Adam Grant's book Give and Take shows us how we behave in life and work. Giving and taking influence organizational culture.

1. linkedin.com https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/you-giver-matcher-taker-marcella-bremer-inspirator
Are you a Giver, a Matcher, or a Taker?
What determines your success is, apart from talent, hard work, and luck, your relationships with other people.
That’s the gist of Adam Grant’s famous research as described in his book “Give and Take – Why helping others
drives our success.” I’ve enjoyed this thorough book because it makes you think: what is my natural inclination?
How do I behave in different contexts?
Imagine we do the famous experiment by Daniel Kahneman. I have to split 10 dollars with you. You may accept or
reject my offer. In case of rejection, neither of us will get anything. I decide to keep 8 dollars and I offer you 2
dollars – will you accept my offer? Accepting it means that you get 2 dollars at least. Declining my offer means no
money for you. But not for me either…. What will you do?
As it turns out, most of you would reject my unfair offer. Because you assess it as unfair, you’d
rather take your loss to punish me and teach me a lesson. Tit for tat!
There are two extremes in how we relate to one another. I just shared an example of a “taker’. Takers like to get
more than they give; they are self-focused because they expect others to act selfish, too. They believe that the
world is a competitive, dog-eat-dog place. “If I win, you lose.” If they give, they do so strategically. They believe
that “the pie” is fixed. So they’d better get the largest piece of it…
Givers like to give more than they get – they simply want to help others. They trust people up front, assuming the
best. They believe in abundance. “If I win, you win, too! We can all win together.” They give, expecting nothing in
return. By giving generously in time, advice, efforts – they seem to enlarge “the pie” for everyone. People copy
their generous behaviors and pay it forward. (See the link with organizational culture…?)
Somewhere in between these extremes, we’ll find those who match. They prefer balance. They value fairness,
reciprocity and equality. They have a norm of quid pro quo. If they give, they’ll expect some favor in return, sooner
or later.
The Workplace makes us cautious
Do you recognize these styles at work? Most people act like givers outside the workplace (research by Yale
psychologist Margaret Clark). But in the workplace, most of us become matchers – we get cautious. Giving to a
taker can be risky – it may cost you energy and time and prevent you from getting your own work done – while you
get nothing in return. Or even worse, you are being mocked or your reputation is damaged or your ideas might be
stolen…
What is your workplace culture like? Many cultures seem “tough” and results-oriented. The fear of being judged
as weak and naive prevents giving at work. Work is seen as a zero-sum game, a fixed pie. You anticipate self-
interested behavior from others and being competitive seems the rational thing to do, thus creating a self-fulfilling
prophecy. Beware of the sharks at work…!
Some takers can look nice in the short term. But they may turn out to be fake. Do you want to detect a taker?
Check how they treat subordinates and people “who can do nothing for them”. What do you see? Takers can do
great damage, especially in a leadership role in the spotlight. So ask yourself – what example do you set?
Giving and Taking on Linkedin
You can discern givers and takers on Linkedin as well. Do you give favors? Do you help others with
recommendations, networking, commenting on their discussion threads? Or do you take your space and dump

2. your blog post links in groups without looking back? Do you invite people to link only to catch their email address
and send them spam? Do you match – doing a little of both? I tend to match. I’m busy so I can spread my blog
post links hastily (in the good faith that I spread pieces of value J). But I also respond to requests, and comment or
like great work of others. I don’t always have time to write extensive responses to people who wrote a “novel” in a
discussion thread to show off their knowledge or like to criticize for the sake of criticizing. But I take the time to
explain if someone didn't understand something, connect others and forward interesting content that answers
someone’s question.
What do you do? And, how do you assess who you’re going to help while you are so busy? Givers could
end up with burnout. But, there is a formula for successful givers. It is Trust-But-Verify. Read more
on http://www.leadershipandchangemagazine.com/are-you-a-giver-or-a-taker/
Organizational culture
What does “taking” do to your workplace culture? Givers create opportunities for colleagues to contribute rather
than imposing ideas on them and claiming the credit for achievements. Givers work for the team, but takers for
themselves. If everyone around you hides information, you will do so, too. But in the long run, “taking”, hoarding
and mistrust will hurt everyone in the organization. Fortunately, giving is contagious. Check out how in the full
article on the Leadership & Change Blog.
When we treat man as he is, we make him worse than he is; when we treat him as if he already
were what he potentially could be, we make him what he should be - Goethe
Who are you?
Adam Grant’s book got me thinking because it’s easy to apply. Simply look around you: Who are the givers, the
matchers, the takers in your life and work? And, who are you? Just check:

3. An ex-colleague starts a successful software business. Then he asks an introduction to the CEO of a great
technology company – who you know from way back. You haven’t seen this CEO in many years, but you'd like to
contact him in a few months because you have plans for a start-up… What do you do? Will you make the
connection immediately, stall or say you can’t reach the CEO…? Are you afraid of competition or ready to share
because there’s enough for everyone?
If you have only one hour left before your plane leaves and you receive three requests to check a PowerPoint
presentation for the company’s annual gathering this afternoon (you can’t attend this year) – whose will you
check? Your boss’s presentation, your seasoned colleague’s or the intern who is really nervous about presenting
their first research findings…?
As top-networker Adam Rifkin, says: “You should be willing to do a 5-minute favor for everyone.” But the 5-minute
favors are not the problem. It’s the requests that ask more trust of us, that show us our natural and/or acquired
interaction styles.
I look forward to your responses….
Read the full article at http://www.leadershipandchangemagazine.com/are-you-a-giver-or-a-taker/
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