January 1968 the North Vietnamese Army
launched a surprise attack against
American forces we know this is the Tet
Offensive Tet is the Vietnamese
equivalent of Christmas and for decades
there was a tradition in Vietnam that
there was never any fighting on Tet much
like the cease fires during World War
one on Christmas except in this
particular incident and in 1968 the
Vietnamese forces decided to break with
tradition overwhelm the American forces
and hopefully bring a swift end to the
war and that’s exactly what they
attempted to do they threw 85,000 troops
attacking over 125 US and Allied targets
across the country and they caught the
Americans completely by surprise
many of the commanding officers were not
even at their posts they were in town
celebrating Tet expecting there to be no
fighting here’s the amazing thing
the United States repelled every single
attack thrown at them over the Tet
Offensive every single one
most of the major fighting had ceased
after about a week kWe went on for about
a month but most major fighting had
ceased after about a week after which
the Americans had lost fewer than a
thousand troops the North Vietnamese
lost 35,000 out of the 85,000 troops but
they with which they attacked and if we
look at the Vietnam War as a whole the
United States lost 58,000 people over
the course of ten years where the
Vietnamese the North Vietnamese lost
three million people over the course of
ten years which is a population
equivalent at the time of the United
States losing 27 million of our own
population just to put it
right and if we look closely at the
Vietnam War the United States actually
won the vast majority of the battles
they fought and most of the major
battles that we fought so it raises a
very interesting question how do you
decimate your enemy win all the
important battles and lose the war as it
turns out we don’t fully understand or
at least there are multiple definitions
of a winning and losing means if you
have at least one competitor you have a
game and there are two types of game
there are finite games and there are
infinite games a finite game is defined
as known players fixed rules and an
agreed upon objective football we all
agree what the rules are
before we begin play we all agree that
whoever has more points at the end of
the set time period is the winner and
everybody goes home at the end right the
game has a beginning a middle and an end
in an infinite game there are known and
unknown players the rules are changeable
and the objective is to perpetuate the
game or stay in the game as long as
possible when we pit a finite player
versus a finite player the system is
stable football is stable when we pit an
infinite player versus an infinite
player
the system is also stable the Cold War
was stable because we could not have a
winner or a loser and what ends up
happening is the players play until one
drops out because they have they lack
the resources or the will to continue to
play they run out of the will and
resources the game continues with them
or without them the player just leaves
the game right
problems arise however when you pit a
finite player versus an infinite player
because one is playing to win and the
other is playing to keep playing and
they make profoundly different strategic
choices which ultimately results in the
finite player finding themselves in
quagmire running through will and
resources trying to win
and this is what happened to the United
States in Vietnam it’s not so much that
the Americans lost the Vietnam War it’s
that they were fighting the wrong game
because the Americans were trying to
beat the North Vietnamese where the
North Vietnamese were fighting for their
lives and a very different set of
strategic choices was made and
invariably the United States will find
themselves in quagmire and ran out of
the will or the resources to play that
in lose they dropped out of the game
right now this gets me thinking about
other contexts in the world in which we
live business politics even education
right which is what game are we playing
right there’s no such thing as winning
business there’s no such thing as
winning global politics and there’s
definitely no such thing as winning
education but if we listen to the
language of too many organizations they
don’t know the game they’re in they talk
about being the best they talk about
being number one they talk about beating
their competition the problem is there’s
no such thing and any metrics that we
choose whether it’s a ranking in a
magazine that has made arbitrary choices
about how to rank your universities and
colleges you had no say or one
university that declares itself number
one in X and another one bit declares
themselves in Y we haven’t agreed upon
the time frames of the metrics in other
words it’s all smoke and mirrors right
which means if you’re playing by those
rules it’s becoming more and more
difficult to maintain the resources to
stay in the game money is becoming more
difficult that’s becoming what seems to
be the primary objective which it never
was and even the will of the people to
commit their blood sweat and tears to
see that your organization advances into
the future in other words the staff the
teachers even the students it becomes
more and more difficult let me give you
a real-life example that shed some light
on what I’m talking about
I spoke at an education summit at
Microsoft I also spoke at an education
summit at Apple at the Microsoft summit
the vast majority of the executives
spent the vast majority of their
presentations talking about how to beat
Apple at the Apple summit a hundred
percent of the executives spent a
hundred percent of their presentations
talking about how to help teachers teach
and how to help students learn one was
obsessed with where they were going
the other one was obsessed with their
competition guess which one was in
quagmire at the end of my talk at
