Collaborate NOT Compete to Win

During a paper presentation entitled 'Competitive Collaboration in the Global Knowledge Economy’ Ron Young, Knowledge Management Guru explored the roles and importance of competition and collaboration in a global knowledge economy.

Young shared that since Traditional Economics is fundamentally based on 'scarce resources', it is only natural that we have developed a competitive mindset. In a world of limited natural and man-made resources, competition and competitive pricing are inevitable.

Young reiterated that in the Knowledge Economy, as long as we have access to a computer, a mobile phone, and the Internet, there is limitless potential for the process of sharing ideas, knowledge, and innovative insights.

Nothing new right? But to me, the “Ahaa..” is that although information can be shared instantly, converting them into valuable knowledge and taking action in applying that knowledge takes time and effort. Young says success depends on our skills in communicating and collaborating. These skills help build and accelerate learning, and presumably, organizations should invest substantially to ensure their employees are competent in these areas.

In a Harvard Business Review article in 2019, Cracking-The-Code-Of-Sustained-Collaboration, Francesca Gino, an award-winning expert on the psychology of organizations said that when leaders are asked if his/her organization values collaboration, most will say a resounding yes. Whether the strategies they have implemented were successful is another story.

The author also said that businesses had tried various strategies ranging from open offices to naming it an official corporate goal. While some have been successful, albeit they might appear to influence employees through superficial or heavy-handed means; experts say they have yet to demonstrate truly robust collaboration.

Young’s and Gino’s views resonate with my own experience. In my 30-plus years of working in different types of organizations in Malaysia, I have yet to see management truly successful in getting genuine collaboration amongst their employees from different teams and departments. The silo mentality, being status-conscious, obsession with winning, and destroying the competition because someone else would need to lose for you to excel – these are all borne from fear and distrust. Sadly I hear this often when speaking with my colleagues(when I was still employed) within the same organization as well as external peers and currently, also from clients and participants in workshops.

Francesca Gino said that in some successful cases, mental attitudes the likes of  - respect for colleagues’ contributions, openness to experimenting with others’ ideas, and sensitivity to how one’s actions may affect both colleagues’ work and the mission’s outcome are predominant in cases of sustained collaboration in the organization across the industries.

How do we make these extraordinary attitudes more common among employees. “Tak kenal, maka tak cinta” a Malay phrase translated to English simply means – You don’t love what/ whom you don’t know. When you don’t know your fellow colleagues well enough, you doubt their words, their competency, and their sincerity and you end up just co-existing in the organization because you are not connected. On the other hand, if you get to know people better - you would be able to build trust, instead of distrust, confidence rather than fear, and consequently, you will be encouraged to communicate and converse openly, resulting in genuine connection (relationships), cooperation, and collaboration. The three Cs!

When there is trust, people willingly take ownership of responsibilities and roles. Integrity and accountability become the norm when people cooperate and collaborate, and that is when the entire organization moves to the next level of performance.

To create a  culture where people naturally trust, help and support each other generously, putting aside egoism and self-interest will not be easy. Undoubtedly, competition flames innovation but for it to be sustainable, we cannot do it alone.

In my next article, I will share tips from selected experts on how to cultivate a connected, cooperative, and collaborative work environment.

Sources of reference:

Ron Young is a renowned international expert and thought leader in strategic information, knowledge management, and innovation management. He is the founder of knowledge-management-online.com and Director of Knowledge Associates International Ltd.

http://www.knowledge-management-online.com/ron-young.html

Francesca Gino is an award-winning researcher, behavioral scientist, and Professor at Harvard Business School. 

https://hbr.org/2019/11/cracking-the-code-of-sustained-collaboration