..big snip..
>I like the reference to the word, coopetition in a previous point, which
>leads to one point I want to play with a bit. BOTH cooperation AND
>competition have value, and exist SIMULTANEOUSLY, like the male and the
>female, as we go about living. I think the issue is becoming more
>prevalent today as women become more important and prevalent in the
>workplace.
>
>The question this brings to mind, for me, is "what benefits does
>cooperation bring to the job, and what benefits does competition bring;
>and how can we use them both effectively and simultaneously?" It sure
>sounds like a brain twister to me. An example is appropriate: In the world
>of professional sports, there is powerful competition, and both parties in
>the competition cooperate in many ways; they agree to follow rules; the
>players have unions; the players often greet each other cordially before
>and after games; a new ritual in football is for players from both teams
>coming together after the game in prayer; there are many more examples.
>Even in war, there are the Geneva Conventions, incredibly paradoxical, if
>you ask me.
John has brought this thread into such sharper focus for me. He points
out that competition and cooperattion both naturally exist. In complex
systems, both are likely to exist simultaneously, and as John points out,
the real issue may be determing which is appropriate to the task at hand.
He also alludes to a paradox that does appear to be reflected in the
thread: the advocates of competition and cooperation tend to adopt their
respective approach in their advocacy!
Internal competition does exist, and IMHO cannot be completely done away
with. For example, when a new position is open, and there are more than
one qualified candidate, there will be some competition for the slot. The
culture of the organization may help direct that competition into a more
overt or more covert form, into more destructive or more constructive
interplay, into more direct or more indirect methods. But the competition
will still be there.
Similarly, most project efforts require cooperation. In fact, projects
tend to increasingly require all of the "4C's":
Communication
Coordination
Cooperation
Collaboration
Lotus once published a white paper concerning TeamRoom, its product for
team communications, that developed the 4C's as a continuum starting with
communication and building, after much effort by all, to collaboration.
In a high performing team, there is usually little evidence of internal
competition (internal to the team, that is), while the team may exhibit a
lot of competitiveness towards other teams. Who, after all, is the "best"
collaborator?
-- Michael A. Gort gort@mail.comLearning-org -- Hosted by Rick Karash <rkarash@karash.com> Public Dialog on Learning Organizations -- <http://www.learning-org.com>