Microsoft they gave me a gift they gave
me the new Zune when it was a thing this
was Microsoft’s response to the iPod and
this little piece of technology was
absolutely incredible it was beautifully
designed the user interface was
intuitive and very simple to use it was
really brilliant I have to say so at the
end of my Apple talk I was sharing a
taxi with a very senior Apple executive
employee number 54 to be exact
and I decided to stir the pot I couldn’t
help myself I turned to my said you know
Microsoft gave me their new Zune and it
is so much better than your iPod touch
to which he said I have no doubt and the
conversation was over because the
infinite player understands sometimes
your competitor has the better product
and sometimes you have the better
product and sometimes you’re ahead and
sometimes you’re behind but there’s no
such thing as best or first or beating
your competition
there’s only ahead and behind and the
reality of an infinite game is you’re
actually only competing against yourself
that the objective every single day is
how do we become a better version of our
own institution this year than we were
last year how do we improve the quality
of our culture how do we improve the
quality of the way we provide the
service that we claim to be providing
how do we improve ourselves that is the
main point of being an infinite game
because at the end of the day we don’t
have the same metrics as everybody else
and we’re not even necessarily playing
to the same ends so the question is how
do you play an infinite game there are
five pieces it’s a checklist literally
you have to check them all off and if
you don’t have them all checked off you
eventually slide back into the finite
game here’s what they all run through
them quickly and then give you a little
more depth on each of them number one
you have to have a Just Cause number two
you have to have courageous leadership
number three you have to have trusting
teams number four you have to have a
worthy rival and number five you have to
have a flexible playbook okay let’s run
through them really quickly what is a
Just Cause so I’ll ask you a very simple
question why does your organization
exist
we don’t need you clearly there’s plenty
of competition clearly people have
plenty of choices even the things that
you may specialize in there are others
that do a reasonably good job they might
even be better than you in some areas so
why do you exist providing education is
table stakes everybody here does that
you can’t rely on that that’s why the
industry exists not why your
organization exists that’s like when I
talk to healthcare companies and say why
does your organization exist and they
say to help people be more healthy like
no kidding thank you but I know that the
culture of one organization is different
than the culture of another organization
there are cultural norms that wrap
around the sense of purpose cause or
belief great organizations understand
they’re just cause they caused so just
that people would be willing to
sacrifice to see the advancement of that
cause sacrifice comes in many forms it
might mean working longer hours giving
you my best ideas turning down a better
job that offers me more money to stay
here because I believe in what you’re
doing and I want to see that at first
one of my favorite examples of a Just
Cause is the Declaration of Independence
our founding fathers declared literally
wrote down they declared why we needed
our own country
all men are created equal endowed with
these unalienable rights amongst which
include life liberty
and the pursuit of happiness they were
never against Britain the whole point is
not to be against something but to stand
for something
Britain was simply standing in the way
of them advancing their cause and though
they won independence there are always
finite games within the infinite game
though they won independence that didn’t
mean that they had now provided all men
are equal now the real heavy lifting
began now let’s be crystal clear when
they said all men are equal what they
meant was white Protestant men let’s be
crystal clear but even early on during
the Revolutionary War George Washington
understood how limiting that was and he
realized that they had to have a broader
definition so he included Catholics he
banned any organizing against Catholics
and his armies and he would regularly
attend Mass to send the right message
sometime later we abolish slavery and
the 14th amendment sometime later we had
women’s suffrage some time later we had
Civil Rights Act some time later
gay rights and you can see that we are
striving to provide this thing called
all men are equal people are equal and
though we will never actually get there
we will die trying and the obstacles may
always be different and what a Just
Cause is it is a vision of the future
that does not yet exist and you will
commit all of your energies to advance
that vision of the world that you have
and the people you want to attract both
those who work there those who teach
there and both those who come to learn
there believe in your vision of the
future so much so that they may turn
down a better offer of sons from someone
else because they want to be around
people who are committed to building
this world that does not yet exist and
every single single one of these
organizations that you run and represent
can have different visions or
overlapping visions of the world but you
must be clear what your just cause is
what you stand for otherwise the only
thing I have to judge you on is
superficial things it’s like dating
right it’s like dating if somebody tells
me what they stand for who they are they
talking about their character and those
are the people we want to spend the rest
of our lives with if we do not have any
sense of who they are what they stand
for with their purpose what their cause
what their beliefs are what their values
are the only thing we have to judge them
