I think that's what the author defines as a "winning" battle. Notice that "winning" and "losing" in the article are NOT "my idea won" and "my idea lost", but ra

I think that's what the author defines as a "winning" battle. Notice that "winning" and "losing" in the article are NOT "my idea won" and "my idea lost", but rather... "bringing this up netted improvement" and "bringing this up netted bad feelings".