Ender's Game: Analysis and Discussion on Leadership - Ministry Exchange (MX)

LEADERSHIP THROUGH THE EYES OF “ENDER’S GAME”

Analysis and discussion of Ender’s Game by Orson Scott Card.
For book information, see:
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0812550706/qid=1027003405/sr=8-
1/ref=sr_8_1/102-4459211-1080922

A useful examination of a classic science fiction book involving topics of
leadership and leadership development.

Outline
I The Assignment

Themes Characters Questions to think about
II Quotes and Notes
III Analysis and Thoughts on Leadership Students at the Battle / Command School Teachers at the Battle / Command School On Earth

IV Limitations to Universal Application of Leadership Principles

I The Assignment

I am proposing that we read the book over the summer, taking notes as we
go. We will meet in June and July and discuss how much we have read up
until that point.

Key themes we will look at:

Leadership Ender’s Development as a leader Relationships between leaders and followers Authority Trust

Key Characters:

Andrew “Ender” Wiggin Ender’s Family Valentine Wiggin Peter Wiggin “Locke” and “Demosthenes” Other Students At the Battle School Bonzo Bean Petra Teachers, Misc. Authority Figures Mazer Rackham Colonel Graff Major Anderson

Questions to think about:

What are some good and bad qualities of each leader? What makes Ender a good leader? What events shape Ender’s development for Good or Bad? What do you learn about leadership? Being a leader? What do followers expect or want from a leader? How does use of authority relate to leadership? How is authority used for good or bad? When is it justified (ok) and when is it not ok? What factors make being a leader a good or bad experience? What is the role of “learning” in leadership? What is the role of trust in leader-follower relationships?

II Quotes and Notes

ENDER’S GAME quotes and notes 6.12.02
Quotes referenced from First TOR mass market printing, January 1986. Other
editions may have different page numbers.

Ch6 p66
“Ender noticed that it was assumed that Bernard and Alai were the leaders
of the battle. Well that was fine. Bernard knew that Ender and Alai had
learned to use the guns together. And Ender and Alai were friends.
Bernard might believe the Ender had joined his group, but it wasn’t so.
Ender had joined a new group. Alai’s group. Bernard had joined it too.”

Here we begin to see Ender’s ability to comprehend and discern power and
relationship dynamics. Ender not only shows this as an ability, but the
fact that he always wants to be aware of those dynamics is a key factor in
what makes him a leader. As with the case with Stilson’s gang, we will see
that this is a key theme throughout the book.

Ch7 p74
“There were no transfer slips on any of the other beds. Just when things
were finally coming together. Just when Bernard was getting along with
everybody, even Ender. Just when Ender was beginning to make a real friend
out of Alai. Just when his life was finally getting livable.”

Ch7 p74-75
“Alai suddenly kissed Ender on the cheek and whispered in his ear.
“Salaam.” Then red-faced, he turned away and walked to his own bed at the
back of the barracks. Ender guessed that the kiss and the word were
somehow forbidden. A suppressed religion, perhaps. Or maybe the word had
some private and powerful meaning for Alai alone. Whatever it meant to
Alai, Ender knew that it was sacred; that he had uncovered himself for
Ender, as once Ender’s mother had done, when he was very young. .(Ender)
had kept it as a memory of holiness, of how his mother loved him when she
thought that no one, not even he, could see or hear. That was what Alai
had given him; a gift so sacred that even Ender could not be allowed to
understand what it meant.

This interaction between Ender and Alai shows mutual respect and trust.
Ender has risen above being mere friends, acquaintances, or fellow
“launchies.” Ender’s first positive emotional experience happens as he is
promoted out of peer group, in spite of the situation. And he and Alai
affirm their relationship as special, as something they hold dear. This is
significant because it is unusual in the span of his stay at the battle
school. It is one of the few moments Ender cherishes later in his life.