on is how much money they make and how
good-looking they are and that’s what we
end up unfortunately in so many
university systems we are judging based
on superficial things right and it hurts
me when I even see universities
advertised because they talk about table
stakes getting an education getting a
head no kidding thank you nobody goes to
university to get behind like I knew
that without you without your
advertising
or worse you advertise what the starting
seriously that’s where we’re beginning
you’re starting to sound like investment
banks who advertise what your bonus will
be which means you attract people who
want bigger bonuses rather than ID lists
and ideologues
we’re gonna commit time and energy to
impact the world and if they’re not
learning at at university where are they
learning it without a just cause we
start feeding people what they want
rather than what they need ted koppel
talks about this in the news he says we
used to give people the news they needed
whether they want it or not now we give
people the news they want whether they
need it or not and I don’t have to go
into the polarizing nature of news in
America today and what a vicious cycle
that creates and these echo chambers I
would argue that universities are
leaning towards that same direction
we’re giving people the classes they
want whether they need them or not and
where sometimes avoiding giving them the
classwork they need whether they want it
or not real important things that will
help advance your just cause but more
important will help advance them as
human beings because I can tell you in
my work the people who make choices
based on salary alone end up unhappy end
up and broken marriages and end up doing
rather unethical things because they’re
so driven by the mighty dollar why
aren’t we teaching people let’s put that
in affirmative you should teach I
strongly urge you to include things like
confrontation effective confrontation
communication skills you’ve heard on
this panel already from younger
generations with increasing rates of
anxiety increasing rates of depression
increasing rates of suicide we’re seeing
it in these school shootings where
something like 80% of them are
perpetrated by kid bite by children who
are lacking good relationships
it’s human relationships that are
missing I’m seeing it in the business
world every single day and what this
drives as more and more short-termism
what do you stand for and will you
attract people who believe what you
believe number two it’s embarrassing
this has to be on the list courageous
leadership courageous leaders are the
ones who are willing to sacrifice the
short term in order to advance the long
term courageous leaders are the ones who
are willing to say no to the money
because it’s coming from a dirty source
and rather say yes even though they know
they’ll have to tighten the belt in the
short term because it’s the right thing
to do having a Just Cause if we don’t
actually follow the just cause we don’t
actually make decisions through the lens
of the just cause is just marketing it’s
just marketing I’ll give you my favorite
example right
the IOC the International Olympic
Committee they have a mission statement
what they believe is their Just Cause
which is to inva advance the world make
the world a better place through sport
but for the fact that they’re all
corrupt it’s a great idea my point is is
you actually have to have leadership
that desperately profoundly believes in
the cause and will make decisions to
advance that cause they would sooner
sacrifice their own personal interests
to take care of their people they would
never sacrifice their people to protect
their own interests it’s called
leadership it’s called
leadership we confuse rank and
leadership rank has nothing to do with
leadership I know many people who sit at
the highest levels of organizations who
are not leaders they have authority and
we do as they tell us because they have
authority over us but we would not
follow them and yet I know many people
who sit at lower ranks who have no
authority and yet they have made a
choice the choice to look after the
person to the left of them and the
choice look after the person to the
right of them and we would trust them
and follow them anywhere leadership is
the acceptance of the awesome
responsibility to create an environment
in which people
can work at their natural best the
senior-most people in an organization
are not responsible for the results they
are just not right it’s it’s like
talking to hospital administrators and I
say what’s your priority and they say my
patients really you’re not a doctor and
if you are you haven’t talked to a
patient in 20 years wrong
the responsibility of the senior people
in a hospital is to take care of the
staff the doctors and the nurses and
when they feel taken care of they will
in turn take care of the patients the
responsibility of everyone in this room
is to take care of the people who work
in the organization and if they feel
that someone has their back they will
commit all of their excess energy and
time to take care of the students and
each other if they do not feel that
their backs are protected that someone
has their interests in mind that the
organization itself is trying to help
them advance as human beings then they
will do exactly what the culture
provides them for to them to do which is
they will protect themselves from you
which then goes to the next point of
trusting teams a trusting team is an
environment in which people feel safe to
raise their hand and say I made a
mistake they don’t feel qualified to do
the job you’ve asked me to do and I need
more training I need help I’m struggling
at home and it’s affecting my work I’m
scared
without any fear of humiliation or
retribution or punishment whatsoever if
you do not have trusting teams inside
your organization what you do have is a
group of people who show up to work
