Compromise is a valuable form of conflict resolution, and it’s frequently mistaken for collaboration. True collaboration is a win-win: an innovative smash-up of all the stuff that’s most important to everyone.  

Compromise is a lose-lose. It means we live with the assumption that it’s going to be hard, that we’re going to have to sacrifice, but that’s okay because the other side won’t be happy about the outcome either. We live with it because getting something is better than nothing.

Is it, though? What if we expected to find an innovative combination? What if we expected to work a little harder and leave with something brilliant?

The next time someone tells you that collaboration is going to require you to sacrifice something important to you, politely inform them that they’re mistaken. We get what we expect.

At the very least, compromise with your eyes wide open and call it what it is.