THE INNER GAME OF WORK:

BUILDING CAPABILITY IN THE

WORKPLACE
B Y T I M G A L LW E Y

hat would be more interesting to you,” I ask an

“W audience of executives, “engaging in a dialogue on
learning how to coach or one on learning how to
learn?” Generally, 80 to 90 percent of the executives vote
for coaching. I point out the obvious—if you learned how to
learn, you could apply the knowledge to learning anything,
including coaching. And the reverse is not true. So why not
learn how to learn?

The answer is usually unspoken but real. Coaching is

something I do to improve another person or team; it’s part
of my job. Learning happens to me; it makes me feel
vulnerable. Learning focuses on my weaknesses, pressuring
me to change the way I think and behave. Besides, I’m a
professional, with established competencies and
knowledge. I’m paid to get results, not to learn.

Thus, managers’ most common response to the growing

demand for corporations to become learning organizations
is to scramble to be the teacher, not the taught—the coach,
not the coached. But, to be an e ective coach, an individual
must understand the nature of learning. And to understand
learning, a coach must be actively engaged in the learning
process and personally familiar with the kinds of
vulnerabilities and obstacles a learner experiences.
Developing Learning Capability
Learning, coaching, and building a learning culture are
critical to the success of modern businesses. Because
learning increases our ability to perform, the capacity to
grow capability is becoming indistinguishable from the
capacity to grow wealth. However, unacknowledged
resistance to learning and coaching can make it di cult for
us to realize the ideals of the learning organization.

As children, we were naturally engaged in learning in

everything we did. Thus, as adults, we don’t really need to
learn how to learn, as much as we need to remember what
we once knew. We need to unlearn some of the attitudes
and practices we picked up from our formal education that
seriously undermine our natural appetite and inherent
capability for learning.

The Inner Game approach (see “The Inner Game™” on p.

2) is about unlearning the personal and cultural habits that
interfere with our ability to learn and perform. The goal is
simple, if not easy: to give ourselves and our team’s greater
access to our innate abilities. The approach can be
summarized in a simple formula:

Performance = Potential – Interference

“Potential” includes all of our capabilities—actualized or

latent—as well as our ability to learn; “Interference”
represents the ways that we undermine the ful llment or
expression of our own capacities.

Diminishing the Obstacles to

Learning
We can achieve increased capacity for performance and
learning either by actualizing potential or by decreasing
interference—or by a combination of both. In my
experience, the natural learning process—which is how we
actualize potential—is gradual and ongoing. By contrast,
reducing interference can have an immediate and far-
reaching impact on learning and levels of performance.
Thus, a successful model for skill development must take
into account the phenomenon of interference.

But beware: The barriers to learning are often well guarded

and may become even more entrenched when challenged.
Coaches must generally be gentle in their approach to
surfacing interference to learning and performance in an
individual or team. Hints, suggestions, and indirect probing,
though they may seem to take longer than a more direct
approach, are usually more successful over the long run.

I learned a great deal about interference and how to help

people work through it while coaching tennis and golf—two
sports in which the obstacles to performance are di cult to
disguise. And I have continued to nd these sports
excellent examples for exposing hidden obstacles to
learning and performance. In addition, tennis and golf show
the kinds of results that can occur when one succeeds in
diminishing the impact of interference.

One of my favorite examples is what I call “the uh-oh

experience.” A tennis ball is coming toward a player who
thinks she has a weak backhand. As the ball approaches, she
thinks.

“Here comes a probable mistake.” She tightens her muscles,

steps back defensively as if to avoid the threat, then slashes
jerkily at the ball. When this action results in either an error
or an easy shot for the opponent, she con rms to herself, “I
really do have a terrible backhand,” and unwittingly sets
herself up for the same results on the next similar shot.
If a coach tried to correct each of the elements of the
player’s stroke that were incorrect, it would take months of
“learning.” However, if the coach worked at eliminating the
player’s negative self-talk by focusing her attention instead
on perceiving the details of the ball’s trajectory, most of the
positive behavioral changes would take place without
conscious e ort. Working at changing a player’s perception
instead of his or her behavior saves time and frustration for
both student and coach.

