CCC - Competition, Competence and Cooperation

The word "competition" evokes various uplifting images. It might be the images of sportsmen and athletes performing marvelous feats of strength, agility or endurance. Or you might visualize corporations increasing their efficiency and innovating newer and better products or services; as they say build a better mousetrap and the world will beat a path to your door. Right from childhood, homo-sapiens learns to compete. Children are encouraged to play and as an inducement, we offer prizes for the fastest to complete a set goal. In sports, one side or individual wins and receives a prize, while the rest get to taste defeat. In academics too, an elite few get on the Dean's list, or get admitted to the best Colleges, while the others get no recognition. (In some countries, the pressure to get high grades is so extreme that the slightest drop in performance leads tragically to suicide.) Obviously, there is a performance boost associated with this spirit of competition. The sportsman/athlete attains levels of performance, speed and skill that are marvelous to behold. Students study assiduously and the exceptional student attains mastery of his subject matter and grows up to be an extremely skilled professional in his chosen field. However, it is not a win-win situation; in reality it is a win-lose phenomenon. For every winner there are one or more losers. It naturally follows that there is a psychological price to be paid for competition-based achievement. Competition, after all is a civilized form of warfare. It pits human being against human being or the world. The participants always have a fear of losing and there is a tension associated with this. Consequently they develop hostility and resentment towards all other participants. Inferiority and superiority complexes are direct results of this psychological warfare. Also, in a desire to win, the participants often resort to unethical and unhealthy practices. Although competition spurs the individual to energetic action, it is cooperation that really brings about creative results. Whereas it is fine for corporations to compete against each other, any corporate entity produces optimum results only because of cooperation between its different divisions as well as cooperation between its workers and management. Just try to imagine the condition of an organization in which everyone is competing against each other instead of cooperating with their fellow workers. By the way, please notice that the adverb "against" follows competing and "with" follows cooperating. In this connection it may be better to stress "Competence" instead of "Competition". The Dictionary defines Competence as "A group of related abilities, commitments, knowledge and skills that enable effective performance of a task". A stress on Competence therefore, achieves the same goals as competition, without the toxic side effects.rnIdeally, our personal relationships are based on cooperating with each other. However, our competitive conditioning often spills over into our personal lives with toxic results. Countless marriages have ended in divorce because one partner was vastly more successful in their career than the other. Similarly, when people meet and cooperate on finding "what" is right or correct, they have an intelligent "discussion". However, when they wish to outdo each other, the emphasis shifts to determining "who" is right, and their discussions degenerate into "arguments". The Dictionary defines Competing as "to strive to outdo another OR strive to excel." There is an interesting and diametric difference between the two alternative parts of this definition. While both parts motivate the individual towards action, the internal state of mind is totally different. The person who is striving to outdo others is caught between the dualities of winning and losing; he is pitted against the world. It is only natural that he will have feelings of hostility, inferiority (when he loses) and superiority (upon winning). This creates a society at cross purposes with itself. It is not surprising that such a person would stoop to unethical and even destructive actions in the pursuit of victory. On the other hand, the motivation to excel creates no such duality. The individual is continuously growing and improving himself thereby feeling personally fulfilled regardless of external success. He is therefore evolving in all aspects of personality, physical, intellectual and emotional. So go ahead and compete in your chosen field of endeavor, but avoid it in your personal life. Also find time to reflect on your motivation and determine whether you are driven by the desire to outdo, the desire to excel or the desire to be competent.