Newsletter 52

Most American managers see business as a game, a very serious and important game. If you don't understand that, you'll be frustrated by the actions of your company's leaders. But the winning strategies of gamers are not enough to create successful enterprises.

The 1999 film The Pirates of Silicon Valley, starring Anthony Michael Hall as Bill Gates and Noah Wyle as Steve Jobs, dramatizes the origins of Microsoft and Apple. In the film, as in reality:

When he dropped out of Harvard to begin Microsoft, Bill Gates was a skillful poker player. The film draws a clear connection between Gates' love of poker and how he approached business. In casinos, skillful poker players run rings around beginners. Similarly Bill Gates outfoxed IBM and Steve Jobs.

In her insightful book The Gentle Art of Verbal Self-Defense at Work, psychologist Suzette Haden Elgin, Ph.D. details the conceptual clash when corporate alpha males, who see business as a very important and very serious game, work alongside people who see business as an extension of everyday non-game life, and see game-playing as not important and not serious.

"For the vast majority of adult American males, . . . anything that involves negotiation is assigned to the Game Domain until the negotiation is complete."—and most company actions involve some negotiation. "Most of the time, it's football. If not football, another team sports such as baseball or basketball. Next most likely is a game of chess (especially if the participants are military personnel), followed by poker and tennis." (Elgin, p54 & p58)

What's happening these days in our country's capital is more understandable if we see our political leaders as they see themselves on the job, i.e. as successful game players.

The current winners in Washington are powerful game-players, positioning themselves to bestow unparalleled wealth on their teammates, rearrange the entry rules making it very difficult for the competition to succeed at the next election, and clearing the cash (past, current and future) off the table. All this is being done with great skill and only a few miscues, all of which they handle with the backup public relations team, or correct with the next play. This is definitely a winning team that anticipates our applause and expects our votes. After all, why vote for losers when you can back the winners.

Winning is everything. It's a no-holds-barred free-for-all. As in poker, desirable and positive strategies include actions that in non-game life would be negatively labeled as concealment, misrepresentation, deceit, and lying. But in poker, as in the marketplace, these behaviors succeed. Skillfully executed they are envied by many.

In the work world, skillful game players put aside personal feelings, emotions, and human values, to behave in ways they know will win their game. Suzette Elgin describes many work situations where non-game players criticize game-players for, "Treating work as if it is just a (trivial) game." Game-players in turn are bewildered at these criticisms. "Don't you understand? The game of business is very serious and very important, and this is how it's played."

Game-playing is a strikingly successful tactic. There is a good reason why the first-ever management book, On War (1832) by Von Clausewitz, is required reading at Harvard Business School. No doubt about it, "It's war out there!" You win or you lose. The right strategy wins.

Here is why corporate game-players, i.e. most managers, have trouble building powerful company cultures.

A company's culture has two halves, Operational and Human (for more on this see, http://www.meridiangrp.net/articles/Number49.html .) The Operations half has three distinct parts, 1. Equipment; 2. Systems; and 3. Competition. The Human half of a company's culture has two parts, 4. Communication; and 5. Experience. Competition encompasses power, control, dominance, win-lose, decisions, and markets. These words describe both the marketplace and game-player's world—which is why game-players succeed in business. It's a natural fit.

But Competition, or game playing, does not include human values. The top or Human half of a company's culture includes the bottom Operations parts, but the bottom half does not include the top. That is why we say Communications and Experience are "not visible" from the Competition level, and why game-players do not "see" why people want to introduce the human side into management discussions. "Why do you want to bring these in? What have they to do with winning? I'll do whatever I need to do to win (to beat my opponent, cause my competitors' organizational system to fail, to best my peers in climbing the corporate ladder)". You might read into that, "If I empathize with my opponent, how can I then destroy him?"

Francis Ford Coppola's film The Godfather depicts a terrible and clear example of this separation of actions from values in the final words of the betraying hit-man Salvadore "Sally" Tessio (played by Abe Vigoda). As he is being executed at Mike Corleone's (Al Pacino) orders, Sal says to the buttonman, "Tell Mike it (my betrayal) was only business. I always liked him."

For most managers there is an unbridgeable gap between being an aggressive, game-playing businessman, and building a successful corporate enterprise. It's a very rare person who can simultaneously demolish the competition while creating a humane, satisfying, and motivating work culture. Competition, games, and war do not include, trust, feelings, dialogue, win-win, values, meaning, respect, and caring.