every single day lying hiding and faking
you’re forcing them to it’s not their
fault you’re creating an environment in
which people will not share mistakes for
fear that it puts them on some sort of
short list or just getting in trouble
they will not admit that they don’t feel
qualified for the jobs that they have
for fear of being outcasts or again put
on some sort of short list of getting in
trouble which means eventually these
things will compound and eventually
something will break we’ve seen the
results look what happened with United
Airlines we all saw the film of this
poor paying passenger being dragged off
the plane
the broken nose broken teeth and a
concussion right and I feel for that
crew I do not blame the crew because
they work in a culture in which they
fear making the right decision they
actually fear that they will get in they
believe they will get in trouble before
for making the right decision
they actually fear getting in trouble
more than doing the right thing
this was not an anomaly this has been
compounding over years I had a personal
experience on that airline years prior
that was a red flag I was attempting to
board a plane and one of the passengers
this played out in front of me one of
the passengers attempted to board the
plane before their group number was
called which is all of you know here is
a felony and that is exactly how the
gate agent treated him step aside sir I
haven’t called your group yet please
step aside and wait till I call your
group is how she talked to a paying
customer so I spoke up I said why do you
have to talk to us that way why can’t
you talk to us like we’re human beings
and she looked me in the eye and said
sir if I don’t follow the rules I could
get in trouble or lose my job what she
revealed to me is that she does not feel
safe in her own organization and her
leaders do not trust her to use her own
judgment and they do not trust her to do
the job for which she’s been trained to
do and guess who suffers customer and
company the reason we love flying
Southwest Airlines is because not
because they have some magical formula
to hire the best people it’s because the
people there feel safe in their own
organization they’re entrusted to use
their own judgment and do the jobs for
which they’ve been trained to do if you
have an excess of bureaucracy in your
organization and I have worked in the
university system and I feel for the
people who abused me when I go get my ID
because they fear getting in trouble
more than using judgment that is a
cultural problem I do not blame the
person human beings are social animals
and we respond to the environments were
in and ultimately it is the leadership
that is responsible for setting the
environment get the environment right
you get trusting teams get the
environment wrung you
forcing people to protect themselves
from you if you work in an organization
where it is standard practice for people
to feel the need to send a cya email
after every decision they make cover
your ass that is a sign that they feel
that they have to take time and energy
out of their day away from doing their
jobs in order to protect themselves from
you if you work in an organization where
it is standard practice for people to
feel the need that they have to keep a
folder of all the good things they’ve
ever done just in case they need it it
is a sign that they feel that they have
to take time and energy away from
advancing the just cause in order to
protect themselves from the organization
that’s what you get if they feel safe
all of their energy goes to advancing
the just cause always the next part is a
worthy rival now I said before that the
only true competitor in an infinite game
is yourself this is true what your
competition does is it helps reveal to
you your weaknesses admire the others in
your organization not to beat them
there’s no such thing not to be number
one there’s no such thing but if
somebody else is better than you at
something that means you have to go work
harder yourself it’s like running in a
race if you’re driven to be number one
if you’re driven to make the most money
if you’re driven to show up in at some
arbitrary ranking that you don’t even
have a say in that’s like tripping the
the next runner you will win the race
but you’re still a slow runner rather
fall behind this year and then you work
and work and work because ultimately the
goal is not to be number one this year
the goal is to create an organization
that will outlast every single one of
you this is about building strong
foundations
this is about looking long-term and the
short-term money is simply fuel to make
the car go we don’t own cars to buy more
fuel we own cars to go somewhere it’s
the same thing in an organization your
organization exists to advance something
the money is simply there to make a go
and I fear that what has happened in the
university system is similar to what I’m
seeing in business it’s similar to what
I’m seeing in politics it’s similar to
what I’m seeing in hospitals which is an
over the sense of excessive pressure to
bring money in at the expense of
something else there’s an excessive
amount of short-termism and massive
amounts of rationalizing this is just
the game we just have to do it if we
don’t somebody else will the obsession
with getting grants meaning you’re
hiring people who are more likely to
help you get a grant even though they’re
teaching things that we don’t
necessarily even need or want
that’s called short-termism
unfortunately I can’t tell you the last
piece because I’ve run out of time but I
want you to go back at least to think if
if being at this university is gonna be
your legacy do you want to be known do
we want to write on your tombstone how
much money you helped raise top
fundraiser right or do we want to be
known for the service that you provide
it to the people who devoted themselves
to your cause good luck
[Applause] [Music]
