The Strategy of the Dolphin

"Strategy of the Dolphin: Scoring a Win in a Chaotic World" ISBN 0-449-90529-2 is a 1989 business book written by Dudley Lynch and Paul L. Kordis. It has been translated into seven languages.

harks, Carp, and Dolphins

Several models of psychology, sociobiology and neuroscience are overlayed in Strategy of the Dolphin. The first part of the book draws from right-left brain theory, research on the impact of lobotomies on intellectual/emotional capacity, and research on the learning capacity of dolphins by Eli Lilly.

The result is a model of three types of people. These three types of people are compared to sharks, carp, and dolphins to shed light on their distinct behaviors.

harks

Sharks represent extreme left-brain, I-centered behavior. They believe in scarcity. Their perception is that there must be winners and losers. To ensure that they won’t be the losers, sharks “move in for the kill,” striving to get as much as they can in every case, regardless of the cost.

In any personal or business transaction, the shark will attempt to take over or, if necessary, trade off. They seek total control of circumstances and solutions. Their understanding of "winning" includes a need to be right 100 percent of the time and they will go to any extreme, including lying, to cover up their failures and shortcomings.

Because they are addicted to winning, their creativity in fashioning outcomes is limited. When they fail, they are unable to try anything different or learn from their mistakes. Their fear of failure and belief in scarcity dictates their actions and reactions.

Carps

Carps represent the extreme of right-brain, we-centered behavior. Like sharks, carps believe in scarcity; but unlike sharks, carps believe that their optimal survival strategy is to be appreciated or loved. Rather than winning, they focus their efforts on not losing what they currently have.

Carps fear confrontation, so their strategy in business or personal transactions is to give in or get out. Neither strategy, when used repeatedly, leads to positive outcomes. Both surrendering in a negotiation and abandoning a challenging situation lead to loss of equity in life or career.

In the dynamic between sharks and carps, carps inevitably lose. Like sharks, they are locked into a single strategy, and when they fail, they are incapable of shifting to a different strategy.

Dolphins

The introduction of the dolphin type follows a discussion of Eli Lilly's observations of dolphins. Lilly saw that dolphins, when not given expected rewards in training situations, did not continue to do the same tricks, but instead began to seek rewards through different behaviors.

It is this adaptive learning behavior, as well as the creative pursuit of objectives, that set dolphins apart from sharks and carps in the model created by Lynch and Kordis.

The dolphin type may use either shark or carp strategies, but the choice is dependent on the situation. If one way is unsuccessful, dolphins respond with other possibilities. They learn from their mistakes and the mistakes of others. Dolphins see the possibility of both potential scarcity and potential abundance, through solutions that involve "breakthrough" win-win strategies that build new value.

The Brain Map

Lynch and Kordis leverage the model of sharks, carps and dolphins to build a model of personality types, incorporating values and objectives. Introducing the research into lobotomy patients, which showed the loss of ability to plan into the future or maintain a holistic view of the environment, they build a premise of forebrain and rear brain activity. As the right and left brain are roughly focussed on "I" and "we" thinking, the rear brain is geared to survival and preservation and the forebrain is the site of both broad thinking and forward-looking planning.

This model generated the first of the testing instruments associated with the book, The BrainMap(r), as well as a separate book, "Your High-Performance Business Brain", which has been updated to a new version, "Your High-Performance Dolphin Brain".

The notable characteristic of this assessment instrument was the introduction of front and rear brain considerations at the time (the mid-80s) when right and left brain testing was common.

A second assessment instrument coming from this model is the mCircle Instrument(r)which focuses on transactional styles, underlying values and outcomes.

"The Pool"

In the second half of the book, Lynch and Kordis introduce "The Pool," a model of seven steps in human development. Directly referencing the work of Graves, a psychologist who studied the evolution of emotional and spiritual maturity, "The Pool" also incorporate the ideas of brain function by right-left and rear-fore concepts, linking these responses and behaviors to evolution of the human brain.

The stages of evolution in "The Pool" are as follows:

Worldview 1: Existence. Lynch and Kordis barely describe this level, saying it is seldom encountered in the adult world, except in the mentally ill or senile.

Worldview 2: The Kinsperson, who lives for the good of the family, tribe, clan or group in order to gain security

Worldview 3: The Loner who lives for personal gratification and seeks personal mastery, as well as power and dominance over others.

Worldview 4: The Loyalist, who lives within clearly defined rules and expectations in order to obtain stability and confirmation of existing beliefs.

Worldview 5: The Achiever, who lives for return on personal investments and in order to gain advancement of wealth and status.

Worldview 6: The Involver, who lives for helping and participatory situations in order to gain personal and group learning and growth.

Worldview 7: The Choice-Seeker, who lives for high levels of freedom and personal choice, seeking stimulation and opportunities to enhance survival and quality of life for self and others.

Each world view is a natural evolution from the previous one, as the previous strategy fails to meet some essential human need. All, except Worldview 7, represent a right or left-brain focus, evolving from basic self-preservation to expansive action on the world. An example of such a transition is the movement of an alcoholic (Loner) to Alcoholics Anonymous (Loyalist), because the Loner state offers no stability or building of sustaining life equity.

A third testing instrument, MindMaker6(r), is based on this model. This instrument rates activity at each of the worldviews.

Business and personal use of these models are explained in the latter half of the book with topics ranging from personal development to group dynamics. The book became the foundation of an international management consulting practice that is based in Lynch's firm, Brain Technologies Corporation.

ee also

* Business ethics
* Conflict management
* Intercultural competence
* Principled Negotiation
* Prisoner's dilemma
* Social Darwinism
* [http://www.braintechnologies.com/more_on_dolphin.htm Dudley Lynch website]
* Delphinstrategie [http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Delphinstrategie]
* La Stratégie du Dauphin [http://www.metafor.ca/strateg.htm]