CHAPTER 13PLAYING A BIG GAME
What most of us mean by competition: “It’s not enough that I win, I also have to make certain that you lose.”
—Harvey Robbins & Michael Finley1
DECADES AGO, THOMAS SZASZ, the great observer of human illness and well-being, said that what people really need from life is not wealth or comfort, but a game worth playing.2 Too often we engage in ordinary games, where there are winners and losers, and where the outcomes satisfy the ego but not the soul. In contrast, masterful consultants seek to play a big game, where their clients and the world at large are uplifted and renewed, and where greater results can be achieved. To illustrate, I turn to a different arena.
A couple of years ago, Sports Center on ESPN ran a ...
Get Consulting Mastery now with the O’Reilly learning platform.
O’Reilly members experience books, live events, courses curated by job role, and more from O’Reilly and nearly 200 top publishers.