launched a surprise attack against
American forces we know this is the Tet
Offensive Tet is the Vietnamese
equivalent of Christmas and for decades
there was a tradition in Vietnam that
there was never any fighting on Tet much
like the cease fires during World War
one on Christmas except in this
particular incident and in 1968 the
Vietnamese forces decided to break with
tradition overwhelm the American forces
and hopefully bring a swift end to the
war and that’s exactly what they
attempted to do they threw 85,000 troops
attacking over 125 US and Allied targets
across the country and they caught the
Americans completely by surprise
many of the commanding officers were not
even at their posts they were in town
celebrating Tet expecting there to be no
fighting here’s the amazing thing
the United States repelled every single
attack thrown at them over the Tet
Offensive every single one
most of the major fighting had ceased
after about a week kWe went on for about
a month but most major fighting had
ceased after about a week after which
the Americans had lost fewer than a
thousand troops the North Vietnamese
lost 35,000 out of the 85,000 troops but
they with which they attacked and if we
look at the Vietnam War as a whole the
United States lost 58,000 people over
the course of ten years where the
Vietnamese the North Vietnamese lost
three million people over the course of
ten years which is a population
equivalent at the time of the United
States losing 27 million of our own
population just to put it
right and if we look closely at the
Vietnam War the United States actually
won the vast majority of the battles
they fought and most of the major
battles that we fought so it raises a
very interesting question how do you
decimate your enemy win all the
important battles and lose the war as it
turns out we don’t fully understand or
at least there are multiple definitions
of a winning and losing means if you
have at least one competitor you have a
game and there are two types of game
there are finite games and there are
infinite games a finite game is defined
as known players fixed rules and an
agreed upon objective football we all
agree what the rules are
before we begin play we all agree that
whoever has more points at the end of
the set time period is the winner and
everybody goes home at the end right the
game has a beginning a middle and an end
in an infinite game there are known and
unknown players the rules are changeable
and the objective is to perpetuate the
game or stay in the game as long as
possible when we pit a finite player
versus a finite player the system is
stable football is stable when we pit an
infinite player versus an infinite
player
the system is also stable the Cold War
was stable because we could not have a
winner or a loser and what ends up
happening is the players play until one
drops out because they have they lack
the resources or the will to continue to
play they run out of the will and
resources the game continues with them
or without them the player just leaves
the game right
problems arise however when you pit a
finite player versus an infinite player
because one is playing to win and the
other is playing to keep playing and
they make profoundly different strategic
choices which ultimately results in the
finite player finding themselves in
quagmire running through will and
resources trying to win
and this is what happened to the United
States in Vietnam it’s not so much that
the Americans lost the Vietnam War it’s
that they were fighting the wrong game
because the Americans were trying to
beat the North Vietnamese where the
North Vietnamese were fighting for their
lives and a very different set of
strategic choices was made and
invariably the United States will find
themselves in quagmire and ran out of
the will or the resources to play that
in lose they dropped out of the game
right now this gets me thinking about
other contexts in the world in which we
live business politics even education
right which is what game are we playing
right there’s no such thing as winning
business there’s no such thing as
winning global politics and there’s
definitely no such thing as winning
education but if we listen to the
language of too many organizations they
don’t know the game they’re in they talk
about being the best they talk about
being number one they talk about beating
their competition the problem is there’s
no such thing and any metrics that we
choose whether it’s a ranking in a
magazine that has made arbitrary choices
about how to rank your universities and
colleges you had no say or one
university that declares itself number
one in X and another one bit declares
themselves in Y we haven’t agreed upon
the time frames of the metrics in other
words it’s all smoke and mirrors right
which means if you’re playing by those
rules it’s becoming more and more
difficult to maintain the resources to
stay in the game money is becoming more
difficult that’s becoming what seems to
be the primary objective which it never
was and even the will of the people to
commit their blood sweat and tears to
see that your organization advances into
the future in other words the staff the
teachers even the students it becomes
more and more difficult let me give you
a real-life example that shed some light
on what I’m talking about
I spoke at an education summit at
Microsoft I also spoke at an education
summit at Apple at the Microsoft summit
the vast majority of the executives
spent the vast majority of their
presentations talking about how to beat
Apple at the Apple summit a hundred
percent of the executives spent a
hundred percent of their presentations
talking about how to help teachers teach
and how to help students learn one was
obsessed with where they were going
the other one was obsessed with their
competition guess which one was in
quagmire at the end of my talk at
Microsoft they gave me a gift they gave
me the new Zune when it was a thing this
