Tuesday, June 10, 2008

double win...

recently, i've been watching television when only infomercials are on. a few nights ago i caught a documentary on pbs (mostly because it was in HD at 3am) that was about a MIT sponsored high school robot building competition. the robots would go head to head trying to shift weight on a pendulum.

the finals pit two robots with similar designs against each other. with a little collaboration the two students positioned their robots so that the beam leveled out creating a tie... or as they called it a double win.

some people would rather open mouth kiss their sister than tie in a competition. i am one of these people. i love to win. but, the crowd cheered and the MIT professors thought it was the best thing since the 256 processor.

perhaps i am growing older and wiser but... i'm finding that i enjoy collaboration more gratifying than "lone ranger" wins. when i look back at the past year at work, the best times have been when everyone on our team brought their "A" game to a project and did what they each do well. and... the most frustrating portions of my past year have been when i try to get my way (or win) at the expense of someone else losing.

here are some questions that i have been thinking about since...

-do i put people in a position to do their best and use their expertise?
-do i secretly take pleasure in someone else failing?
-in a tense situation, is there a way to find the "win/win" scenario?
-am i wiling to share the success when it's due... or do i choose to stand alone on the gold metal stand?

i'm not willing to lose... but, perhaps there is something deep to thinking "double win".

milthaler

1 comment:

bshawise said...

if you're hoping to have double wins on the golf course with me i'm gonna have to get way better. which means you're pro'lly gonna have to make me one of your handcrafted clubs.