For example, salesmen, who are frequently loaded directly into the competitive breach, often show personal traits, skills, and tactics that, while successful for negotiations, don't encourage open, engaged, trusting teamwork with peers. For Bill Gates, selling was convincing people that you had something that they needed and wanted—when in fact you may have nothing at all. Brilliant and successful as this was for him in negotiations, doing that at home would soon have him in the doghouse.*

For thirty years I have seen managers, from supervisors to CEOs, struggle to maintain an integrated workplace, one that focuses on both the task and the people. Most think it is a dilemma. It isn't.

The managers I have known who built powerful and productive work cultures all took the high road, the human road, because they intuitively knew that the highest levels of human culture contain the lower levels, but the lower do not contain the higher. If you accommodate the human level you can be successful in a competitive marketplace, but if you focus just on competitiveness—maintaining the gamesman or negotiating role—you cannot create a successful enterprise, one that taps into people's productive power and creativity.

This is why a balanced workplace, holding together the human and the operational halves of the culture, is ultimately the winning hand.

* I have not met Bill Gates or Steve Jobs and do not know firsthand the Microsoft or Apple work culture. From the outsider's view these companies appear to hold together both the Operations and the Human halves of culture. By one measure—and by no means a definitive one—Microsoft made FORTUNE's list of The100 Best Companies to Work For. Apple didn't.

If you would like to discuss your own work situation, please email me, Barry Phegan, Ph.D. barry@meridiangrp.net

Barry Phegan

2. Buy the book Developing Your Company Culture; a 187 page toolkit of practical information and examples. Click on http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0964220504



