Ben Compton writes:
> That team started with 15 of us. After three years it had grown to include
> 100 people, and was by far the most united, focused, and best-performing
> team in the division. We competed with each other, and we cooperated with
> each other. There was this sense we each had that said, "Geez, Bob's
> having a slow month. It could happen to me next month. So I'd better see
> if I can help Bob." In the three years I worked there, we only had two
> people fired for incompetence. And no one was laid off. That's a pretty
> damn good record. And the amount of learning that took place during that
> time period was phenomenal.
I think there's some good learning material in that paragraph for all of
us, but especially for Roxanne, who's having a hard time understanding how
competition can be a positive component of a cooperative situation. I've
seen and been in situations like this as well.
As a basis for discussion, I'm going to go out on a limb and assert that
the following are essential characteristics of a healthy, productive
competition:
- it's voluntarily engaged in by the participants,
- the rules (which may be tacit) are agreed on by the participants,
- the context of the competition is a cooperative one,
- even the "losers" benefit by participation in the competition.
These aren't independent, and probably aren't complete, but it's a start.
I think there's a good, simple word for this kind of competition; it's
called a "game". Playing games is a natural form of social activity and
group learning. (Unfortunately, there are uses of the word with negative
connotations that don't apply here: political games, mind games, etc.)
Ben, again thanks for provoking so much productive discussion, even if it
does get heated (you can't get emergences without a little chaos). And
for sticking with it to help us all learn.
--Don Dwiggins "Solvitur Ambulando" SEI Information Technology d.l.dwiggins@computer.org
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