Ch7 p104
“Wiggin, I finally traded you. I was able to persuade Rat Army that.
. Suddenly Bonzo swung at him, caught his jaw with a vicious open-handed
slap. It knocked Ender sideways, into his bunk, and he almost fell. Then
Bonzo slugged him, hard in the stomach. Ender dropped to his knees. ‘You
disobeyed me,’ Bonzo said. Loudly, for all to hear, ‘No good soldier ever
disobeys.’ Even as he cried from the pain, Ender could not help but take
vengeful pleasure in the murmurs he heard rising through the barracks. You
fool, Bonzo. You aren’t enforcing discipline, you’re destroying it. They
know I turned defeat into a draw. And now they see how you repay me. You
made yourself look stupid in front of everyone. What is your discipline
worth now? . (p105) .He didn’t plan to get vengeance on Bonzo for
hitting him. But he did intend that no one would be able to do that to him
again.”

Here we see the continuation of Ender’s ability to see power dynamics and
what builds or destroys trust in a leader. He knows from reading the
reactions of the others, that Bonzo is destroying his own following. Ender
knows as well, that good soldiers do disobey, that they must disobey their
officers when appropriate if they see the need. That doing what needs to
be done is more important than strict obedience. In the game, a draw
caused by ingenuity is better than a defeat by a well trained, well
disciplined army. Ender sees that, Bonzo does not. And by the time Ender
is a commander, he actually encourages and trains his soldiers to do that.

Partly what I believe what makes Ender successful is that he believes
followers should think for themselves and be trained to understand things
the same way he does. The battle is in their minds and the edge he gives
his armies is that they understand dynamics better than anyone else. He
will teach them to think like him, but also encourage them to develop what
they uniquely bring to the table.

Ch9 p153
“That’s how they think of me, too. Teacher. Legendary soldier. Not one
of them. Not someone that you embrace and whisper Salaam in his ear. That
only lasted while Ender still seemed a victim. Still seemed vulnerable.
Now he was the master soldier, and he was completely, utterly alone.”

Ender here begins to realize the extend to which people respect him. The
teachers and other students all treat him respectfully. Unfortunately,
Ender is realizing the weaknesses of such leadership. He is too far
removed from his fellow soldiers. He is not their peer, though he is
younger than most of them. He is not their friend. He does not lead out
of relational trust, more it is out of experience and being the expert at
everything he does.

Ch10 p182
”’They used to call you that, I hear. I hear Bonzo Madrid still does.’ ‘I
asked you a question, soldier.’ ‘I’ll earn their respect, if you don’t stop
me.’ Ender grinned. ‘I’m helping you’ ‘Like hell,’ said Bean. ‘Nobody
would notice you, except to feel sorry for the little kid. But I made sure
they all noticed you today. They’ll be watching every move you make.
.’Prove to me that you know what you’re doing as a soldier. Prove to me
you know how to use other soldiers. And then prove to me that somebody’s
willing to follow you into battle. Then you’ll get your toon. But not
bloody well until.’ Bean smiled. ‘That’s fair. If you actually work
that way, I’ll be a toon leader in a month.’”

Like Graff did with Ender, Ender is setting Bean up to prove himself better
than anyone else. It is a strategy that works for both Ender and Bean.
Both are far more gifted and intelligent than the others, but in different
ways. He realizes that Graff’s strategy with him actually has worked. And
he is more than fair to Bean. He offers Bean a chance to prove himself.
And later he not only gives Bean a toon, but he designs the leadership
situation around who and what Bean is.

Ch11 p 191
“Most armies practiced mass maneuvers, preformed strategies. Ender had
none. Instead he trained his toon leaders to use their small units
effectively in achieving limited goals. Unsupported, alone, on their own
initiative. He staged mock wars after the first week, savage affairs in
the practice room that left everybody exhausted. But he knew, with less
than a month of training, that his army had the potential of being the best
fighting group ever to play the game.”

Here we get a glimpse into Ender’s mind. He is totally outside the box of
how anyone has thought about armies and toons before. His innovation and
willingness to experiment gives his army and edge over the others. He
trains his soldiers to not only think for themselves, but teaches them to
analyze situations and come to their own decisions as a result. And to do
that in smaller groups is more efficient than in larger groups, and far
more efficient than waiting for orders from a single commander. Rather
than one person thinking and communicating with 40 others, you have 40
people thinking, processing, discussing, and then implementing 5-10
separate things simultaneously, depending on how toons divide. He values
effectiveness and efficiency over order and hierarchy.

