Selected as one of the Financial Times Best Business Books of 2020. Fascinating insights on what it means to win in all areas of personal and professional life, and a new paradigm for success.

-      Compelling range of insights and stories from sport to business to politics to education, fascinating insights across research from psychology to leadership theory to organizational studies      

-      Applies to everyone of us: winning is part of our lives, so worth thinking about the role it plays currently and whether we could reshape it to get better outcomes

-      Challenges a universal belief that winning is good, questions our obsession across society with coming first, often at any cost & offers a different approach

 

-      Unique combination of personal stories and first-hand experience across education, business, sport, politics alongside multidisciplinary research

 

-      Offers a practical way to redefine success in a different way

 

Resonates with public discussions about what the key issues for business are, eg profit or purpose, how to improve productivity, about how to tackle the key global challenges we face in politics, as well as questions about the direction in which elite sport is going, from challenges of doping cultures to the pressure to win medals at all costs at the Olympics, and wider social debates about how we live our lives (‘the happiness agenda’)   

Table of Contents

Preface

Prologue

Introduction

Part I:  What Does Winning Mean?

Chapter 1:  ‘Loser!’ The Language of Winning                                     

How winning became part of our everyday conversations

Chapter 2:  ‘It’s How We’re Wired’:  The Science of Winning                      

How our bodies and minds respond to winning

Chapter 3:  ‘To The Victor, The Spoils’:  The History of Winning                                 

How winning has dominated the history books

 

Part II:  How Our Obsession with Winning Holds Us Back

Chapter 4:  From Monopoly Memories to the Greasy Pole: Real Life Encounters with Winning

Everyday experiences of what success has come to mean from childhood to adulthood

Chapter 5:  Who’s Really Top of the Class?  The Impact of Trying to Win in Education

What happens when we try to win at learning?

Chapter 6: Sport:  ‘It’s All About Medals’ – Truth or Myth in High Performance Sport?

Where does an obsession with winning at all costs end up?

Chapter 7:  ‘It’s All About Being No 1!’  The Will to Win in Business

The impact of a winning-focused culture on performance in business and organizations

Chapter 8:  Global Winners and Losers

How do you win at 21st century global challenges?

 

Part III:  A New Approach to Winning

Chapter 9:  Finding a Better Way:  The Beginning of Long-Win Thinking

Trying a different approach to defining success.

Chapter 10:  Redefining Success:  The Role of Clarity in Long-Win Thinking

Developing clarity of purpose & perspective

Chapter 11:  Beyond Medals and Grades:  The Role of Constant Learning in Long-Win Thinking

Putting a proactive learning mindset into practice

Chapter 12:  People First:  The Role of Connection in Long-Win Thinking

Building deeper relationships at the heart of everything we pursue

Concluding Thoughts:  New Language, Different Thinking, Fresh Stories

Developing Long-Win Thinking in daily life

Epilogue

Appendix

Endnotes

Acknowledgements

About the Author

Index