accomplishment or competition?
One of the things most wonderful about writing this column is learning from all of you. I hold no false pride of having all the answers but i especially realise that when I get notes such as the one I received this morning about yesterday’s Taiwan column. I attach it in full for your perusal.
‘A higher order question that might provide some thoughts on an answer [about Taiwan yesterday, 29 April 2024.]
Do you believe in a world based on a culture of competition or a world based on a culture of accomplishment?
Because if you view the world as a continuum of competition you are always looking for an adversary. You need a bad guy as an organizing principle. You need an enemy for the cultural foundation and the objectives and mission of your work team.
My take on that idea when I had command. I told the team I expected a culture of accomplishment. But I didn't want the ebbs of flows of a competition. First, I didn't want a let down when we 'won'. Second, I certainly expected to 'win', but when we would have won I didn't want to have to find another bad guy to provide our culture with an organizing principle. Because my assumption and expectation is we wouldn't lose but we didn't need to keep finding the next loser just to justify how/why we existed.
And interestingly if you focus on accomplishment as a primary objective, then sort of by default you are primed for success. And you can continue succeeding, because your mindset is to keep working no matter what the problem or task is.So are Taiwan relations, or more broadly the relationship with China, viewed with as default of a culture of competition or a culture of accomplishment.’—ACC reader
I prefer thinking I approach things from a culture of accomplishment as it sounds better yet I understand why one is likely to say we actually see it as competition. Certainly we proclaim competition to be our lens.
What is the endstate we really seek? I don’t think we are honest about that much of the time. We think we are answering the query but I am not convinced we know what we are saying with any granularity.
What do you think about this question? I heartily concur that we look for the next challenge when our mentality is competition but we probably tell ourselves it’s because we accomplished the goal of beating, in whatever manner, another adversary.
I welcome, truly look forward to your observations. Few actions create more important consequence as shifting mindsets. The effects are almost incalculable. But, you may disagree which is fine. Let’s chat about it.
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The summer visitors, paddle-driven, motor-driven, or wind-driven, are beginning to arrive. So exciting on Spa Creek!
Be well and be safe. FIN