Below is a partial list of obstacles to growing capability:

The THE INNER GAME™

assumption
Every game is composed of two
that “I parts: an outer game and an inner
already game. The outer game is played in
an external arena to overcome
know.”Profes
external obstacles in the way of
often feel reaching external goals; the inner
that they game focuses on internal
obstacles as well as internal goals.
must
The Inner Game is an approach to
present the learning and coaching that brings
appearance the relatively neglected skills from
the inner game to bear on success
of already
in the outer game. Its principles
knowing and methods were rst articulated
everything in the best-selling sports book, The
Inner Game of Tennis (Random
and already
House, 1974), and were expanded
being upon in Inner Tennis, Playing the
perfectly Game (1976);Inner Skiing (1976);
and The Inner Game of Golf (1979).
competent.
The Inner Game of Work, based on
This is an my work with major corporations
obstacle to interested in more e ective ways
to grow the capabilities of their
learning that
people, will be published by
young Random House in 1998.
children do
not share.
The
assumption
that
learning
means
remediation
For many
people, the
suggestion
that they
should learn
means there
is something
wrong with
them or
their level of
performance.
Fear of
being
judged. We
learn this
early,
through
teachers and
parents who
used
judgment as
a means to
control
behavior and
e ort.
Doubt. The
uncertainty
we feel when
we face the
unknown is
a
prerequisite
for learning.
Young
children are
not
embarrassed
by not
knowing
something.
However, as
we age, we
are taught to
feel stupid
or
incompetent
if we lack
knowledge
or
experience
or are
unable to
perform up
to
expectations.
We are
especially
vulnerable
to this
feeling when
faced with
the
challenge of
unlearning
something.
The
prospect of
acknowledgin
that we
might have
invested
time and
e ort in a
perspective
that is no
longer valid
can seem
especially
threatening.
Trying too
hard to
learn and to
appear
learned.
This
phenomenon
is a
derivative of
fear and
doubt, and
leads to
constricted
potential
and
mistakes.
Our errors
then con rm
ours self-
doubt and
bring about
the very
outcome
that we
feared.
Revealing the barriers to learning and performance can be
an important rst step in maximizing an individual’s or a
team’s potential. To nd the greatest leverage for reducing
obstacles to learning in the workplace, I believe we should
start with our de nition of work itself. The way we see
“work” has an impact on how we perceive everything we do
in the workplace.

What Is Work?
If you ask executives the meaning of the word work, they
focus on work as doing something—as accomplishing a
goal, such as providing a product or service. In other words,
to many people, work means performance. But de nitions
that equate work with performance can be limiting,
especially in the current business environment.

Are there other results of work? When I ask executives this

question, they generally o er responses that refer to two
other distinct aspects of work. One is the domain of
experience: How you feel while working is also a result of
work. While working, people feel satisfaction, meaning,
accomplishment, and challenge, as well as frustration,
stress, anxiety, and boredom. Everyone at work experiences
feelings that range from misery to ful llment.

A second set of answers fall into the category of learning:

While working, you can grow, develop know-how and skills,
and improve your ability to communicate, plan, and
strategize. Like performance and experience, learning is a
universal and fundamentally human result of work—people
of all ages, cultures, and levels of expertise are either
learning and growing or stagnating and “devolving” while
working. Adults can learn while working, just as children
learn naturally while playing.

The Work Triangle

How are these fundamental results of work—performance,
experience, and learning—related? They are unquestionably
interdependent. If individuals aren’t learning, their
performance will decline over time; if their predominant
experience of work is boredom or stress, both learning and
performance will su er. These three results can be
represented in a mutually supportive “Work Triangle,” with
performance at the apex, and experience and learning at the
base angles (see “The Work Triangle” on p. 3).

When I ask a group of executives, “Which of the three work

results gains the greatest support and encouragement in
your work environment?” their response is overwhelmingly,
“Performance.” I then place my marking pen at the center
of the Work Triangle and slowly draw a line toward the
performance apex. “How much more priority is
performance given over learning and enjoyment?” I ask. As
the pen reaches the top of the triangle, a voice usually says,
“Stop there.” In response, the majority chants, “Keep
going,” until the line has gone past the apex and is several
inches outside the triangle. There is a general chuckle and a
sense of a common understanding of corporate priorities.