Ch11 p206
“So it was from the buggers, not the humans, that Ender learned strategy.
He felt ashamed and afraid of learning from them, since they were the most
terrible enemy, ugly and murderous and loathsome. But they were also very
good at what they did. To a point. .They never did anything surprising,
anything that seemed to show either brilliance or stupidity in a
subordinate officer.”

For Ender, there is nothing that he cannot learn from. Everything is a
learning experience. Mistakes, fortunate happenings, things done well,
even the enemy is something to learn from. Ender is a lifelong learner,
and never settles for thinking he has little left to learn. He goes out of
his way here to learn from the buggers, something no other student we know
of, has done. And he becomes a better strategic leader as a result. We
see this in other places as well, being willing to learn from those older
than him, as with Petra or Dink; with with those he does not respect, as
Bonzo and Rose de nose; as with those younger than him as we will see with
Bean; with teachers, though he does not trust them; and with peers as we
have seen early in the book, as with Alai and Shen. Ender’s innovation
would do him no good if he was not a learner.

Ch11 p216-217
”’Bean, I don’t know what the teachers are doing, but my army is getting
tired, and I’m getting tired, and they don’t care at all about the rules of
the game. .They’ve loaded things my way, but now they’re loading it all
against me. Bean, they want to break us down.’ ‘They can’t break you.’
‘You’d be surprised.’ .Bean looked at him and realized that the impossible
was happening. Far from baiting him, Ender Wiggen was actually confiding
in him. Not much. But a little. Ender was human and Bean had been
allowed to see. ’.There’s a limit to how many clever new ideas I can come
up with every day. Somebody’s going to come up with something to throw at
me that I haven’t thought of before, and I won’t be ready.’ ‘What’s the
worst that could happen? You lose one game?’ ‘Yes. That’s the worst that
could happen. I can’t lost any games. Because if I lose any -’ He didn’t
explain himself, and Bean didn’t ask. ‘I need you to be clever, Bean. I
need you to think of solutions to problems we haven’t seen yet. I want you
to try things that no one has ever tried because they’re absolutely
stupid.’ ‘Why me?’ ‘Because even though there are some better soldiers
than you in Dragon Army – not many, but some – there’s nobody who can think
better and faster than you.’ Bean said nothing. They both knew it was
true”

Here we see several interesting things happen. One is he reveals his
struggles to Bean. He must see much of himself in Bean, and knows need is
driving him to seek out new edges he might be able to gain over other
armies. He seeks to win Bean’s trust and loyalty by confiding in him.
Letting Bean see his weakness and inviting Bean into partnership with him.
Ender also sees Bean’s abilities, and seeks to tap into Bean’s mind by
giving him expanded leadership and opportunity for Bean to be innovative
and experimental. He realizes Bean’s ability and seeks to fit him into a
role that fits who he is and takes strategic advantage of Bean’s abilities
to think faster and better than anyone else. Ender is willing to face his
own limitations, and secure enough to not just admit that, but to promote
another’s abilities to compensate for his weakness. In effect, he is
creating a second in command and inviting Bean to be his partner, with a
lot of responsibility, and then motivates Bean by letting him use the thing
he most has to offer, his mind. He empowers Bean and encourages him to be
innovative. It is leadership basing roles on people’s abilities, gifts,
and interests, and not prepackaged or one that seeks to fill positions.

Ch14 p297
“They have great response time and a lot of firepower, but we have a few
advantages, too. Every single one of our ships contains an intelligent
human begin who’s thinking on his own. Every one of us is capable of
coming up a brilliant solution to a problem. They can only come up with
one brilliant solution at a time. .Even when some incredibly timid and
stupid commanders lost the major battles of the Second Invasion, some of
their subordinates were able to do real damage to the bugger fleet.”

Here Ender is finding out that the exact thing he has used to give
advantage to his armies, is exactly the same thing Mazer Rackham believes
to be the greatest advantage humans have over the buggers. Ender finds
confirmation for what he knows to be true.

Ch14 p302
“But in the three weeks they practiced together, Ender came to know them
very well. Dink, who deftly carried out instructions but was slow to
improvise; Bean, who couldn’t control large groups of ships effectively but
could use only a few like a scalpel, reacting beautifully to anything the
computer threw at him; Alai, who was almost as good a strategist as Ender
and could be entrusted to do well with half a fleet and only vague
instructions. The better Ender knew them, the faster he could deploy them,
the better he could use them. . The trust was complete.”

