In 2001, the film " A beatiful mind" about the life of John Forbes Nash won the Oscar. And who is John Forbes Nash?. He invented the games theory and he won the Nobel Prize of Economy in 1994. His theories have influenced the economy, the commercial negotiations, the biology and the psychology.
I am writing this post to comment two propositions based in his life and theories:
I am writing this post to comment two propositions based in his life and theories:
1) The cooperation always gets better results than the competence between people / teams / companies.
In a film scene, several friends watching a group of girls discuss about what to do to avoid sleeping alone. Some of them suggest, following the theories of Adam Smith, to compete between them to get the most beautiful girl in the group. John Nash says that if they do that, only one (or none) will get the most beautiful girl.
What about the others?. The others will not get nothing, because the other girls will not be very happy to have been left as second option and they will leave.
Maybe it is not a work academic example, but it is an example that allow us to understand easily that the cooperation always gets better results than the competence.
What about the others?. The others will not get nothing, because the other girls will not be very happy to have been left as second option and they will leave.
Maybe it is not a work academic example, but it is an example that allow us to understand easily that the cooperation always gets better results than the competence.
2) Understanding and improving how or our mind works will make supernatural our work performance and our personal developement
At the age of 30, John Nash spent 15 year in different hospitals with schizophrenia. He was convinced that spies were following him and aliens were communicating with him using encrypted messages in The New York Times. After these 15 years, he miraculously recovered one day starting to speak normally. And after he started to give classes again. His wife said that he did not recovered by any medicine or treatment, only a quiet life recovered him. And why he believed all these completely unreal thoughts?. He said that he believed them because they came in the same way that its usual thoughts.
John Nash believes deeeply, as well, that in a stress situation, the schizophrenia thoughts can be a way that the mind escapes from the problem. At lower level level, we all know people that did not react or think in the same way after a divorce, a death of a close familiar, a cancer or other difficult situation. In some cases, the abnormal reactions did not last too much but in some cases, it became a problem for all life... I honestly think that some problems at work considered attitude problems can be determined by personal situations and a recipe based only in the symptoms will not produce any positive result. As example, to impose more discipline to someone affected by the death of a close familiar that behaves strangely only will become the problem bigger...
I do not think that the work of our companies is to take care of our mental health, but it is in its interest that they take care about our mind, because if not, the productivity loss can be very high. I am very convinced that some expertise in Pshycology in Human Resources Departments (and in some managers) can make a real difference in much more less time...finding quickly the clue and the solution...... and if not, we have always the solution of a quiet life (as John Nash), but I am not sure that we (and our companies, families and friends) would like to wait for us 15 years!
