Competition helps us strive to better ourselves. It teaches us how to win and how to be graceful when we lose. Yet the foundation of our evolution as a species relies on our ability to collaborate. Lifting each other up creates mutual success and transcends the winner/loser paradigm. We are not going to resolve collective challenges while being divided. Below is an argument for why we need to embrace collaborative models to create a better society.
col·lab·o·ra·tion: the action of working with someone to produce or create something. -Oxford Dictionary
A Collaborative World-View
Collaboration is a mindset that allows everyone to win. It requires us to evolve the ways we see ourselves in the larger community of life on this planet. We don’t compete against the rivers, forests and forces of nature. We collaborate with them to enhance life for all. When our community and local environment thrive so do we.
We define ourselves through contrast. What makes us different or better than others? This is natural, especially in societies that value individualism. It helps us better ourselves to become independent, empowered and free. We should all support each other in this process.
Actualized individuals want to see others succeed. This is how healthy communities collaborate to lift each other up. We see it in youth sports.
Though sometimes people become fixated and over-identify with being winners or losers. This is the shadow side of competition. We see it when those with the upper hand keep others down. Oppressive behavior becomes normalized when society forgets the importance of a collaborative world-view.
“At first glance, collaboration and cooperation can appear to be two words for the same thing. They both focus heavily on the importance of teamwork. However, there is a major difference between the two terms. Collaboration addresses situations in which people work together on a shared goal, while cooperation involves working with others to help them achieve their individual goals.” -Radina Skortcheva
A Shared Vision
The concept of collaboration has been quite natural for millennia. Humans would not have survived cold winters or defeated their predators without it. Skills for shared success include:
- Working together
- Caring about others
- Helping out
- Community support in times of tragedy
- Celebrating shared successes
Our planet, her ecosystems and human society are changing rapidly. With these changes come challenges and growing pains:
- Polluted/overfished oceans
- Deforestation
- Poverty
- Extreme weather events
- Drug abuse
- Crime
- Endless war
- Political corruption
These societal challenges invite us to think, plan, and act collaboratively. Dialogue that invokes mutual respect for the needs of all parties is essential. Overly competitive attitudes or divide and conquer approaches will contribute to our downfall. We need to remind ourselves of our community roots and find a shared vision moving ahead.
Paradigms are Shifting
Corporate globalism favors the freedom of capital over the needs of people. The “winners” of this game have amassed great wealth and power. The “losers” have suffered immensely through exploitation and war.
Having policy-makers who are far away or disconnected from the actual people/places they are governing does not work well. Centralized power and decision-making is not collaborative. The disparity between the powerful and the voiceless leads to authoritarianism, oppression, and corruption.
If people are in scarcity and feel powerless they are easily pitted against each other for survival. This type of competition brings out the worst in people. When mutual well-being is our focus collaboration is the best tool for creating solutions that elevate us all. Allowing ourselves to be divided makes us easily conquered.
We are mentally and politically stuck in systems that are built on the principles of feudalism and scarcity. Due to supply and demand dynamics scarcity raises the value of goods. So there is an economic incentive to perpetuate scarcity. Meanwhile our collective efforts have created more abundance and innovation than ever.
Crisis Leads to Innovation
The internet provides us with tools for collaboration unlike anything we have ever seen in history. It looks like things are getting worse in the world. This is because we are increasingly aware of the problems. This awareness is a gateway to change.
Democratic principles are meant to be collaborative. Instead they have become a terrible game of winner takes all. Most elections are won with a slim majority barely above 50%. Yet political polarization increases every year.
War has replaced diplomacy. Profit is valued more than people. Society has forgotten the very ideals that we teach our children in sports. We can win with humility and lose with grace. Remember, there is a collaborative process beneath the surface which invites us to better ourselves and lift each other up.
The Evolution of Collaboration
Evolution is a conscious and collaborative biological process. We are the result of billions of cells working together to create life for our body. This is a process of evolving towards optimizing life for all. From the cellular level, to the individual, to society as a whole. It is possible and beneficial to create win/win outcomes.
The pendulum is in full swing. Sometimes we take two steps forward and one step back. Our technology is advancing but our mindset is stuck in the past. A shared vision of a collaborative future will guide us towards an evolutionary leap.
Shifting Incentives
Competition in the proper context is extremely valuable. It is what causes us to strive to become better, more productive and efficient. That’s why it is baked into the framework of our economic system. Along with scarcity competition is central to our current system that has been driving society for centuries. As we eradicate scarcity our grip on competition will also fall away.
People usually get along when everyone has food, shelter, abundance, and their basic needs taken care of. Racial and class violence flourishes when scarcity, economic inequality and fear are prevalent. Politics and the news media feed on and profit from the creation of these black/white, binary, good/bad oversimplifications. This keeps people divided and profits high.
Some policies artificially perpetuate scarcity to expand the divide between the haves and the have-nots. This amplifies the worst in human nature. This is a mindset problem for both the ruling class and the working class.
Nobody wants to live in a walled-off castle while the world around them crumbles. Even the wealthiest among us will eventually realize this. We all enjoy the fruits of cultural and economic diversity. Society depends on a collaboration between the classes.
Society will always have a degree of stratification. Yet we can create incentives to lessen the disparity rather than increase it. It comes down to shifting the rules of our economic operating systems. Creating economic incentives for collaboration and mutual success will enhance all of society. It will also go a long way towards healing our environment.
You Decide
Scarcity and competition are baked into our economic and political models. We all know that it doesn’t need to be this way. Our reluctance to work together to create better systems is threatening our very existence as a species. Polarization and scarcity consciousness will not take us where we need to go.
At the same time collaboration is baked into our biology. We are at a crossroads. Collaboration can change the paradigm and give us a shared vision for creating a healthy, regenerative, thriving global community. It all starts with a slight change in mindset.