Ender’s ability as a commander and strategist is what makes him most
brilliant. His ability to see what each of his subordinates is strong or
weak at, and designate roles for them to play based upon that. The trust
level between leader and follower is strong, as long as the task actually
fit them. Since Ender really does know them, and really does know how to
deploy them, it works, for the most part. They trust that they can deal
with any situation he places them in, and he trusts that they will figure
out how to handle the specific situations.

Ch14 p303
“Mazer showed him a replay of their most recent battle, only this time from
the enemy’s point of view. ‘This is what he saw as you attacked. What
does it remind you of? The quickness of response, for instance?’ ‘We look
like a bugger fleet.’ ‘You match them, Ender. You’re as fast as they
are. And here – look at this.’ Ender watched as all his squadrons moved
at once, each responding to its own situation, all guided by Ender’s
overall command, but daring, improvising, feinting, attacking with an
independence no bugger fleet had ever shown. .So you see that you do have
some advantages. Superior, though not irresistible, weaponry; comparable
speed and greater available intelligence. These are your advantages. Your
disadvantage is that you will always, always be outnumbered, and after each
battle your enemy will learn more about you, how to fight you, and those
changes will be put into effect instantly.’”

Here is a summary of the overall strategy and thinking behind Ender’s
leadership. He has adopted tactics and strategy enough to mimic the
buggers and neutralize any advantages they have other than numbers, and
also to enhance the advantages that humans have over the buggers. The
remaining question then, is will it be enough to overcome the numbers.
Unbeknownst to Ender, the remaining computer simulations are actually
battles with bugger fleets and bugger worlds.

Ch14 p310
”’You’re too kind to us,’ said Alai one day, ‘Why don’t you get annoyed
with us for not being brilliant every moment of every practice. If you
keep coddling us like this we’ll think you like us.’ Some of the others
laughed into their microphones. Ender recognized the irony, of course, and
answered with a long silence. When he finally spoke, he ignored Alai’s
complaint. ‘Again,’ he said, ‘and this time without self pity.’ They did
it again, and did it right. But as their trust in Ender as a commander
grew, their friendship, remembered from the Battle School days, gradually
disappeared. It was to each other that they became close; it was with each
other that they exchanged confidences. Ender was their teacher and
commander, as distant from them as Mazer was from him, and as demanding.”

The unfortunate result of how Ender treats himself differently than those
under his leadership is that it distances him from his subordinates. He
grows further apart from them, though they become closer together. This
continues and after the battles are over, Ender again feels utterly alone.
The others remain close, and feel a fraternal bonding that lasts after
their return to earth.
Ender is content to change his relationship with the others, becoming their
teacher and continuing to make choices to keep himself emotionally
distanced from the others.

Ch14 p312-314
”.But sometimes letting slip his disappointments with their weaknesses, the
fact that they made mistakes. ‘Sometimes we make mistakes,’ Petra
whispered to him once. It was a plea for help. ‘And sometimes we don’t,’
Ender answered her. If she got help it would not be from him. He would
teach; let her find her friends among the others. Then came a battle that
nearly ended in disaster. Petra led her force too far; they were exposed,
and she discovered it in a moment when Ender wasn’t with her. In only a
few moments she had lost all but two of her ships. Ender found her then,
ordered her to move them in a certain direction; she didn’t answer. There
was no movement. And in a moment those two fighters, too, would be lost.
Ender knew at once that he had pushed her too hard – because of her
brilliance he had called on her to play far more often and under much more
demanding circumstances than all but a few of the others. . He called on
Crazy Tom to command the two remaining fighters, then went on, trying to
salvage the battle; Petra had occupied a key position, and now all of
Ender’s strategy came apart. .It was a warning – he could not press his
commanders more than they could bear. Now, instead of using his leaders
whenever he needed their skills, he had to keep in mind how often they had
fought. He had to spell them off, which meant that sometimes he went into
battle with commanders he trusted a little less. As he eased the pressure
on them, he increased the pressure on himself.