was Microsoft’s response to the iPod and
this little piece of technology was
absolutely incredible it was beautifully
designed the user interface was
intuitive and very simple to use it was
really brilliant I have to say so at the
end of my Apple talk I was sharing a
taxi with a very senior Apple executive
employee number 54 to be exact
and I decided to stir the pot I couldn’t
help myself I turned to my said you know
Microsoft gave me their new Zune and it
is so much better than your iPod touch
to which he said I have no doubt and the
conversation was over because the
infinite player understands sometimes
your competitor has the better product
and sometimes you have the better
product and sometimes you’re ahead and
sometimes you’re behind but there’s no
such thing as best or first or beating
your competition
there’s only ahead and behind and the
reality of an infinite game is you’re
actually only competing against yourself
that the objective every single day is
how do we become a better version of our
own institution this year than we were
last year how do we improve the quality
of our culture how do we improve the
quality of the way we provide the
service that we claim to be providing
how do we improve ourselves that is the
main point of being an infinite game
because at the end of the day we don’t
have the same metrics as everybody else
and we’re not even necessarily playing
to the same ends so the question is how
do you play an infinite game there are
five pieces it’s a checklist literally
you have to check them all off and if
you don’t have them all checked off you
eventually slide back into the finite
game here’s what they all run through
them quickly and then give you a little
more depth on each of them number one
you have to have a Just Cause number two
you have to have courageous leadership
number three you have to have trusting
teams number four you have to have a
worthy rival and number five you have to
have a flexible playbook okay let’s run
through them really quickly what is a
Just Cause so I’ll ask you a very simple
question why does your organization
exist
we don’t need you clearly there’s plenty
of competition clearly people have
plenty of choices even the things that
you may specialize in there are others
that do a reasonably good job they might
even be better than you in some areas so
why do you exist providing education is
table stakes everybody here does that
you can’t rely on that that’s why the
industry exists not why your
organization exists that’s like when I
talk to healthcare companies and say why
does your organization exist and they
say to help people be more healthy like
no kidding thank you but I know that the
culture of one organization is different
than the culture of another organization
there are cultural norms that wrap
around the sense of purpose cause or
belief great organizations understand
they’re just cause they caused so just
that people would be willing to
sacrifice to see the advancement of that
cause sacrifice comes in many forms it
might mean working longer hours giving
you my best ideas turning down a better
job that offers me more money to stay
here because I believe in what you’re
doing and I want to see that at first
one of my favorite examples of a Just
Cause is the Declaration of Independence
our founding fathers declared literally
wrote down they declared why we needed
our own country
all men are created equal endowed with
these unalienable rights amongst which
include life liberty
and the pursuit of happiness they were
never against Britain the whole point is
not to be against something but to stand
for something
Britain was simply standing in the way
of them advancing their cause and though
they won independence there are always
finite games within the infinite game
though they won independence that didn’t
mean that they had now provided all men
are equal now the real heavy lifting
began now let’s be crystal clear when
they said all men are equal what they
meant was white Protestant men let’s be
crystal clear but even early on during
the Revolutionary War George Washington
understood how limiting that was and he
realized that they had to have a broader
definition so he included Catholics he
banned any organizing against Catholics
and his armies and he would regularly
attend Mass to send the right message
sometime later we abolish slavery and
the 14th amendment sometime later we had
women’s suffrage some time later we had
Civil Rights Act some time later
gay rights and you can see that we are
striving to provide this thing called
all men are equal people are equal and
though we will never actually get there
we will die trying and the obstacles may
always be different and what a Just
Cause is it is a vision of the future
that does not yet exist and you will
commit all of your energies to advance
that vision of the world that you have
and the people you want to attract both
those who work there those who teach
there and both those who come to learn
there believe in your vision of the
future so much so that they may turn
down a better offer of sons from someone
else because they want to be around
people who are committed to building
this world that does not yet exist and
every single single one of these
organizations that you run and represent
can have different visions or
overlapping visions of the world but you
must be clear what your just cause is
what you stand for otherwise the only
thing I have to judge you on is
superficial things it’s like dating
right it’s like dating if somebody tells
me what they stand for who they are they
talking about their character and those
are the people we want to spend the rest
of our lives with if we do not have any
sense of who they are what they stand
for with their purpose what their cause
what their beliefs are what their values
are the only thing we have to judge them
on is how much money they make and how
