What's Your Game?

Business and life have often been compared to games. Knowing which game you're playing at any given time and being agile enough to smoothly switch from one game to the next may well make the critical difference between losing and winning the everyday games of life and business. Skill, strategy, knowledge, chance, persistence, all may make all the difference.

Economists have an elaborate system called “game theory”, which is based on the assumption that everyone always acts in their own best interests. One classic example is the “prisoner's dilemma”, and the question is whether one player's strategy would (or should) change if the other player's strategy is known. It goes like this:

Two men are captured near the scene of a burglary and are questioned separately by the police. Each has to choose whether or not to confess and blame the other. If neither man confesses, then both will serve one year on a charge of carrying a concealed weapon. If each confesses and implicates the other, both will go to prison for 10 years. But, if one burglar confesses and implicates the other, and the other burglar does not confess, the one who has collaborated with the police will go free, while the other burglar will go to prison for 20 years on the maximum charge.

The strategies in this case are: confess or don't confess. What should they do? What would they do? The result could be that acting in his own self interest could make matters worse or better, depending on the actions of the other. The actions of the other are done in secret, and remain a mystery until the outcome is disclosed.

Their best bet is for neither to confess, and each to serve a year in prison. But having no way to know what the other will do could make the situation far worse for one of them. The confess or not to confess strategy meets the outcome (also called pay off; or penalty) of sentencing.

The games we play in life and business are rarely as clear cut as the prisoner's dilemma. The analogies are endless. I often see attorneys playing pool, setting up their next shot as they go – three ball in the left pocket. Have you ever wondered why an attorney keeps a client's will in his office for “safekeeping”? So he gets the probate business, of course. He set up his next shot.

Civil and family lawyers keep their clients' issues burning and churning in ongoing volleys. Tit for tat, ping for pong or tennis, depending on the tournament level, temperature and the prize to be won or lost. So often, counsel, lost in the game, forget or ignore the desperate client wishes who only seek an end and some sort of resolution. The forgotten client was forced to pay and play above his level.

Chess is a game of skill and strategy. All pieces are in the open. Each play is transparent, subterfuge is impossible. But, skill and strategy take many forms. Knowing the perfect moves isn't enough. Patience is a skill. Waiting patiently for your opponent to make a mistake is a wonderfully passive aggressive way to win. Distraction is also fun. Annoy your opponent until he makes a mistake – doesn't work with everyone, but it works often enough to be useful.

Games of chance are good to know in this life. Kenny Rogers said – know when to hold em, know when to fold em, know when to walk away. Machiavelli played games of skill and games of chance. I believe that knowing what game to play when and nimbly dancing from one game to the next is the way to win. Or if you didn't win, you can find a new game.