In the competitive world of business, it is easy to see why

performance may be given priority over learning and
experience. But what are the consequences of pursuing
performance at the expense of learning and experience? In
any but the shortest timeframe, the consequences are dire:
performance itself will fall. And what will be management’s
typical response? More pressure on performance, resulting
in even less time and fewer resources directed toward
learning or quality of experience.

How does the emphasis on performance play out in

practice? Take your average sales manager who meets
weekly with his sales representatives. The conversation
usually focuses on performance issues, such as, how many
calls did you make? What were the results of those calls in
terms of sales? What are your plans for next week?

But what if the manager were committed to his own

learning, as well as to his team’s development? He might
also ask: What did you nd out from customers that you
didn’t know before—about their resistances, their needs,
their perception of our products, how we compare to our
competitors? How are di erent customers responding to
our latest promotion? Did you gain any insights into your
own selling skills? What is the competition doing? What are
you interested in nding out next week? Did you learn
anything that might help others on the team?

Our de nition of work should include the worker’s

experience and learning, as well as his or her performance.
The real value of this rede nition of work is that it includes
me as an individual. I directly and immediately bene t from
the learning and experience components of the Work
Triangle. The “Experience” side of the triangle reminds me
that I can’t a ord to neglect personal ful llment during my
working hours in the hope of enjoying myself only during
vacation time or on weekends. I can never replace the hours
of my life I spend at work, so I need to make the most of
them.

The “Learning” side of the triangle reminds me that my

future work prospects depend on the growth in in my
capabilities. Even if I’m red from my present job, I take
with me what I have learned, which I can leverage into
productive and valued performance elsewhere. When my
customers, managers, teammates, and the surrounding
culture pressure me for performance results, the Work
Triangle helps me remember that the person producing
those results is important, too. I neglect my own learning
and quality of experience at great peril to myself as well as
to my future levels of performance.
The Tunnel Vision of Performance
Momentum
The de nition of work that focuses strictly on performance
results at the expense of learning and experience produces
a kind of tunnel vision that prevents workers from being
fully aware and focused. I call this state of unconsciousness
“performance momentum.” At its worst, performance
momentum is a series of actions an individual performs
without true consciousness of how they relate to his or her
most important priorities. Some call this mode of operation
“ re- ghting.” Examples include getting so caught up in a
game of tennis that you forget it is a game, or engaging in
conversations that undermine a relationship for the sake of
merely winning an argument. In short, performance
momentum means getting caught up in an action to the
extent that you forget the purpose of the action.

I don’t know of a more fundamental problem facing

workers today. When individuals are caught up in
performance momentum, they tend to forget not only
important performance goals, but also their fundamental
purpose as human beings. For example, my need to nish
an article by the requested deadline obscures the reasons I
chose to write the article in the rst place, and dampens the
natural enjoyment of expressing my thoughts and
convictions. The person caught up in performance
momentum neglects learning, growth, and the inherent
quality of the work experience.

The THE WORK TRIANGLE

 The fundamental results of work—performance,
experience, and learning—are interdependent. If
individuals aren’t learning, their performance will
decline over time; if their predominant experience of
work is boredom or stress, both learning and
performance will su er.

tunnel vision that results from performance momentum is

di cult to escape when individuals are working in a team
that con rms and enforces the focus on performance. Any
activity that is not seen as driving directly toward the goal
is viewed as suspect. However, when a team or individual
sacri ces the learning and experience sides of the Work
Triangle to performance momentum, long-term
performance su ers. More important, however, the
individual su ers. And because the individual constitutes
the building block of the team, the team su ers as well.

Balancing the Work Triangle

A simple method for assessing the balance among the three
elements in the Work Triangle is to evaluate the way an
individual or team articulates performance goals in
comparison with learning and experience goals. It is
revealing that many employees, when asked about learning
or experience goals, are vague and express less conviction
than when discussing performance goals. Setting clear
learning goals is a good way to begin rebalancing the Work
Triangle.

However, the distinction between learning and

performance is often blurred. Even individuals who have
worked on plans for the development of their competencies
often fall into the trap of expressing their learning goals in
terms of performance; for example, “I want to learn to
focus more on the customer”; “I want to learn to reach
higher sales quotas”; and“ I’m working on learning how to
get a promotion. ”The general rule for distinguishing
between learning and performance goals is that learning
can be viewed as a change that takes place within an
individual, while performance takes place on the outside.
Learning is an increased capacity to perform; performance
is the evidence that the capacity exists.

