Society · Protocols
Coflourish
An exchange in which every party leaves holding something new, and no party's only gain is another's concession
Definition
Mechanism
At the end of an exchange, each party names in its own words something it now holds that it did not hold before: an understanding, an option, a question or a capability. The exchange is a coflourish when every party names such a gain and no party's only gain is a concession by another. Unlike Compromise, which settles by each side giving something up, it records what each side gained.
Invariants
- Each party names its own gain; no party's gain is named for it by another.
- A concession received does not count as a party's only gain.
- The record states the gain each party named.
Risks
Failure modes
Polite inflation
trivial gains are named to hide that the exchange was one-sided.
Winner's gain
one party's gain is the other's loss, recorded as mutual growth.
Relationships
Builds on
References
Finding a mutual sacrifice zone via intensity reduction
Nothing in this library builds on this pattern yet.
Reference