerships come from continually nurturing a Win-Win relationship.

What is a Win-Win relationship? It is a working relationship where we care for and consider how we impact one another. 

Win-Win is when EVERYONE BENEFITS!

In this season of giving thanks for what we have and what we have achieved together, let's share 5 approaches so that everyone wins! 

 1. Understand Your System.

• Who are your customers?
• Who are your stakeholders (other team members, other functions, grant/fund providers, and the communities where you work)?
• What are your work process steps and technology that interact with the customer and stakeholders? Where are the gaps? Poor handoffs?

2. Routinely ask your stakeholders and customers

• How are we doing? What is going well? What is not going well? What pain and rework do I create for you?
• And what can I do that would delight you?

3. Nurture a gold-mining mentality

If we cannot openly share and talk about our problems; how can we possibly fix problems? Use frequent conversations, customer feedback, complaints, and open team huddle boards to capture ideas and problems to prioritize collective goals and resolution.

4. Solve problems together

• Share and use data and facts.
• Get to the root of problems together (with 5 Whys and Cause & Effect analysis).
• Redesign work and handoffs so that they truly work smoothly for all.

5. Together test changes

Before rolling out changes OR receiving changes, try them out to make sure they are a win-win. Testing the changes in advance will provide an opportunity to get questions addressed, adjust (for smoother handoffs) and increase the “we’re in this together” mentality.

These approaches, individually or collectively, WILL help you build better trusting working relationships that foster and facilitate a WIN for everyone.