good-looking they are and that’s what we
end up unfortunately in so many
university systems we are judging based
on superficial things right and it hurts
me when I even see universities
advertised because they talk about table
stakes getting an education getting a
head no kidding thank you nobody goes to
university to get behind like I knew
that without you without your
advertising
or worse you advertise what the starting
seriously that’s where we’re beginning
you’re starting to sound like investment
banks who advertise what your bonus will
be which means you attract people who
want bigger bonuses rather than ID lists
and ideologues
we’re gonna commit time and energy to
impact the world and if they’re not
learning at at university where are they
learning it without a just cause we
start feeding people what they want
rather than what they need ted koppel
talks about this in the news he says we
used to give people the news they needed
whether they want it or not now we give
people the news they want whether they
need it or not and I don’t have to go
into the polarizing nature of news in
America today and what a vicious cycle
that creates and these echo chambers I
would argue that universities are
leaning towards that same direction
we’re giving people the classes they
want whether they need them or not and
where sometimes avoiding giving them the
classwork they need whether they want it
or not real important things that will
help advance your just cause but more
important will help advance them as
human beings because I can tell you in
my work the people who make choices
based on salary alone end up unhappy end
up and broken marriages and end up doing
rather unethical things because they’re
so driven by the mighty dollar why
aren’t we teaching people let’s put that
in affirmative you should teach I
strongly urge you to include things like
confrontation effective confrontation
communication skills you’ve heard on
this panel already from younger
generations with increasing rates of
anxiety increasing rates of depression
increasing rates of suicide we’re seeing
it in these school shootings where
something like 80% of them are
perpetrated by kid bite by children who
are lacking good relationships
it’s human relationships that are
missing I’m seeing it in the business
world every single day and what this
drives as more and more short-termism
what do you stand for and will you
attract people who believe what you
believe number two it’s embarrassing
this has to be on the list courageous
leadership courageous leaders are the
ones who are willing to sacrifice the
short term in order to advance the long
term courageous leaders are the ones who
are willing to say no to the money
because it’s coming from a dirty source
and rather say yes even though they know
they’ll have to tighten the belt in the
short term because it’s the right thing
to do having a Just Cause if we don’t
actually follow the just cause we don’t
actually make decisions through the lens
of the just cause is just marketing it’s
just marketing I’ll give you my favorite
example right
the IOC the International Olympic
Committee they have a mission statement
what they believe is their Just Cause
which is to inva advance the world make
the world a better place through sport
but for the fact that they’re all
corrupt it’s a great idea my point is is
you actually have to have leadership
that desperately profoundly believes in
the cause and will make decisions to
advance that cause they would sooner
sacrifice their own personal interests
to take care of their people they would
never sacrifice their people to protect
their own interests it’s called
leadership it’s called
leadership we confuse rank and
leadership rank has nothing to do with
leadership I know many people who sit at
the highest levels of organizations who
are not leaders they have authority and
we do as they tell us because they have
authority over us but we would not
follow them and yet I know many people
who sit at lower ranks who have no
authority and yet they have made a
choice the choice to look after the
person to the left of them and the
choice look after the person to the
right of them and we would trust them
and follow them anywhere leadership is
the acceptance of the awesome
responsibility to create an environment
in which people
can work at their natural best the
senior-most people in an organization
are not responsible for the results they
are just not right it’s it’s like
talking to hospital administrators and I
say what’s your priority and they say my
patients really you’re not a doctor and
if you are you haven’t talked to a
patient in 20 years wrong
the responsibility of the senior people
in a hospital is to take care of the
staff the doctors and the nurses and
when they feel taken care of they will
in turn take care of the patients the
responsibility of everyone in this room
is to take care of the people who work
in the organization and if they feel
that someone has their back they will
commit all of their excess energy and
time to take care of the students and
each other if they do not feel that
their backs are protected that someone
has their interests in mind that the
organization itself is trying to help
them advance as human beings then they
will do exactly what the culture
provides them for to them to do which is
they will protect themselves from you
which then goes to the next point of
trusting teams a trusting team is an
environment in which people feel safe to
raise their hand and say I made a
mistake they don’t feel qualified to do
the job you’ve asked me to do and I need
more training I need help I’m struggling
at home and it’s affecting my work I’m
scared
without any fear of humiliation or
retribution or punishment whatsoever if
you do not have trusting teams inside
your organization what you do have is a
group of people who show up to work
every single day lying hiding and faking
