We live in a world obsessed with competition that has us divided by winners/losers. Yet our true power as a species comes from collaboration. The limited worldview of seeing life through a competitive lense is destroying us with polarization and division. It is time to reclaim the collective power of collaboration so that we can create a healthy, regenerative, thriving global community.
We are not going to be able to resolve collective challenges while being divided.
Collaboration is a mindset that allows people to work together to make sure everyone wins. Setting up win/win relationships takes creativity and requires us to evolve the ways we see ourselves in the larger community of life on this planet. Each of us reach higher levels of success when we are surrounded by others who are thriving.
We often define ourselves through contrast which allows us to focus on our differences. Yet when we observe the sunset we can see many shades of color between the orange hues on the western horizon and the dark blues of the night sky rising in the east. It is the nuance and blending between the two that creates spectacular beauty. We can still maintain our distinctions while choosing to work together.
“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. Working together, caring about others, lending a helping hand, coming together in times of tragedy, and celebrating shared successes are all central to living in a community. It starts by recognizing our shared humanity and a desire to make things better for all of us.
Our planet, her ecosystems, and human society are changing rapidly. With these changes come challenges and growing pains. Polluted/overfished oceans, poverty, extreme weather events, drug abuse, crime, and the proliferation of war are challenges that invite us to think, plan, and act collaboratively. We are being called to engage in a dialogue that invokes mutual respect for the needs of all parties if we are going to address these challenges.
Paradigms are Shifting
The movement towards a globalism that favors the freedom of capital over the needs of people has caused a few to become “winners” by amassing great wealth. Yet this agenda has simultaneously caused many to become “losers” through exploitation and war. How can we continue to see a handful “win” while so many “lose” and suffer?
When policies are created by leaders who are far away or disconnected from the actual people/places they are governing there will always be social upheaval, exploitation, and environmental degradation. Centralized power and decision-making usually leads to concentrated wealth. Invariably the disparity between the powerful and the voiceless leads to authoritarianism, oppression, and corruption.
When competition reigns supreme we end up pitted against each other in a system where those at the bottom battle for table scraps. When mutual well-being is our focus collaboration is the best tool for creating solutions that elevate us all. When we allow ourselves to be divided we are inviting to be conquered.
Our binary approach of winner/loser is ineffective at meeting the needs of our increasingly technological global society. The internet provides us with tools for collaboration unlike anything we have ever seen in history. Yet we are mentally and socially stuck in systems that are built on the principles of feudalism. This is where personal growth and evolution becomes a stepping stone for global transformation
It Starts Within the Individual
The individual is the microcosm of society at large. When we are dealing with a lot of unresolved inner conflict we will not be able to find common ground and collaborate with others effectively.
Dissociation is when we are disconnected with certain aspects of ourselves like our dreams, desires, needs, or fears. Often we will project our unresolved inner conflict onto the relationships around us.
If we start from within and resolve our inner conflicts we will change our world around us. We can evolve away from debate-oriented competitions about “who is right” into a embracing a council of ideas which allows for all voices to be heard and respected. This leads to us finding common ground, shared visions, and the journey towards collaboration.
The Evolution of Collaboration
Dr. Bruce Lipton, a thought-leader in the field of epigenetics, is convinced that biological evolution is a conscious and collaborative biological process. We are the result of billions of cells working together to create life for our body. We are in a process as a species of evolving towards optimizing life for all. From the cellular level, to the individual, to society as a whole it is possible and advantageous to create win/win outcomes.
Removing the Incentives for Competition and Division
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 this system that has been driving society for centuries. However, today we have the capacity to eradicate scarcity and with it our grip on competition will also fall away.
People usually get along when everyone has food, shelter, abundance, and their basic needs are 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 that keep people divided. We have policies that artificially perpetuate scarcity to expand the divide between the haves and the have-nots. This amplifies the worst in human nature.
You Decide
It is hard to imagine but we have become addicted to scarcity and competition because our economic and political models depend on them. Collaboration threatens the status quo yet our reluctance to work together is threatening our very existence as a species. We are at a crossroads, a potent moment in history where planetary collaboration can change the paradigm and give us a shared vision to create a healthy, regenerative, thriving global community.
