CHAPTER
9
Golden Gloves or Golden Rule?
Real learning comes about when the competitive spirit has ceased.
—J. KrishnamurtiThere is another reason why creative collaboration is difficult to
achieve in investment firms. As thinking (T) types, investors tend
to be very competitive. They like a good fight. They see the world
as win-lose, rather than win-win. The consequences of investors’
preference for thinking is highlighted each time Brian and I facili-
tate an exercise called the “Prisoner’s Dilemma.” This game ex-
plores the way in which individuals interact. Do they tend to be
trusting and cooperative, or are they cautious and competitive?
The Prisoner’s Dilemma was originally formulated by math-
ematician Albert W. Tucker in the 1950s and has since become the
classic example of a non-zero-sum game. (A zero-sum game is sim-
ply a win-lose game, such as chess. For each winner, there’s a loser.
If I win, you lose. A non-zero-sum game allows cooperation. There
are moves that benefit both players, and this is what makes these
games interesting.) In the Prisoner’s Dilemma, two suspects are
picked up by the police and interrogated in separate cells without
a chance to communicate with each other. For the purpose of this
game, it makes no difference whether the suspects actually com-
mitted the crime. They are both told the same thing:75
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