In 2001, Russell Crowe starred in A Beautiful Mind, a film based on the life of American mathematician John Nash. A pivotal scene in the movie depicts Nash's eureka moment when developing his thinking around non-cooperative games, or what became widely known as Nash's Equilibrium.

I hope that John Nash, and Russell Crowe for that matter, would excuse my poor attempt to explain such a brilliant theory, but here goes.

While watching his friends jostle for position to ask a group of women to dance, it occurred to Nash that an accepted theory by the eighteenth-century economist Adam Smith was incomplete. Smith had stated that in economics the best result comes from everyone doing what is best for themselves. Nash's insight was that the best result actually comes from everyone in the group doing what is best for themselves, and for the group. Nash's Equilibrium became an important contribution to the field of economic game theory, which is now used in many modern applications, from online gambling to traffic flow analysis. Sadly, I believe, it resulted in none of the men getting to dance with a beautiful woman that night (at least in the movie).

So what does this part-history, part-Hollywood lesson have to do with team productivity? Well, I reckon quite a lot. This is what I call game theory productivity.

Creating this cultural change within your team requires a shift in mindset by everyone involved. Everyone will need to challenge their current ways of working that might serve themselves but not the wider team. There is no room for selfish or selfless mindsets.

Are you selfish?

When we focus on being personally productive, but do not consider or care about the productivity of others, we are exhibiting what I call a selfish mindset.

We may be well organised, ruthless in our prioritisation and focus, and obsessed about working only on the key activities that help us to achieve our outcomes. But when we interface with others, we care little for how our behaviours affect their productivity.

This may mean we send rushed, poorly written emails to save ourselves time, creating extra work for others as they try to decipher our communications. Too busy working on our own important priorities to stay on top of our email, we fail to accept or decline meeting invitations. The meeting organisers, and other participants, are unsure if we are attending. This can lead to lost productivity, as when we fail to attend, the meeting wastes everyone else's time because we are needed to make the final decision!

In a senior team I once worked with, one of the directors had an interesting approach to meetings. He accepted meeting invites but would often not turn up for the meeting. Only if someone bothered to come and fetch him might he decide to wander over and grace the team with his presence.

His justification for not turning up on time would be that he was in the middle of something more important. As a senior manager, he may have been working and prioritising effectively. But as a team member, and as a leader, he was dragging down the productivity of the team, and setting a poor example.

How many people in his team would then feel it was okay to turn up to meetings late — because everyone knows it will not start on time?

Are you selfless?

At the other end of the continuum is what I call the selfless mindset. Some people go out of their way to help others to be productive, but at the expense of their own productivity.

A good example of this is people who feel the need to answer all emails the minute they arrive in their inbox. They have their email alerts always turned on, so they note the arrival of each new message, whereupon they drop what they are doing to respond to the incoming request. Yes, that may keep the sender's work flowing nicely, but the distraction has a real impact on the recipient's productivity.

Another example of selflessness is people who accept every meeting invitation, without any real thought to how effective a use of their time that meeting is, or the opportunity cost to their other priorities if they attend. While working in a selfless way seems to be a noble position, what suffers in the end is your results and balance, and your stress levels.

Or do you serve?

Is there a workable middle ground? I believe so. I think that we can operate in a way that accords with the game theory principle. The best result comes from doing what is best for ourselves and for the group at the same time.

When we adopt what I call a serving mindset, we always try to balance our own productivity with the productivity of the team. We think on two levels, and hold these competing ideas in our mind every time we communicate, congregate or collaborate.

To operate with a serving mindset, we need to slow down and think when working with others. We need to operate with a mindfulness and awareness that enhances the productivity of all involved. This is not a zero-sum game — it should be a win–win.

We should take the time to help others to stay productive. The payback? If we can inspire this mindset in others, then we in turn will reap the rewards. And the productivity of the team will exponentially increase.