Do well or win?

Chris Kearns has this wonderful analogy to describe life. Think of life as a sports event - he used soccer, we were in europe after all. There are two teams with two different goals. Your team has a very wise coach - he has set the goal for your team - become the best player you can. He is actively working to help each play improve. The other team has a different kind of coach with a different goal - win. So when these two teams play there are some predictable things that happen. First, the players on your team are trying really hard. Second, your coach is giving everyone  a chance to play regardless of skill or experience. Third, the other team is cheating.

It doesn't matter the other team is cheating. If you believe in karma, the other team will eventually receive a penalty for cheating. And remember, your team's goal is to become the best possible players. If you lose today, there is another game tomorrow. And another on the day after. And another. As your team gets better, they start to win more often. And the other team is isn't learning as fast and doesn't have a deep bench, because only their best players are in the game. This presents an apparent paradox - in order to win in the long run, you have to avoid focusing on winning.

This paradox is important in business. The team that is interested in winning - in business terms, the results oriented team, is not the team that is going to be successful for the long term. The team that will do well for the long run will have leaders that are actively allowing people to develop. Of course this is a scary prospect because it means giving up control. It means you will no longer be the smartest person in the room. It means stepping back from reports and looking at behaviors. It means stepping back from behaviors and looking at motives. And it means you will need to create novel solutions to difficult, perhaps intractable problems. Or as it was put so succinctly, "whosoever shall be great among you, ... be [the] servant of all."¹

1 Mark 10:43,44 KJV