The Inner Game of Work

133 Pages·1999·8.405 MB·English

by  W. Timothy Gallwey

U.S.A. $25.00
Canada $38.00
Do you think it's possible to truly enjoy your job? No matter what
it is or where you are? Timothy Gallwey does, and in this ground-
breaking book he tells you how to overcome the inner obstacles
that sabotage your efforts to be your best on the job.
Timothy Gallwey burst upon the scene twenty years ago with
his revolutionary approach to excellence in sports. His bestselling
books The Inner Game of Tennis and The Inner Game of Golf, with
over one million copies in print, changed the way we think about
learning and coaching. But the Inner Game that Gallwey discov-
ered on the tennis court is about more than learning a better
backhand; it is about learning how to learn, a critical skill that,
in this case, separates the productive, satistied employee from
the rest of the pack. For the past twenty years Gallwey has taken
his Inner Game expertise to many of America's top companies,
including AT&T, Coca-Cola, Apple, and IBM, to teach their man-
agers and employees how to gain better access to their own inter-
nal resources.
What inner obstacles is Gallweytalking about? Fear of failure,
resistance to change, procrastination, stagnation, doubt, and
boredom, to name a few. Gallwey shows you how to tap into your
natural potential for learning, performance, and enjoyment so that
any job, no matter how long you've been doing it or how little you
think there is to learn about it, can become an opportunity to
sharpen skills, increase pleasure, and heighten awareness. And
if your work environment has been turned on its ear by Internet
technology, reorganization, and rapidly accelerating change, this
book offers a way to steer a confident course while navigating
your way toward personal and professional goals.
The Inner Game of Work teaches you the difference between
a rote performance and a rewarding one. It teaches you how to
stop working in the conformity mode and start working in the
mobility mode. It shows how having a great coach can make as
much difference in the boardroom as on the basketball court—
and Gallwey teaches you how to find that coach and, equally
important, how to become one. The Inner Game of Work challenges
you to reexamine your fundamental motivations for going to work
in the morning and your definitions of work once you're there. It
will ask you to reassess the way you make changes and teach you
to look at work in a radically new way.
W. TIMOTHY GALLWEY is the author of the bestselling Inner
Game series of books and founder of The Inner Game Corporation,
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Random House, New York, N.Y. 10022
www.atrandom.com
Printed in U.S.A. 1/00
© 1999 Random House, Inc.
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Also by W. Timothy Gallwey
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RANDOM HOUSE ® NEW YORK
Copyright © 2000 by W. Timothy Gallwey To Leslye,
without whose love, care, support, and endurance
All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright this work would not have been completed
Conventions. Published in the United States by Random House, Inc., New
York, and simultaneously in Canada by Random House of Canada Limited,
Toronto.
RANDOM HOUSE and colophon are registered
trademarks of Random House, Inc.
Illustrations on pages 9, 17, 28, 97, 98, 99, 126, and 175 by Robert Bull.
LIBRARY OF CONGRESS CATALOGING-IN-PUBLICATION DATA
Gallwey, W. Timothy.
The inner game of work / W. Timothy Gallwey.
p. cm.
ISBN 0-375-50007-3
1. Work—Psychological aspects. I. Title.
BF481.G27 2000
158.7—dc21 99-13943
Printed in the United States of America on acid-free paper
Random House website address: www.atrandom.com
2 4 6 8 9 7 53
First Edition
Book Design by Mercedes Everett
Preface
by Peter Block
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adapt and to shift our thinking is critical to success. The challenge
is how to transform institutions that have been hardwired for con-
sistency, control, and predictability into cultures where learning,
.deulav ylurt era yrevocsid dna ,esirprus
The Inner Game of Work helps us define the landscape of what
has become known as a "learning organization." In this book, any
manager or employee who has the courage and commitment to
really learn about learning will find concepts and practices that can
turn the intention of a learning organization into a day-to-day,
.ecneirepxe devil
Most of the traditional strategies for creating a learning orga-
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a gnitaerc tuoba sgniteem dna ,smargorp laiceps ,stneve gni
yeht taht si stroffe laiceps eseht fo tceffe edis enO .erutluc gninrael
reinforce the limiting belief that learning and doing are separate
neewteb noisnet eht htiw elggurts eW .seitivitca gnitepmoc dna
how much learning we can afford before it starts interfering with
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ehT .ecalpkrow eht otni "kcab" ti gnirb dna gninrael eht ekat
Inner Game resolves the tension between learning and doing by
showing us that they are both part of a bigger whole.
Tim Gallwey's ideas about learning have, from the beginning,
Preface XI
x Preface
The fundamental question is, What is possible in the work-
been uniquely insightful and radically practical. In 1976, Tim
place? Can we have good performance, high enjoyment, and high
Gallwey's The Inner Game of Tennis profoundly changed the way I
learning all at the same time? This raises the deeper question of
thought about many things, not just tennis, and twenty-three years
what is the purpose of work. Is the purpose of work to deliver in-
later, its influence is still strong. It showed me, for the first time,
stitutional outcomes—greater profit, higher service levels, market
that our efforts to improve ourselves and our performance actually
domination? The economists, the financial community, and the
interfere with what we hope to achieve. Tim challenged much of
business press have a simple answer to this question: show me the
what we believe about teaching and learning by revealing that
money.
much of the teaching we do is actually hostile to learning. The
For most people, though, the question of purpose is more
Inner Game of Work brings these insights directly into the work-
complex. They accept the need for economic success, but there is
place.
more to work than meets the wallet. People care about the work-
The idea that our standard methods of teaching and coaching
place culture, its relationships, the opportunity to fulfill their po-
reduce performance is radical. Most educational institutions and
tential, and the chance to learn and improve their skills. We often
workplaces rely heavily on instruction and direction, so if all these
