The Work Triangle: How Performance, Learning, and Enjoyment Shape the Experience of Work
Work isn’t just about getting things done. It’s about how people grow and feel while doing it.
More than two decades ago, Timothy Gallwey—author of The Inner Game of Tennis and The Inner Game of Work—introduced a deceptively simple idea:
High performance doesn’t come from working harder. It comes from balancing Performance, Learning, and Enjoyment.
Gallwey called it the Work Triangle, a framework that reframed the way people think about success. His insight was that these three elements are interdependent. When one grows out of proportion, the entire system falters.
The Three Elements of the Work Triangle
- Performance — what we do: effort, focus, and results.
- Learning — how we grow: experimentation, reflection, and adaptation.
- Enjoyment — why we continue: energy, meaning, and fulfillment.
When all three are present and balanced, people experience what Gallwey described as “playing the inner game” — a state of self-awareness where growth feels natural and performance becomes sustainable.
Why It Still Matters
In today’s workplaces, Performance often overshadows the other two corners of the triangle. We measure it, reward it, and chase it — while Learning gets confined to training programs and Enjoyment gets mistaken for perks or morale boosters.
The result? People get things done, but not necessarily better. They’re productive, but not always growing. The triangle tilts.
Gallwey’s insight is as relevant as ever: if you focus only on performance, you eventually lose it.
Rediscovering Balance
The Work Triangle offers a language for leaders and teams to reflect:
- Are we learning as fast as we’re performing?
- Are we connected to people, purpose and meaning?
- What small shift could restore balance?
When teams use these questions to pause and notice, they build the awareness Gallwey saw as the real engine of improvement.
From Work to Experience
Gallwey’s Work Triangle helps us see work not just as what we do, but as what we experience.
Performance keeps us moving forward.
Learning keeps us improving.
Enjoyment is why we persevere.
When those three align, effort turns into flow, work turns into growth, and the elusive “engagement” metric shifts from initiative to outcome—because all three dimensions are present in our work.
That’s the heart of Redefining Work: not reinventing what Gallwey taught, but rediscovering its truth in the modern workplace.