During high school, I wrote a paper on American culture as one characterized by a “warrior culture”. When issues are identified, the natural response is to declare an enemy and then motivate resources against them.
The “War on Drug” and “War on Terror” obviously deserve the title, but a War on Talent (!) may be good-intentioned but badly-labeled? In business, there is also the strong language of market domination, crushing the competition, winning at all cost.
The haves and have nots. The new team member and the establishment.
Some games do have clear winners and losers, but even borrowing military philosophy, war is a mean to achieve non-militaristic goals, mind an expensive/ destructive tool. There needs to be a clear end game, and the best wars are won before they are fought with worthwhile causes and a decisive outcome.
Every system is designed with intended and unintended consequences. Stakeholders will act according to the incentives in the game. If success is measured as a comparison against others (money, market share), we anchor our world to a Fixed mindset. One’s growth has to come at the expense of others.
What if we shift the dialogue to focus on growth and the fundamental problem at hand? If leadership is about painting a vision for others to join the cause, why not create one that is not “us vs. them” but one that recognizes we are all humans, we have similar needs and aspirations, just expressed in different ways? Can we focus on common grounds and the purpose of serving the people we choose to serve?
How can we build better farms and ovens to make bigger and more pies?
