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Third Secret Cooperative Competition |
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Cooperative Competition
With everyone on the same page and feeling comfortable
within a structured environment that follows an incentive laden process, the
next element in the equation is the notion of "cooperative competition". The inspirational leader realizes that in
order to help the team strive for and reach the HPO, the team members must be
motivated to do so.
I will contend that we experience on a regular basis three
primary motivating factors: Competition,
Inspiration, and Fear. Inspiration comes
from the ennoblement of the effort, which we will discuss in the next chapter
but that was exemplified best by the "Nelson Touch" model. Fear is the "Quintus Arrius" approach to
motivation. Like inspiration and fear,
competition reaches to the heart of what makes human beings work. From the moment we are born, we are programmed
to compete to survive. It is the
accumulated rules of our varied human societies and cultures that regulate our
natural competitive mode, steering competition into approved venues, such as
schools, jobs, and productive enterprises.
It is human nature to compete.
The question is not whether the inspirational leader will have to deal
with competition or not, the question is how will he deal with it? The inspirational leader knows that
competition within the team that helps bring out the best in everyone, while helping the team attain the objective is
one of the keys to motivation.
Some leaders are afraid of competition, having seen a
competitive mind set deteriorate into a "dog eat dog" behavior pattern. In this "uncooperative competition" mode,
team members pilfer from each other's resources in order to "win" and look
better as individuals. Team cohesion
breaks down and bitterness and anger replaces a united effort for a common
goal.
In cooperative competition, this does not happen. The rules of the game are set up so that
behaviors that help the team towards its ultimate goal are rewarded while
behaviors that reward individuals at the expense of the team are
discouraged. Competition is used as a
motivator in a positive sense. Sports,
naturally, is the most obvious example of competition, both cooperative and
uncooperative. Teams will compete within
the rules of the game when they are rewarded for it, and will try to gain
advantage, when they are rewarded for that.
For instance, if the referee in a basketball game refuses to call fouls
and allows rough play to continue, players will take advantage of the situation
and foul liberally. If, on the other
hand, fouls are called tightly and the consequences of playing outside of the
rules is clear, people will again play within the rules. It is the same in business with incentive
programs. We will all compete for those
things that are seen as being worthwhile.
It is only by setting the rules so that people will compete
cooperatively that real behavior change is created.
Cooperative competition unleashes an enormous amount of
energy, previously untapped in the inspirational leader's team. When the inspirational leader sets
intermediate goals on the way to a final objective and then challenges the team
to compete to attain those goals, the team will respond every time, if, of
course, the leader has used inspiration as a motivator.
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