	Site Map \| FAQ \| Search A Better Workplace — Meridian Group's Newsletter, Number 52, 1-15-06 _________________________________________
	"I Didn't Know We Were Playing Football!" Most American managers see business as a game, a very serious and important game. If you don't understand that, you'll be frustrated by the actions of your company's leaders. But the winning strategies of gamers are not enough to create successful enterprises. 1. The Pirates of Silicon Valley The 1999 film The Pirates of Silicon Valley, starring Anthony Michael Hall as Bill Gates and Noah Wyle as Steve Jobs, dramatizes the origins of Microsoft and Apple. In the film, as in reality: Bill Gates convinces IBM that he has the operating system they need for their PCs—when in fact he has nothing. (He later buys DOS from its Seattle developer for $50,000, repackaging it for sale to IBM and others for billions.) Steve Jobs convinces Xerox Corp. to give him access to their mouse, pull-down menus, and screen icons technology—and steals them all to run his Macintosh. Bill Gates convinces Steve Jobs that he has a lot to offer Apple if they partner. Taking Gates at his word, Steve Jobs loans him three prototype Macs. Bill Gates steals the Mac screen and mouse concepts to launch Windows. The partnership is over. Steve Jobs relished the adulation of his idealizing employees, but also relishes verbally abusing them, all in the name of building his winning team. When he dropped out of Harvard to begin Microsoft, Bill Gates was a skillful poker player. The film draws a clear connection between Gates' love of poker and how he approached business. In casinos, skillful poker players run rings around beginners. Similarly Bill Gates outfoxed IBM and Steve Jobs. 2. Serious and Important Games In her insightful book The Gentle Art of Verbal Self-Defense at Work, psychologist Suzette Haden Elgin, Ph.D. details the conceptual clash when corporate alpha males, who see business as a very important and very serious game, work alongside people who see business as an extension of everyday non-game life, and see game-playing as not important and not serious. "For the vast majority of adult American males, . . . anything that involves negotiation is assigned to the Game Domain until the negotiation is complete."—and most company actions involve some negotiation. "Most of the time, it's football. If not football, another team sports such as baseball or basketball. Next most likely is a game of chess (especially if the participants are military personnel), followed by poker and tennis." (Elgin, p54 & p58) 3. The Game in Washington What's happening these days in our country's capital is more understandable if we see our political leaders as they see themselves on the job, i.e. as successful game players. The current winners in Washington are powerful game-players, positioning themselves to bestow unparalleled wealth on their teammates, rearrange the entry rules making it very difficult for the competition to succeed at the next election, and clearing the cash (past, current and future) off the table. All this is being done with great skill and only a few miscues, all of which they handle with the backup public relations team, or correct with the next play. This is definitely a winning team that anticipates our applause and expects our votes. After all, why vote for losers when you can back the winners. Winning is everything. It's a no-holds-barred free-for-all. As in poker, desirable and positive strategies include actions that in non-game life would be negatively labeled as concealment, misrepresentation, deceit, and lying. But in poker, as in the marketplace, these behaviors succeed. Skillfully executed they are envied by many. Please Don't Misunderstand Me In the work world, skillful game players put aside personal feelings, emotions, and human values, to behave in ways they know will win their game. Suzette Elgin describes many work situations where non-game players criticize game-players for, "Treating work as if it is just a (trivial) game." Game-players in turn are bewildered at these criticisms. "Don't you understand? The game of business is very serious and very important, and this is how it's played." Game-playing is a strikingly successful tactic. There is a good reason why the first-ever management book, On War (1832) by Von Clausewitz, is required reading at Harvard Business School. No doubt about it, "It's war out there!" You win or you lose. The right strategy wins. Game-players Cannot See Culture Here is why corporate game-players, i.e. most managers, have trouble building powerful company cultures. A company's culture has two halves, Operational and Human (for more on this see, http://www.meridiangrp.net/articles/Number49.html .) The Operations half has three distinct parts, 1. Equipment; 2. Systems; and 3. Competition. The Human half of a company's culture has two parts, 4. Communication; and 5. Experience. Competition encompasses power, control, dominance, win-lose, decisions, and markets. These words describe both the marketplace and game-player's world—which is why game-players succeed in business. It's a natural fit. But Competition, or game playing, does not include human values. The top or Human half of a company's culture includes the bottom Operations parts, but the bottom half does not include the top. That is why we say Communications and Experience are "not visible" from the Competition level, and why game-players do not "see" why people want to introduce the human side into management discussions. "Why do you want to bring these in? What have they to do with winning? I'll do whatever I need to do to win (to beat my opponent, cause my competitors' organizational system to fail, to best my peers in climbing the corporate ladder)". You might read into that, "If I empathize with my opponent, how can I then destroy him?" Francis Ford Coppola's film The Godfather depicts a terrible and clear example of this separation of actions from values in the final words of the betraying hit-man Salvadore "Sally" Tessio (played by Abe Vigoda). As he is being executed at Mike Corleone's (Al Pacino) orders, Sal says to the buttonman, "Tell Mike it (my betrayal) was only business. I always liked him." The Conceptual Chasm For most managers there is an unbridgeable gap between being an aggressive, game-playing businessman, and building a successful corporate enterprise. It's a very rare person who can simultaneously demolish the competition while creating a humane, satisfying, and motivating work culture. Competition, games, and war do not include, trust, feelings, dialogue, win-win, values, meaning, respect, and caring. For example, salesmen, who are frequently loaded directly into the competitive breach, often show personal traits, skills, and tactics that, while successful for negotiations, don't encourage open, engaged, trusting teamwork with peers. For Bill Gates, selling was convincing people that you had something that they needed and wanted—when in fact you may have nothing at all. Brilliant and successful as this was for him in negotiations, doing that at home would soon have him in the doghouse.* The Winning Hand For thirty years I have seen managers, from supervisors to CEOs, struggle to maintain an integrated workplace, one that focuses on both the task and the people. Most think it is a dilemma. It isn't. The managers I have known who built powerful and productive work cultures all took the high road, the human road, because they intuitively knew that the highest levels of human culture contain the lower levels, but the lower do not contain the higher. If you accommodate the human level you can be successful in a competitive marketplace, but if you focus just on competitiveness—maintaining the gamesman or negotiating role—you cannot create a successful enterprise, one that taps into people's productive power and creativity. This is why a balanced workplace, holding together the human and the operational halves of the culture, is ultimately the winning hand. Easy to say. Hard to play. * I have not met Bill Gates or Steve Jobs and do not know firsthand the Microsoft or Apple work culture. From the outsider's view these companies appear to hold together both the Operations and the Human halves of culture. By one measure—and by no means a definitive one—Microsoft made FORTUNE's list of The100 Best Companies to Work For. Apple didn't. _______________________________________________________________________ Need Help? If you would like to discuss your own work situation, please email me, Barry Phegan, Ph.D. barry@meridiangrp.net Barry Phegan For New Tools to Improve Your Workplace: 1. Visit the informational website www.companyculture.com. 2. Buy the book Developing Your Company Culture; a 187 page toolkit of practical information and examples. Click on http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0964220504 Meridian Group, 1 Spencer Court, Sausalito, CA 94965, 415-332-2164 .



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