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The Soft-Drink Dilemma

Finding Win-Win Solutions in a Win-Lose World

Keynote Presentation by Jane Bluestein, Ph.D.

Have you ever noticed how the majority of restaurants, hotels and even schools that sell soft drinks typically have a contract that allows them to serve either Pepsi products or Coke—and almost always at the exclusion of the other? This is a great example of the kind of scarcity thinking that suggests that in order for one entity to be successful, others have to lose.

Even the simplest things, like getting the kind of soda you like, can be a challenge in a win-lose environment! So if your world sometimes seems to focus on win-lose (or no-win) approaches to problems, you’re in good company! This presentation will examine how difficult it can be to fulfill our most noble intentions to resolve conflicts peacefully, in a way that respects our needs as well as the needs of the people around us, all without using aggression, manipulation or having to surrender our own needs for “peace at any price.”

Well look at common ways we create conflicts and how some of our best efforts—and commonly-accepted conflict-resolution tools—can actually make things worse. And we’ll examine the kind of abundance thinking and a variety of tools that can seriously increase the possibilities for finding a satisfactory answer to the magic question: How can we ALL get what we want?

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