If a two year old can do it...

“Adopt a new philosophy of cooperation (win-win) in which everybody wins.” ~W. Edwards Deming

The other night we were talking with our two-year-old daughter before bedtime.  She loves a routine of having one of us tell her a bedtime story before she goes to sleep.  My wife and I try to take turns so that she doesn’t get accustomed to one of us doing it over the other.  That night, my wife was “scheduled” to put her to bed, but my daughter didn’t want my wife to take her to bed…She was asking for me.

So, my wife playfully started crying, as if she were sad that she couldn’t take her to bed.  My daughter, right on the spot, solved the dilemma, and in a way my wife and I never had thought of.

She said, “Mommy, you can come to bed too!  You can lay with me while Daddy tells the story!"

We were astounded…My wife and I were thinking in terms of “either-or,” so either my wife or I would be the one taking her to bed.  However, my daughter, thinking without limitations and outside the box, problem solved the situation, and figured out a way to make everyone happy.  How awesome is that?  

Everyone was a winner – she got the story from me, which she wanted, and my wife got to be with her, which is what my daughter sensed is what my wife wanted.

So, if a two-year-old girl can understand how to make a win-win situation happen, what’s keeping us, and our limited thinking, from doing the same?

I challenge you this week to join me in seeking win-win opportunities in scenarios that appear to have limited solutions.  When we work to find win-win scenarios, obviously everyone wins!

Have a great week!

-Victor