you’re forcing them to it’s not their
fault you’re creating an environment in
which people will not share mistakes for
fear that it puts them on some sort of
short list or just getting in trouble
they will not admit that they don’t feel
qualified for the jobs that they have
for fear of being outcasts or again put
on some sort of short list of getting in
trouble which means eventually these
things will compound and eventually
something will break we’ve seen the
results look what happened with United
Airlines we all saw the film of this
poor paying passenger being dragged off
the plane
the broken nose broken teeth and a
concussion right and I feel for that
crew I do not blame the crew because
they work in a culture in which they
fear making the right decision they
actually fear that they will get in they
believe they will get in trouble before
for making the right decision
they actually fear getting in trouble
more than doing the right thing
this was not an anomaly this has been
compounding over years I had a personal
experience on that airline years prior
that was a red flag I was attempting to
board a plane and one of the passengers
this played out in front of me one of
the passengers attempted to board the
plane before their group number was
called which is all of you know here is
a felony and that is exactly how the
gate agent treated him step aside sir I
haven’t called your group yet please
step aside and wait till I call your
group is how she talked to a paying
customer so I spoke up I said why do you
have to talk to us that way why can’t
you talk to us like we’re human beings
and she looked me in the eye and said
sir if I don’t follow the rules I could
get in trouble or lose my job what she
revealed to me is that she does not feel
safe in her own organization and her
leaders do not trust her to use her own
judgment and they do not trust her to do
the job for which she’s been trained to
do and guess who suffers customer and
company the reason we love flying
Southwest Airlines is because not
because they have some magical formula
to hire the best people it’s because the
people there feel safe in their own
organization they’re entrusted to use
their own judgment and do the jobs for
which they’ve been trained to do if you
have an excess of bureaucracy in your
organization and I have worked in the
university system and I feel for the
people who abused me when I go get my ID
because they fear getting in trouble
more than using judgment that is a
cultural problem I do not blame the
person human beings are social animals
and we respond to the environments were
in and ultimately it is the leadership
that is responsible for setting the
environment get the environment right
you get trusting teams get the
environment wrung you
forcing people to protect themselves
from you if you work in an organization
where it is standard practice for people
to feel the need to send a cya email
after every decision they make cover
your ass that is a sign that they feel
that they have to take time and energy
out of their day away from doing their
jobs in order to protect themselves from
you if you work in an organization where
it is standard practice for people to
feel the need that they have to keep a
folder of all the good things they’ve
ever done just in case they need it it
is a sign that they feel that they have
to take time and energy away from
advancing the just cause in order to
protect themselves from the organization
that’s what you get if they feel safe
all of their energy goes to advancing
the just cause always the next part is a
worthy rival now I said before that the
only true competitor in an infinite game
is yourself this is true what your
competition does is it helps reveal to
you your weaknesses admire the others in
your organization not to beat them
there’s no such thing not to be number
one there’s no such thing but if
somebody else is better than you at
something that means you have to go work
harder yourself it’s like running in a
race if you’re driven to be number one
if you’re driven to make the most money
if you’re driven to show up in at some
arbitrary ranking that you don’t even
have a say in that’s like tripping the
the next runner you will win the race
but you’re still a slow runner rather
fall behind this year and then you work
and work and work because ultimately the
goal is not to be number one this year
the goal is to create an organization
that will outlast every single one of
you this is about building strong
foundations
this is about looking long-term and the
short-term money is simply fuel to make
the car go we don’t own cars to buy more
fuel we own cars to go somewhere it’s
the same thing in an organization your
organization exists to advance something
the money is simply there to make a go
and I fear that what has happened in the
university system is similar to what I’m
seeing in business it’s similar to what
I’m seeing in politics it’s similar to
what I’m seeing in hospitals which is an
over the sense of excessive pressure to
bring money in at the expense of
something else there’s an excessive
amount of short-termism and massive
amounts of rationalizing this is just
the game we just have to do it if we
don’t somebody else will the obsession
with getting grants meaning you’re
hiring people who are more likely to
help you get a grant even though they’re
teaching things that we don’t
necessarily even need or want
that’s called short-termism
unfortunately I can’t tell you the last
piece because I’ve run out of time but I
want you to go back at least to think if
if being at this university is gonna be
your legacy do you want to be known do
we want to write on your tombstone how
much money you helped raise top
fundraiser right or do we want to be
known for the service that you provide
it to the people who devoted themselves
to your cause good luck
[Applause] [Music]
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