零和游戏原理

Zero sum games
A game is an interaction or exchange between two (or more) actors, where each actor attempts to optimize a certain variable by choosing his actions (or "moves") towards the other actor in such a way that he could expect a maximum gain, depending on the other's response. One traditionally distinguishes two types of games. Zero-sum games are games where the amount of "winnable goods" (or resources in our terminology) is fixed. Whatever is gained by one actor, is therefore lost by the other actor: the sum of gained (positive) and lost (negative) is zero. This corresponds to a situation of pure competition.
Chess, for example, is a zero-sum game: it is impossible for both players to win (or to lose). Monopoly (if it is not played with the intention of having just one winner) on the other hand, is a non-zero-sum game: all participants can win property from the "bank". In principle, in monopoly, two players could reach an agreement and help each other in gathering a maximum amount from the bank. That is not really the intention of the game, but I hope I have made the distinction clear: in non-zero-sum games the total amount gained is variable, and so both players may win (or lose). When they can both win by cooperating in some way, we might say that their cooperation creates a synergy.

寓言中的智慧：零和游戏原理

一个游戏无论几个人来玩，总有输家和赢家，赢家所赢的都是输家所输的，所以无论输赢多少，正负相抵，最后游戏的总和都为零，这就是零和游戏。

    零和游戏之所以为人所关注，是因为人们在社会生活中处处都能找到与“零和游戏”雷同和类似的局面。我们大肆开发利用煤炭石油资源，留给后入便越来越少；我们研究生产了大量的转基因产品，一些新的病毒也跟着冒了出来；我们修筑了葛洲坝水利工程，白鳍豚就再也不能洄游到金沙江产卵……。

    发展是硬道理。人类在经历了经济高速增长、科技进步、全球一体化及日益严重的生态破坏、环境污染之后，可持续发展理论才逐渐冒出水面。“零和游戏”的原理正在逐渐为“双赢”观念所取代，人们逐渐认识到“利己”而不“损人”才是最美好的结局，实践证明，通过有效合作，实现皆大欢喜的结局是可能的。

    领导者要善于跳出“零和”的圈子，寻找能够实现“双赢”的机遇和突破口，防止负面影响抵消正面成绩。批评下属如何使人接受而不抵触、发展经济如何才能做到不损害环境、展开竞争如何使自己胜出而不让对方受到伤害，这些都是每一个为官者值得思考的问题。

    还是那句话，世上没有现成的标准答案。这些企业经营管理定律只能供我们参考和借鉴，至于什么条件下适合借鉴哪一种，回到手表定理上去，你需要自己选择一块戴着舒适而又走时准确的手表。（牛津管理评论）