A common statement heard recently from many American reporters, politicians, and citizens is, “Americans are more divided today than we have ever been.” The claims of unprecedentedly high levels of division in America are, of course, inaccurate. Even as far back as the 1600s, as indicated in “The 1619 Project” by Nikole Hannah-Jones, people living in America at that time were bitterly divided. As a result, slavery was established in the American “new land.”

 

Two hundred and fifty-two years after the arrival of the first African slaves to America, many Americans remained alienated over the issue. Americans were so divided that they had a four-year-long Civil War from 1861 to 1864. After the Civil War, division persisted, it brought lynching, lawlessness, and community destruction perpetrated against black people by not all white people but by white people who were terrorists. That Reconstruction period ushered in racially dividing Jim Crow laws, lasting approximately 100 years. Further, Americans were divided over concerns about co-existence with Native Americans, child labor, voting rights, the internment of Japanese Americans during WWII, Civil Rights, the Vietnam War, Roe v Wade, gun control, and a plethora of other issues and concerns.

 

Some people on polar sides of American politics, philosophy, and ideology would have the rest of Americans believe that division is inevitable. A minuscule number of people in loud radical voices even cry for a second civil war. These troubadours for separation and division sing songs of societal catastrophe in melodies motivated by fear, lies, and disinformation. They would have Americans believe that a country for the people and by the people is a pipe dream and that the rule of law and freedom and justice for all is a fantasy.

 

However, EnTeam games promote the idea that American democracy is alive and well, but democracy is sometimes messy and is always hard work. History demonstrates that when Americans work together, cooperate, and collaborate for the common good win-win situations regularly occur. For instance, as far back as The Great Compromise of 1787, Lincoln’s Team of Rivals in 1860, and in the 1940s, Democrat President Roosevelt appointed two Republicans to his cabinet, and Democrat President Truman appointed a Republican to the Supreme Court. Further, Senator Vandenberg’s Bipartisan Foreign Policy was successful within the same time span.

 

The seeds of cooperation and collaboration have been planted and continue to flourish. President Lyndon Johnson, during the 1960s, negotiated to gain bipartisan agreement about civil rights, pursuing the Great Society concept and placing a Man on the Moon. In 1977 Republican Senator Bob Dole and Democrat Senator George McGovern collaborated to gain bipartisan compromise concerning the Food Stamp Program. Further, it took across-the-aisle collaboration in 1983 to bring Social Security Reform, the 1986 Tax Reform Act, the 1990 Americans Disabilities Act, and the 1997 Children’s Health Insurance Program.

 

Examples of bipartisan cooperation and collaboration continued at the turn of the century. No Child Left Behind in 2001 and government initiatives in response to the September 11 attacks led the way in the 2000s. Other examples of working together in the 2000s were The 2002 McCain-Feingold Act, Barack Obama’s diverse Cabinet Selections in 2009, the Federal Tax Deal of 2010, the JOBS Act of 2012, The Budget Act of 2013; Every Student Succeeds Act of 2015, and the 21st Century Cures Act of 2016. Senator John McCain may have uncannily expressed the basic EnTeam philosophy when he proclaimed to fellow Senators, “Let’s return to regular order.” We’ve been spinning our wheels on too many important issues because we keep trying to find a way to win without help from across the aisle.”

 

Obviously, there are people who have political, social, and judicial power that promotes division, exclusion and reject the idea of democracy for all. To oppose the promotion of a zero-sum society, people could find ways to collaborate and cooperate. EnTeam games offer people an opportunity to practice win-win teamwork, cooperation, and collaboration. EnTeam also provides a way to measure improvements in cooperation and helps those who play the games learn to negotiate by debriefing the results of the EnTeam game. EnTeam games help everyone experience how it feels to pitch in and do better. Perhaps the use of EnTeam games will help society develop a new generation of people who appreciate and practice win-win strategies and techniques in their private, public, and professional lives.

 

As the EnTeam website explains, EnTeam games offer a fresh win-win approach by building teamwork and cooperation while playing non-zero-sum games. The games bring out the best in participants by measuring cooperation. EnTeam games foster and measure cooperation through challenging activities designed to teach participants to learn to win together. EnTeam facilitators design games that turn opponents into partners. Players experience the thrill of winning through cooperation, not by making others “losers” but by making everyone a winner. Everyone can win by improving scores (or lose together if they cannot). It’s about having fun and learning that participants can achieve great things through mutual effort.

 

However, participating in EnTeam games offers a broader message, a greater view, and a more powerful purpose. People usually agree that EnTeam games are fun and appeal to a wide variety of participants. But what is the rest of the EnTeam story? The underlying emphasis of playing EnTeam games is to help people understand and use the power of cooperating across lines of diversity to create win-win situations and decisions to solve problems nationally, statewide, locally, and in one small group at a time.