Our cultural definitions of winning belong to an old world, where conventional wars were fought and won by those with physical might and power, says Cath Bishop, but organisations that integrate environmental, social and governance data, are shown to make better investment decisions and outperform their peers
‘Only winning counts’, ‘No room for second place’, ‘Don’t be a loser.’
These sayings resound throughout our lives, personally and professionally. But what is the impact of these simple, common phrases? What beliefs underpin them? And why do they influence us so strongly?
Our thoughts about success, about what matters for ourselves and those around us, play a huge role in how we think, behave and interact with others, and directly affect what we go on to achieve at school, at work and beyond. So it’s important to examine more closely what’s at play here.
First, a declaration of my entirely positive aims: when I challenge the concept of success and what winning means to each of us, audiences assume that I am advocating lower standards or a softer approach, that I am against achievement and all forms of competition. It’s quite the opposite. In my talks, workshops and seminars, my aim is to open up perspectives on what’s possible and unleash ambitions at a greater scale than ever before.
The cultural phenomenon of winning
Back to the issue at hand. The deeply engrained cultural phenomenon of winning runs deep in our individual and collective psyche and therefore requires a deep process of challenge and reflection, alongside a willingness to explore both what happens on the surface through our behaviours, actions and rituals, and what happens under the surface in our mindsets, beliefs and attitudes.
I usually start by asking for the pictures that come to mind when I mention the word ‘winning’ or ‘success’? Visual images and metaphors give us a shortcut to understanding our deeper beliefs about a topic. When I ask this question of audiences, the word ‘winning’ often evokes classic sporting images, crossing the finish line first, medals and trophies and fists punching the air, as well as much-quoted phrases such as, ‘Winning isn’t everything; it’s the only thing’. In a business context, winning is closely associated with hitting targets, achieving growth and reaping large profits.
After those instinctive first responses, I continue to explore what else might constitute success, and urge that we let go of traditional views about winning this time. The answers start to broaden out. Longer-term concepts of making a difference to the world around us, socially or environmentally, and living a healthy, fulfilling life begin to enter the conversation, as well as ideas of connecting with others and having new experiences. I usually ask, why didn’t the answers start here? That in itself can trigger considerable reflection on how we have encountered winning at home, school and work.
A story of dominance
Looking back through the history books, winning is part of a story of dominance, physical strength and power. The winners that wrote history for centuries were all-conquering military heroes and mighty warriors. The vocabulary of this world lives on in our everyday vernacular, punctuated by references to fighting battles, beating the opposition and being ‘number one,’ whether in politics, business, media or sport. It’s a binary world: you’re a winner or a loser. Our winning role models, whether sports stars, politicians or business leaders have become exaggerated stereotypes that mostly ignore the breadth and contradictions of each of these individuals. We are robbed of the ability to contemplate paradoxes within them, nuances in their approach, complexities in their thinking.
This acts as a huge constraint on those individuals just as much as those of us looking up to them. Leaders find themselves unable to show a more versatile approach, one that involves admitting and learning from mistakes or understanding different, even opposing, viewpoints. The rules of how to win are clear: compromise is weak, dogged views are strong. It becomes hard to make compromises, collaborate with others, or take decisions with difficult short-term consequences which would set up better long-term outcomes.
This doesn’t make good business sense in a world where our challenges and opportunities are complex and unpredictable. Whether it’s working to develop international trade or international security, inventing new solutions to social issues, protecting the environment or understanding global health, these are not win-lose challenges.
Questioning our assumptions
Once we start to question our assumptions, we can start to see that our cultural definitions of winning belong to an old world, one where conventional wars were fought and won by those with physical might and power, military or business. A look back at wars over recent decades, whether Vietnam, Iraq or Afghanistan, shows us that different qualities are now more critical than wealth and traditional power – agility, networks, a cause and communication can be the critical factors. It’s the same in the business world – whereas efficiency and profit, wealth and social status were often the guiding forces in the last century, it’s now purpose and sustainability, preparedness and resilience, innovation and flexibility that are most critical to long-term business success. These concepts are central to ‘The Long Win’ approach.
Long-Win Thinking revolves around three ongoing themes, the ‘three C’s’, developing clarity of purpose, adopting a constant learning mindset and prioritising human connection in everything that we do.
