The 21st century started in a world’s economy which like to describe itself as Darwinian. It’s actually another, Herbert Spencer, who coined the term “survival of the fittest” by transposing Darwin’s biology concept to his own economic theories; a re-branded concept which justifies that modern start-ups have to single-mindedly grow and acquire as much market share as possible in the shortest amount of time possible. Some centennial companies take the same concept to make it mean crushing mercilessly any form of competition to keep their position as market leaders, and cheat if necessary. Wouldn’t it be better to move towards cooperation?
The origin of the story, in Westerner societies, tend to start from early school years. In cultures where making mistake has a negative connotation, students learn pretty fast to buckle up or give up trying. Combined with concept of personal success: only the best ones make it, it can lead to positive behaviours like perseverance, hard work, etc. It also can give birth to destructive behaviours: lying, cheating, selfishness. Competition can contribute to moving forward though by its nature, one party will eventually reap the benefit over the rest. Having winners and losers leads to never ending fights over resources which become scarce.
The paradox is that we know that Bill Gates didn’t make it to the top by himself; nor did Steve Jobs, Larry Page or Elon Musk. They made or are still making major contributions to our current life styles through their genius. That being said, they are the first to acknowledge one fundamental truth. The fact that they were surrounded by great teams to achieve these outstanding results.
Warren Cassell wrote in his book “Swim or Drown: Business and Life Lessons that I’ve Learned from the Ocean”, that The position of “top player” in business is merely an illusion and its definition is impossible to determine because we all offer our unique features and strengths.
“An example in business would be the clothing industry. If we define this area as general clothing (not narrowing it down into different niches) and use profits as the measuring stick, it’s probably chain stores that are at the top. However, if we use brand recognition or prestige as the scale for the best, high-end fashion companies will come out on top. And if we measure by quality, much smaller companies might rise to the top.”
Kids are taught to make it on their own. However we know by now that cooperation is key for personal, community and business sustainable development.
What can happen when we cooperate?
To cooperate one has to discover and bring forth their strength and resources. We must find partners and agree to engage in a mutually beneficial exchange. As Peter Diamandis claims in “Abundance, the future is better than you think” that the world faces challenges which forces us to go beyond scarcity we see from seemingly limited resources to fight for. In order to do so, we will have to cooperate. We’ll have to develop solutions from various fields, most of which don’t even evolve in the same realms.
Among the touching illustrations, one can think about how teaming saved the lives of 33 Chilean miners from the 2010 Copiapo mining accident. Miners were trapped thousands meters below the surface. Some experts even considered the rescue, bringing them all alive, an unreasonable possibility. Professionals from various industries, organisations and sectors came to provide their expertise. Rescuers made many attempts. There were parallel work and sharing of the accumulated knowledge. It’s been said that no one person, organisation or agency, could have successfully innovated to solve this problem by themselves. They could have failed at any moment. Though they used their failure to learn and inform next steps until they succeeded.
Your quest to develop cooperative related skills for organisational management can start by applying to Leadership Business World. Participants will develop teamwork talents and focus on cooperation to contribute to their comapnies’ development.