Amid news of ongoing political battles, most of which are disheartening, and breaking news about workplace gun sprees, this past week, mainstream media and niche outlets reported on the outcome of this year’s Scripps National Spelling Bee.

There were eight winners!

While there had been co-champions crowned in previous years, the sponsors never had to navigate this situation; how to bring a conclusion to the competition between eight well-practiced and earnest kids who didn’t make mistakes.  They also had to deal with how to handle awarding the contest prize.

An award of $50,000 scholarship money usually goes to the last boy or girl standing.  It has been intended as a reward for vanquishing the competition.

(Vanquish…Synonyms: conquer, defeat, dominate, subjugate.  Origin… Middle English; venquishen, borrowed from Anglo-French venquis-, extended stem of veintre, vaincre “to defeat, conquer,” going back to Latin vincere.)

Scripps, which took over sole sponsorship of this annual event in 1946, ended up giving all eight 12-15 year-olds the publicized amount of prize money.

The organizer’s journey to this decision came in the 20th, 3 ½ hour, final round where the last eight competitors went through correctly spelling their assigned words without a single error.

The rule book, written with only the most general of guidelines, explained that the match would be called after 25 rounds, at which point a shared title would be declared. But they expected that only 2 or 3 competitors could go so deeply into such a contest.

The final eight contestants came from a new high of 562 participants.  In the 20th round they were ALMOST OUT OF WORDS.

So, I loved hearing stories about this outcome; that 8 winners were declared. The morning news shows, eager for a feel-good story, talked about the tradition of the national spelling bee, the high percentage of Indian-Americans who often do well (after spelling their last names in English, it is not so surprising to me that they could master words such as auslaut), and how they prepared for the event.

I loved hearing about some of the words that were included to see if I could come anywhere close to the success of these kids.   (I’m much better with armchair or kitchen counter JEOPARDY, providing the appropriate question in response to Alex Trebek’s prompts.)

I guided my ROKU TV remote through network and cable channels looking for interviews with Rashik or Shruthika or Erin.  I couldn’t get enough of their innocence, their composure, and their humility.

A few explained that they were very happy that they were all declared champions.  They were rooting for each other to correctly spell the words that were given to them.  They saw the competition as a way to challenge themselves and perform to the best of their ability.

Wow, what a fresh perspective!

In the business world, I’ve grown accustomed to people referring to win-win negotiations.  Both companies get something they want.

But, especially with crazy MAGA rhetoric infiltrating so many aspects of our daily life, with leaders that think of their victories and deals more in terms of who loses and less in terms of having a positive impact on most people, that these pre-teen spelling champs wanted to see everyone with whom they shared their experience doing well is incredible.

Understanding that there can be winners without there being losers is no small thing.