Heaven, Hell, and Sub-Optimization

In the book by Ben and Jerry’s Ice Cream founder’s titled Double Dip: How to Run A Values-Led Business and Make Money, Too they end the last chapter with the following ancient eastern parable...

A man is granted permission to see both heaven and hell while he is still alive. First he goes to visit hell. He goes down, opens up this big door, and sees a huge banquet hall. There’s a long table in the center of the room, with people seated on both sides. The table is laden with every imaginable delicacy: succulent chicken and beef, apricot-glazed turkey, candied yams, butter drenched green beans, piping hot bread spread with fragrant jelly, warm pies topped with Ben and Jerry’s Ice Cream. As he’s looking at this scene the man sees that the people seated at this table are crying and wailing and in terrible pain. He looks a little closer sees that the utensils the people have to eat with have such long handles that it’s impossible for them to get the food into their mouths.

Depressed, with heavy heart, the man goes to visit heaven. He opens the door and sees virtually the same banquet room—the same long table covered with the same delicious food, and people sitting on both sides of the table with the same long-handled utensils.

But instead of crying in pain and hunger, these people are laughing, singing, and rejoicing. The man looks closer and sees that people in heaven, instead of trying to feed only themselves, are feeding one another.

Our businesses can be a heaven or hell. We all get to decide. Organizations that are healthy and work have a foundation of selflessness that permeates through out.

Sub-Optimization is a big word that creates big problems. By definition it means, “doing well on your own goals while causing problems in other departments”. It is forgetting about the larger context that we are a part of. Sub-optimization is created by another big word - Segmentalism. Segmentalism is thinking of your business in segments rather than in wholes.

Teamwork requires that we invest in the team as a whole and not just our own department or our own immediate payoff. Plain and simple it is working to serve others and not just yourself.