Leading with Gilbert's Law in Mind

The Unwinnable Game

Every leader wants an engaged, energized team. We read books on motivation, attend seminars on culture, and implement programs designed to boost morale. We dangle carrots—bonuses, perks, promotions—and sometimes, we even resort to the stick. Yet, so often, the result is a fleeting bump in satisfaction, followed by a slow slide back to the status quo. We find ourselves in a constant, exhausting cycle of trying to *make* people happy, as if joy were a product we could manufacture and distribute. This is the unwinnable game. It’s the deep-seated belief that a leader’s primary role is to be the direct source of their team’s contentment. We act as if we can control the intricate, internal worlds of our employees—their passions, their fears, their sense of purpose. When our efforts fall short, we feel a sense of failure. We tried to inspire, and they remained unmoved. We offered a reward, and the effect was temporary. The problem, however, may not be with our efforts, but with our entire approach. The assumption that we can directly engineer another person’s fulfillment is where the game is lost before it even begins. What if the most powerful thing a leader could do is to stop trying to be the source of happiness and instead become a facilitator of it? This shift in perspective is at the heart of a powerful, and often misunderstood, principle in performance management. It asks us to lay down the tools of direct persuasion and pick up the blueprints of environmental design. It suggests that our true leverage lies not in manipulating motivation, but in creating the conditions for it to emerge on its own.