A good way to focus on learning goals is through the

acronym QUEST.

Q—qualities or attributes you might want to develop in

yourself or others

U—increased understanding of the components of any

person, situation, or system

E—development of expertise, knowledge, or skills

S—capacity for strategic, or systemic, thinking

T—capacity to optimize what you do with time

Teams and individuals can use QUEST to help form goals

regarding what capabilities they want to develop. To be
most e ective, these objectives should support immediate
performance goals but at the same time apply to many
future performance challenges.
Coaching: A Conversation That
Promotes Learning
When executives list the qualities, skills, and expertise they
want from employees, they often list intangible attributes,
such as creativity, accountability, sense of humor, team
player, problem solver, and so on. So, how can you get the
qualities and capabilities you want from people? The rst
response to this question is usually, “We have to do a better
job in hiring.” Clearly, it is important to hire capable people.
But the real question is how to build the capabilities in the
people you have hired, and how to keep those qualities from
diminishing.

Unfortunately, the tools of managing performance are not

particularly useful for promoting or developing important
qualities and core skills. And it is di cult to imagine a
course that teaches the rudiments of initiative or
cooperation. So what is left? The word I use for the capacity
to promote such desired attributes is coaching.

Coaching is a way of being, listening, asking, and speaking

that draws out and augments characteristics and potential
that are already present in a person. An e ective coaching
relationship creates a safe and challenging environment in
which learning can take place. Coaches know that an oak
tree already exists within an acorn. They have seen the one
grow into the other, over time and under the right
conditions, and are committed to providing those
conditions to the best of their abilities. Successful coaches
continually learn how best to “farm” the potential they are
given to nurture.

A primary role of the coach is to stop performance

momentum by calling a time out and providing questions or
perspective that can encourage learning. Actual learning
happens through experience—taking actions, observing the
results, and modifying subsequent actions. To turn a work
experience into a learning experience, a particular mindset
must be established beforehand. Establishing this
perspective can be done through something I call a “set-up
conversation,” which an individual can conduct alone
through self-talk or with a coach. The set-up conversation
helps make the learner aware of the possibilities that the
imminent work experience could yield. In conducting one
of these conversations, the coach asks questions that aid in
focusing the individual’s or team’s attention.

At the end of a work experience, the coach and individual

can hold a “debrief conversation.” During this interchange,
they might “mine” the gold of what was learned and re ne
questions to take into the next work experience. In this
way, experience itself becomes the teacher. The coach’s role
becomes helping the learner as valuable questions of the
“teacher” and interpret the answers.

Coaching is very di erent from what we are generally

taught as managers or teachers. We cannot teach work
teams and individuals how to grow capabilities—in the
sense of the transference of information in a class-room
environment. Nor can we build capabilities through
managerial techniques—for example, requiring certain
abilities and rewarding employees when they display them
or punishing them when they don’t. Neither can we
measure learning, because we can’t directly observe it. In
sum, it is the learner alone who controls the process and
perceives its bene ts. Managers don’t even need to reward
employees for learning—if learning indeed takes place, it
will lead to improved performance. And employers
generally award bonuses, raises, and promotions based on
an increase in a worker’s performance results.

Employees and managers cannot a ord to wait for their

corporate cultures to become learning cultures. Workers
bene t from an expanded de nition of work that includes
learning and experience goals, and therefore must make the
commitment to achieve those objectives. But companies
also bene t from this new perspective on work. Wise are
the corporate leaders who recognize that rede ning work in
this way is a di cult task, but that the company and its
shareholders also gain advantages from a balanced Work
Triangle. The best managers will provide what support and
resources they can to the e ort, and will make it their
mission to shape their workplace into an optimal learning
environment. The payo will be improved business results
and a corporate culture that attracts employees who equally
value growth in capabilities.

Tim Gallwey is credited with founding the eld of sports

psychology. His four best-selling books on The Inner Game have
deeply in uenced the worlds of business and sports. For the last
15years, Tim has spent most of his time working with companies
that want to nd a better way to implement change. This article
is based on a working progress called The Inner Game of Work,
to be published in 1998 by Random House.

Editorial support for this article was provided by Janice

Molloy.

 coaching, experience, learning, obstacles,

organizational learning, performance, personal mastery,
potential, volume 8

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