A costly mistake causes Ender to lose one of his most trusted leaders. And
nearly lose a battle. The lesson: to not push his commanders beyond what
they can bear. Value leaders for what they can offer, not what they might
be able to offer. In the end, it is a judgment call, but one that if you
know your followers thoroughly, you will not often make that mistake. It
is better to be cautious in most leadership situations, and use what a
follower is willing to give, rather than risk pushing someone too far. The
result for Ender, though is to increase the pressure he puts on himself,
creating a very unhealthy dynamic for both himself and his followers. This
ends up adding even more distance between himself and his followers. In
leadership this is common, and the temptation is to blame either yourself
or your followers, and though one or both may be true, we need to accept
what is, and what was, and move on.

Ch14 p328-329
”’You’re a here, Ender. They’ve seen what you did, you and the others. I
don’t think there’s a government on Earth that hasn’t voted you their
highest medal.’ ‘I killed them all, didn’t I?’ Ender asked. ‘All who?’
asked Graff. ‘The buggers? That was the idea.’ Mazer leaned in close.
‘That’s what the war was for.’ ‘All their queens. So I killed all their
children, all of everything.’ ‘They decided that when they attacked us.
It wasn’t your fault. It’s what had to happen.’ Ender grabbed Mazer’s
uniform and hung onto it, pulling him down so they were face to face. ‘I
didn’t want to kill them all. I didn’t want to kill anybody! I’m not a
killer! You didn’t want me, you bastards, you wanted Peter, but you made
me do it, you tricked me into it!’ He was crying. He was out of control.
‘Of course we tricked you into it. That’s the whole point,’ said Graff.
‘It has to be a trick or you couldn’t have done it. It’s the bind we were
in. We had to have a commander with so much empathy that he would think
like the buggers, understand them and anticipate them. So much compassion
that he could win the love of his underlings and work with them like a
perfect machine, as perfect as the buggers. But somebody with that much
compassion could never be the killer we needed. Could never go into battle
willing to win at all costs. If you knew, you couldn’t do it. If you were
the kind of person who would do it even if you knew, you could never have
understood the buggers well enough.’ ‘And it had to be a child, Ender,’
said Mazer. ‘You were faster than me. Better than me. I was too old an
cautious. Any decent person who knows what warfare is can never go into
battle with a whole heart. But you didn’t know. We made sure you didn’t
know. You were reckless and brilliant and young. It’s what you were born
for.’ ’.You never asked me! You never told me the truth about anything!’”

In the end, Ender finds out that those who have been his leaders have been
lying to him the whole time he was in battle school. He trusted what they
said, and ends of being betrayed into doing something he never would have
done. The extermination of an intelligent species. The justification is
interesting, but begs the question: does the end justify the means? Is it
ever appropriate to lie to those who you lead? Is the end result all that
matters, or does how we lead matter more than the end? I imagine most of
us would feel how Ender does, enraged. Even if the only way to win that
war was to do as they did, is that appropriate? If the end result of your
leadership is positive, does that mean it was okay to use manipulative
means to get there?

III Analysis and thoughts on leadership.

Students at the Battle School / Command School

Ender
Overall, I believe Ender represents the best picture of leadership. He is
dedicated to learning, to doing well (probably too well – he expects near
perfection), is innovative, comprehends everything he sets his mind to, has
strong self-awareness, has strong group dynamics-awareness, understands
power dynamics, and is understanding and compassionate towards those he
leads. He knows how to evaluate talent and abilities and knows how to
adapt his strategy around the tools and people he has been handed. The
flexibility to adapt and his ability to out-think his opponents makes him
trustworthy. And perhaps most important of all is that people want to
follow Ender. They want to him to command them. Ender knows that the best
strategy for defeating the Buggers is for him to train every soldier he has
to think like a commander. So that in the course of battle, each soldier
is fully capable of being decisive and making key choices to be responsible
for their side. Ender develops this by how he trains his army, not by how
they perform.

Bonzo
Bonzo’s chief failings as a leader are the result of his pride and
insecurities. He values looking good over being good.

Rose de Nose
Rose’s main failing as a leader is that he does not try. He has given up
and simply coasts on the abilities of others.

