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WorldLine Training Ltd

WorldLine Training

Writer's pictureKathy@WorldLine

Responsibility and Power - a Zero Sum Game?

Updated: Aug 8, 2024

There's a very good reason why we have issues with Responsibility - we were taught to have them when we were growing up.


  • "Make your bed and tidy your room or...."

Where was an explanation of benefits in playing and sleeping in that nice space you've made for yourself? No, instead you were made to fear a consequence.

  • "Do your homework or....."

Uh-huh - there it is again, the fearful consequence of not performing to someone else's standard for some undisclosed benefit.

  • "If we get a [fluffy cuddly pet you've always wanted] who's going to clean it out/feed it/take it for walks/pay for its upkeep [etc etc etc]...?"

This one speaks for itself... let's leave it quietly ruminating.


When we are very young, our brains primarily operate on Theta waves; at this stage of our lives, incoming information is received without question. We don't remember much about our Theta phase as adults, for this very reason. With little (if any) logical assimilation going on, we only recall tiny pieces of what amounts to a foundational jigsaw on which the rest of our existence is based.


In formative years, all time is forever. Our generation had no grounding in the truth about Time, the pointlessness of past-future anxiety, the value of living in the Now. So our inherent view of Responsibility logically becomes (to our minds) an eternal burden (given the generic conditioning) which in all honesty, we'd rather not have (generally speaking).



Rock Paper Scissors demonstrates hierarchy of power. A simple play on shapes of the hand, it's often used in place of 'drawing the short straw' when there are no straws available. Due to the random nature of outcome and equivalent fairness, it's known as a 'zero-sum' game - Wikipedia has this to say about it:

"Rock paper scissors is often used as a fair choosing method between two people, similar to coin flipping, drawing straws, or throwing dice in order to settle a dispute or make an unbiased group decision. Unlike truly random selection methods, however, rock paper scissors can be played with some degree of skill by recognizing and exploiting non-random behavior in opponents."


Let's take these analogous concepts and put them into the workplace environment, a community of people, some with an erroneous view of Responsibility and a simultaneous desire for Power. Human nature gravitates towards negativity (due to conditioning again) where cliques, silos and 'blame culture' come from. Some resort to bullying, coveting information, accusations, even causing colleagues to fail, while others meekly accept their fate and dread coming into work each day. In a toxic environment, competition outweighs creativity 10-squared to the power of 5 - communication breaks down and Engagement has nowhere to go. People don't want this, but they don't know how to change it either.


As you can see, in real-time this is happening everywhere, every moment of every day. Changing the template, therefore, means creating a different set of circumstances to apply; this takes a little time. Without magic wands and fairy dust to settle the matter in the real world, we have to work towards outcomes - but first we have to believe in them.


When looking for sustainable change and solutions, it's essential to address the generic bedrock and break it down so that fresh ground can be laid on which to sow the seeds of those results you really want. Telling people how to do things better without furnishing preliminary understanding and fostering collective benefit only perpetuates the problem.


You'll find a lot of information in this Post behind the words underlined (where a supporting article is linked). If having had a chance to mull, you want to be assured of cost-effective strategies that viably provide sustainable continuous improvements, talk to someone who understands your trials and can help you get your company to where you want it to be.



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