The business case for purpose grows daily, heralded by global business leaders and governments alike. Organisations that integrate environmental, social and governance data (ESG) are shown to make better investment decisions and outperform their peers.
Purpose: enhancing shareholder value
Contrary to fears that purpose might distract or detract from business performance, it has been shown to enhance shareholder value. The evidence is overwhelming. But further progress in shifting beliefs at a deeper level is required for purpose to be adopted beyond superficial statements and rhetoric. We need to recognise the need to wean ourselves off the myth of the profit heroes and dominant business leaders that we grew up admiring.
The ‘three C’s’ of clarity, constant learning and collaboration also characterise positive sporting high performance environments emerging from the ‘experiments’ in elite sport over the past 20 years. The costs of pursuing medals at all costs in Olympic sports neglected the need to support athletes to develop a clearer sense of purpose and know the ‘why’ of their elite sporting journey. The consequential explosion in mental health issues, shortened careers and the stories of multiple champions reaching the pinnacle yet experiencing only emptiness and anti-climax (let alone the experience of those athletes discarded along the way) show the need for a different approach and clarity of purpose in an athlete’s life.
A constant learning mentality has been part of the sports psychology revolution to develop a performance mindset that optimises athlete performance by divorcing that performance from the result that it achieves or the result that the athlete desires. While athletes still compete to win, their preparation for competition focuses almost solely on how they train, the ‘performance’, not the ‘result’.
Optimising improvements
Athletes focus on optimising their improvements each day, not simply on how fast they run, how high they jump or how far they throw. In fact, that can paradoxically be a misleading metric – if that is the sole measure, it can get in the way of making technical changes and trying new approaches which might cause you to go slower in the short-term, yet unleash a new level of performance and speed in the longer-term. It’s the same approach adopted in companies that value innovation and adaptability above short-term outcomes, knowing that this will in turn lead to optimising chances of success over the longer term.
The third ‘C’ of connection offers us the greatest opportunity and comprises the ‘essence of human flourishing’. Cooperation and collaboration are the fuel of human innovation, adaptation and progress, needed now more than ever. Just as it was cooperation (not aggression or the use of tools) that marked out the first humans, so relationships continue to define our daily lives, whether it’s the teams we work with or family members we live with. Experiences of connection start from the earliest point in our lives and have a significant long-term impact on everything that follows.
Human cooperation
Psychologist Terry Orlick’s extensive work with children concluded that ‘experiences in human cooperation are the most essential ingredient for the development of psychological health’. This applies throughout our lives.
Professor Clayton Christensen used to advise Harvard’s graduating MBA class every year: ‘Don’t worry about the level of individual prominence you have achieved; worry about the individuals you have helped become better people.’
In the response to the Covid-19 pandemic, we have seen the power of the ‘three C’s’: how a clear, shared purpose, a willingness to learn and innovate, combined with connections across previously siloed organisations can achieve incredible things. Most obviously this was demonstrated in the way local health providers, emergency services, businesses and community groups came together. The challenge is to ensure that this way of working is developed further, invested in and valued.
We have a choice: we can play to the part of our brains and collective history that responds to a narrowly competitive approach, which excludes more than it includes, stifles innovation and promotes conformity, and prioritises short-term gain. Or we can choose to play to the part of our brains and collective history that responds to meaning in our lives, which is motivated at the deepest level to explore what’s possible when we pursue shared, longer-term goals connected to a wider purpose beyond our individual interests, fuelled by our natural desire to explore and experiment, and collaborate on a scale never seen before.
Yuval Noah Harari describes ‘the unique ability of homo sapiens to create narratives that drive large-scale cooperation as the key driver of our unique evolutionary success so far.’ The Long Win offers a way to explore that unique ability and pursue much greater ambitions together than were ever imagined before.
Cath Bishop competed as a rower at three Olympic Games, winning a silver medal in the 2004 coxless pairs event. She has also worked as a diplomat, on policy and negotiations, specialising in stabilisation policy for conflict-affected parts of the world.
In business, Cath has acted as a coach and consultant, and teaches on the executive education faculty at the Judge Business School, Cambridge University. She is the author of The Long Win (Practical Inspiration Publishing, 2020).
