Best Behavior

Jack and I were wasting time talking about how just when you create an overwhelming advantage, the game changes, rendering your advantage obsolete, from dinosaurs to asynchronous warfare. We looked at various leadership behaviors and the philosophies behind them, The Golden Rule, a little Game Theory, even Seth’s Game Theory.

Seems like the farther these theories get from practice, the more complicated they become. I suspect that is so when they don’t work, the inventor can say, “See, you missed paragraph 124, line 5!” as if that means anything.

We agreed that best behavior had to be small enough to be readily understood, easily applicable when we don’t know all of a situation, and communicable and believable by the winners in the organization.

Can’t be harnessed to a fantastic super-belief, has to make sense to the winners you meet.

Can’t be harnessed to a false ideal that doesn’t pay off regularly.

Can’t favor one side over another.

The success of this behavior has to be self evident to most observers.

Here’s our answer: Always behave as if a superior force is coming into play shortly.

When you have a process that works under those circumstances, you have something worth expanding.