Working together: Itʹs not a game and the sum is never zero

The process of working together is complicated, about which much can and has been written. The association of collaborative work with games may not seem to be obvious, because work is not considered play. The association with game theory as applied to organizations does make sense, however, if we think about the number of people within organizations who constantly “keep score,” checking to see who is ahead, who is behind, and who is winning by coming out on top of real or imputed power struggles. Hence the title of this article, which is intended to alert readers to a way of thinking about collegial relationships that can be stronger and more effective than those thought to exist only within the closed box of sum-zero games.