Interlude - Index of

Values and Culture | 95
actions matter. In a small business, the inaction of a single
employee can literally kill the company.
••
Tom and I were chatting about a former employee who was a
bad culture fit. Tom commented, “Acting the way he did may
work in the short run, but over time he just pissed everyone
off. He should have understood that life is a long game.”
Tom had intuitively captured the essence of some complex
game theory. Early game theorists struggled to understand why
cooperation exists. Their math seemed to prove that cheating is
the best strategy even though they believed that cooperation
is sometimes better. Using computer simulations, professor
Robert Axelrod found that cheating can work in short games,
but in long games where the same players interact over and
over, players do best if they cooperate. (For details, see his
book, The Evolution of Cooperation.)
Tom is not a mathematician or a game theorist—in fact
he can barely operate his wristwatch—but he captured some
groundbreaking game theory in a simple phrase. In this particular
case, Tom’s long-life analysis was slightly flawed: the
ex-employee was soon found dead in a hotel room next to bags
of heroin and cocaine. Never mind the details—Tom’s strength
is understanding the big picture.
I believe this simple insight—life is a long game—explains
why values work. In the short run, values often feel painful,
but they encourage you to act in ways that work out better
in the long run. If you plan to keep selling to the same customers,
working with the same people, or living in the same