http://www.strategycentral.org/2007/05/the-critical-growth-path.html Where Strategy and Purpose Collide Sat, 13 Aug 2011 19:07:32 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.2.1 http://www.strategycentral.org/2007/05/the-critical-growth-path.html/comment-page-1#comment-241 Mark Howell Tue, 22 May 2007 13:17:02 +0000 http://www.gettingtothere.com/strategycentral/2007/05/the-critical-growth-path.html#comment-241 Hmmmm. It may be semantics, but what I mean by a "zero sum" game is that you can only spend the resource on one thing. Yes, in the case of people you have a lifetime to invest. But at any moment in your organization's existence and effort, that one person's talent can only be spent one time. In other words, they have a finite capacity. When they're sitting in the wrong seat on your bus (their choice or yours) and spending their finite capacity on a project that isn't the one that leads to the critical growth path...well, it's a zero sum game. Not that you can't recruit and develop other players, but that every one of the players you do recruit has a kind of capacity that must be invested in the right effort for maximum return. Does that make more sense? Hmmmm. It may be semantics, but what I mean by a “zero sum” game is that you can only spend the resource on one thing. Yes, in the case of people you have a lifetime to invest. But at any moment in your organization’s existence and effort, that one person’s talent can only be spent one time. In other words, they have a finite capacity. When they’re sitting in the wrong seat on your bus (their choice or yours) and spending their finite capacity on a project that isn’t the one that leads to the critical growth path…well, it’s a zero sum game. Not that you can’t recruit and develop other players, but that every one of the players you do recruit has a kind of capacity that must be invested in the right effort for maximum return.
Does that make more sense?

]]> http://www.strategycentral.org/2007/05/the-critical-growth-path.html/comment-page-1#comment-240 david Tue, 22 May 2007 12:19:23 +0000 http://www.gettingtothere.com/strategycentral/2007/05/the-critical-growth-path.html#comment-240 is it really a "zero sum game"? is there really even such a thing? particularly when we're dealing with people, i think we always have the potential to produce resources by investing in people for growth and multiplication... i don't disagree that "leadership" is difficult, but i wonder if the "zero sum" assumption holds us back sometimes? is it really a “zero sum game”? is there really even such a thing?
particularly when we’re dealing with people, i think we always have the potential to produce resources by investing in people for growth and multiplication…
i don’t disagree that “leadership” is difficult, but i wonder if the “zero sum” assumption holds us back sometimes?

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