Bean/Petra/Dink/Alai
All four are gifted, though at different things. Bean is brilliant and
innovative, and Dink can carry out nearly anything handed to him. Alai is
a strategist and Petra a tactician. All value learning as tools and
continually seek to hone their abilities. Bean in particular has is a
supreme analytical gift. He is able to break just about anything down and
project possible courses of action. He, like Ender, is able to see the big
picture and delegate appropriately to achieve the bid picture goals. The
main thing he lacks is the sense of loyalty that Ender carries with him.
People want Ender to be their commander.

Teachers at the Battle School / Command School

Graff
Graff, interestingly, views himself as Ender’s friend. And while some of
his actions seem to look out for Ender’s best interest, they only do that
within a larger framework of having that serve humanity. So he really does
not look out for Ender, other than that he does like Ender. Graff, among
others, manipulates and twists the truth in order that Ender win the war
with the buggers. All the authority figures value the end result(a bugger
defeat) over the means necessary to get there.

Anderson
Anderson, like Graff, values the end, but seems to have slightly more of a
conscience, wanting to step in and intervene in Ender’s affairs. From
Graff’s perspective, that likely would have risked losing the war with the
buggers. It is probably that he is right, but does that justify putting
Ender through what he went through? I think not. Especially knowing what
we do afterwards, that the buggers did not have to die. The bugger queen
hoped humanity would forgive them and admits their mistake, thinking
humanity not sentient. The end, however is met, and the buggers are
exterminated. So the I.F. achieves their goal, and Anderson assumes
control of the Battle School.

Rackham
Mazer Rackham is a strict taskmaster, who drives Ender ruthlessly towards
defeating the buggers. He, like all the I.F. officers, is complicit in
lying to Ender and all the other commanders. It likely was he who was
behind the decision to lie to students in order that their goal would be
achieved. Personally I think that is despicable, and the picture of
leadership that the I.F represents is that it’s officers and commanders
serve the whole, rather than that the I.F. serve it’s members. I believe
this is the opposite of what leadership should be. Leaders should serve
their followers, not have followers serve the leaders. Leaders should be
servants, not treat others like servants.

On Earth

Locke / Peter
Peter seems to grow into a more responsible person as he grows older.
Perhaps his desire to be the most powerful person on the planet is partly
justified. He is the smartest and certainly the most driven, with the
exception of Bean once the Bugger wars are over. And once he achieves
Hegemon, he actually does serve Earth honorably. How he gets there is
another question. I do not equate he and Valentine’s hiding behind
pseudonym names on the web as akin to lying, just merely disguising
themselves. Therefore to me, it is not meant to be deceptive, just
obscuring their identities for a time. Peter obviously is someone who is
torn between love and selfishness, and is it unclear which wins out in the
end. He achieves his goals, and seems willing to clear any obstacles to
those goals out of his way, if possible. Ender probably would have found
his life in danger had he come back to earth, as Ender would have been the
main obstacle to Peter achieving his dream. So Peter’s banishment of Ender
could have either been to protect Ender from himself, or it could have been
out of jealousy and selfishness.

Demosthenes / Valentine
Valentine is perhaps the only altruistic person we see in the whole book.
Or perhaps her parents. She is as bright as Ender and Peter, but has much
more love and compassion than Peter. Ender likely has enough compassion to
be understanding of others, including the buggers, but for Valentine, that
drives her more than her intelligence. Unlike Peter, she does not desire
power, and is quite willing to step aside and leave Earth with Ender. She
is a good example of someone resisting the lure of control and power over
others. She finds more meaning in her relationship with Ender than by
using the influence she has to benefit herself.

IV Limitations to Universal Application of Leadership Principles

1. One operating premise behind the actions of nearly everyone in the book is that there is no God or higher power looking out for humanity/humans. If there was such a being, there would be no need to eliminate the Buggers or to push and drive the students at the battle school so hard. 2. The setting for the book is that of a military training school and military operations. The pictures of leadership shown are specific to how “armies” function, and how military leaders relate to their followers. 3. We do not have parallel goals to the students or teachers in the battle school. Their overriding goal is to defeat the Buggers. Ours likely are different. Having a different goal may have the effect of needing a completely different process of actions. 4. Does the end justify the means? Does “How we do something” matter as much or more than the end result? For a Christian, certainly it does. It matters to do things with integrity, honor and fairness, not just to win at all costs. How we treat others is important.