treat this as a tension between management and employees, but
efforts at improvement are not useful, we had better pay attention.
that is not the real issue. It is an individual, internal struggle. We
Plus, if instruction doesn't work, what does? Many writers de-
are constantly torn between getting results and living a process that
scribe what is wrong with the world, but they become theoretical
is humanly satisfying.
or abstract when it comes time for real workable alternatives.
It is in this arena that the Inner Game offers hope. Tim con-
What is special about Tim's work is that he not only defines
stantly raises the question of what game we are playing. Can we
the nature of our interference, he offers beautifully concrete ways
play a satisfying Inner Game and at the same time meet the re-
to increase learning and performing that minimize instruction and
quirements of the outer game?
direction. This is his genius. He understands how we learn and has
Finding some cohesion between inner and outer, however, de-
spent his life creating ways we can un-manage ourselves toward
mands some radical experimentation. We need to try new struc-
higher achievement. The Inner Game has changed the way many
tures, new practices, and new ways to honor the complexity of the
people relate to their work, and perhaps even more important, it
question.
offers institutions a way to simultaneously create learning, improve
Many years ago, Tim and I attended a national sales conference
performance, and foster a more satisfying workplace.
for a large American corporation. It goes without saying that sales-
Becoming a learning culture is very demanding. It requires
people like to compete. They not only like to compete, they be-
more than most of us realize and asks managers to have a deep
lieve in it. Competition is the point of it all; to be a winner in the
enough commitment to learning and performance to give up
marketplace is both the goal and the reward. That is true for both
some control. The challenge of the Inner Game is that it requires
the business and the person. This whole sales conference was, in
faith and a great deal of unlearning of bad habits. The Inner Game
fact, an assembly of winners, an affirmation that they were the best
demands that we value awareness, consciousness, and paying atten-
in the company and probably the best in the industry, perhaps in
tion to what is happening within and around us. No easy assign-
the world.
ment. In our Western culture, as soon as you say the words
Following a presentation on Inner Game coaching, Tim
awareness and attention, it is labeled New Age and the theory is dis-
agreed to manage the annual tennis tournament, a tradition at
missed as a form of California dreaming. It's not.
Preface XIII
XII Preface
that excel. This willingness to question the conventional wisdom
every sales conference. After all, winners love a tournament, and
makes the difference. And, in fact, many management practices
here they had a well-known author/tennis coach available to be
that would have seemed radical fifteen years ago are now accepted
maitre d' of the event. Tim, though, was not satisfied in simply
in countless corporations. For example,
presiding. He thought that the tennis tournament could provide a
unique learning experience for each participant by asking the
• Teams are now self-organizing and do most of the tasks
question, What game are you really playing?
that bosses used to do.
Tim suggested that the winners of each match would be out
• Workers inspect their own work, where previously it had
of the tournament, and the player who lost would advance to the
always been thought that third-party inspection was
next round. Think of this: the loser was rewarded for losing, and
essential to good quality.
the winner was sent to the sidelines. If this is the structure, what
• Bosses are now evaluated by their subordinates.
is the point of playing if "winning" got you nowhere? Well, this
• Suppliers are now treated as part of the producing
was the point. Each player had to confront the question of why he
organization and included in planning and decisions.
was playing the game. The conventional answer, especially among
• Salespeople can make customer-service decisions that
salespeople, is that they play to win. Tim's answer was that there is
used to be centralized and required two levels of
a better game to play, and that is to play to learn, to play to fulfill
approval.
your own potential. And ironically, if you do this, you will actually
get better performance.
Each of these, and many more, questions what was once held
The intent of a tournament where losers advanced and win-
sacred as the prerogative of management and essential to maintain-
ners went home was that it would be unclear to the players
ing adequate controls. The tennis tournament still stands out
whether it was in their interest to win or lose. If they beat their
vividly in my mind as an early indicator of the kind of experi-
opponent, they would, in effect, be a loser. If they lost to their op-
mentation that a real learning environment will require. It ques-
ponent, they would be treated as a winner. In the face of this, they
tioned its own deeper purpose, it varied enough from tradition
were free to shift their focus from winning or losing to simply
that it left all involved a little uncomfortable, and it ultimately be-
playing for the experience itself, playing to see how good a player
came a source of energy and play that brought some life to the
they could become. Philosophically, they were asked to stop danc-
whole sales event.
ing to the tune defined by the external world around them and
The role of coaches and the constant re-forming of our
encouraged to play according to their own internal message cen-
understanding of purpose and structures seem essential to the
ter. The tennis tournament offers a metaphor for what is possible
thinking about the role management can play in creating an envi-
in the workplace. No matter what structure we are given, there is
ronment where learning is valued. What is required is the belief
always the possibility of transforming the dominant cultural habit
that learning and performing are one and the same. High per-
into an unpredictable event where learning is more likely to hap-
formers are people who simply learn faster. We learn faster when
pen.
we pay attention and see the world for what it truly is, not for
Now, I am not suggesting that all tournaments reward those
what it should have been. Learning then becomes a function of
who lose, but this kind of thoughtful and selective experimenta-
awareness more than instruction; it is seeing clearly what is hap-
tion is what separates organizations that simply survive from those