The generation that has been in power for the past thirty years will be known as the ME generation. This is the generation when greed was considered good, and Business was considered warfare.
In Business, Miyamoto Musashi's the Book of Five Rings, and Sun Tzu's The Art of War were considered required reading by up and coming businessmen. If business was war, then rivals were the enemy. According to the Free Market Principles a type of Social Darwinism reigned. Those companies that were the most efficient, defeated their rivals, or gobbled them up to become bigger and more powerful. Those corporations who could not compete deserved to fail.
For the individuals, the cut throat competition meant that making a rival look bad was just as important as making yourself look good. The most aggressive and blood thirsty rose to the top, and everyone else had to follow the leader's dictates.
The result is that the economy in the United States is dominated by only a handful of huge mega corporations in each area. Because of the laws of economics American workers were abandoned and our manufacturing base was moved overseas so slave labor, willing to work for pennies a day, could be exploited.
The United States economy was able to compensate for the loss of manufacturing by excelling in innovation. We led the world in the high tech revolution and the IT revolution. Today we are loosing our edge. Are we going to be able to compete with the rest of the world in the future?
If you look at how we excelled in innovation, it was not because of competition (despite the success of Bill Gates and Steve Jobs). It was because the tech world developed a new and better way to create.
Tech Companies would hire a bunch of hot shot alpha males who would bicker and fight about whose brilliant idea they should go with. Then some smart manager came in, divided them into teams and split up the goals so each team worked on part of the problem.
Soon the bickering and backbiting stopped as people realized that most people excel in different areas. Most of the hot shots were chosen for their verbal/linguistic intelligence. However, there are different types of intelligences such as logical/mathematical, computer prowess, visual/spatial/multimedia, musical, bodily/kinesthetic, interpersonal, and intrapersonal intelligence and many more.
They found that diversity in the workspace brought in a diversity of ideas. People from different cultures and women thought about problems in different ways than men with the same backgrounds, and that made the teams more innovative.
Suddenly instead of looking for people who were tough, merciless, relentless, unprincipled, and vicious, management valued harmony, friendliness, communication, concern, the ability to help others, and group participation.
Suddenly the job became fun and people started looking forward to their work. Cooperation increased creativity. They turned out better products and they excelled in innovation. Paradoxically those firms that embraced cooperation became much more competitive in the global marketplace.
It turns out that this is true for fields other than the tech fields. Research has indicated that cooperation results in more success than competition in virtually every occupation, skill, or behavior tested. For instance, scientists who consider themselves cooperative tend to have more published articles than their competitive colleagues. Cooperative businesspeople have higher salaries. From elementary grades to college, cooperative students have higher grade point averages. Personnel directors who work together have fewer job vacancies to fill.
Unfortunately, most people are not taught cooperative skills. Our schools which are still geared to turn out a few very competitive people geared for management, and the rest either become docile and trained to work at mind numbing assembly lines, or they drop out and become what the society considers losers. The schools are not geared for innovation.
The No Child Left Behind, and the Race to the Top programs emphasize testing which encourages competition and discourages cooperative efforts.
Many other nations are now realizing that if they want to be competitive and innovative in the future they need to teach their students to be cooperative. Will we be able to compete?
So how can we teach students and adults to be more cooperative?
1. Focus on doing well. This is much different than trying to beat others. Cooperating with yourself and others to create a positive outcome has more rewards.
2. Allow ample time. Time pressures produce non-agreement, decreased information exchanges, and firmer negotiator demands.
3. Use similar language. Ask questions using the same words they used to describe the
plan originally. "This creates what psychologists call 'congruence,' and you will appear to be more cooperative and interested even though you are critically challenging and gathering additional information.
4. Share leadership. In groups there is always someone that is more outgoing that takes the leadership position, however others if given the chance may actually be more effective or have more valuable ideas, so leadership should be equally shared by all group members. By sharing the leadership, you allow others to take on initiative and
to be integral parts of the group. There is an increased sense of "ownership" of plans and ideas by all members, and the work environment is pleasurable.
5. Learn cooperative problem-solving tools. These are really creativity tools like brainstorming. Other techniques include suspending judgment, clarifying goals and objectives before seeking cooperation, and evaluating others' plans in a non-threatening manner.
6. Practice reciprocity. When someone helps you out, make it a point to help them. Express your gratitude by helping them before they expect it. A policy of general reciprocity - people helping people - facilitates cooperation. This particular technique has been shown empirically (especially in international studies) as one of the few ways to gain an adversary's cooperation.
7. Share resources and information. When people are vying for knowledge, work space, personnel, or anything to help them get the job done, cooperation decreases. Resource exchange, however, encourages one person to work with another.
8. Reinforce team efforts. Rather than praising one person for a job well done, utilize a team approach to problem solving. When the team does well, the entire group is rewarded. This minimizes individual competition, and maximizes cooperation. Distribute the rewards equally among group members.
9. Act cooperatively. Research supports the fact that individuals who have witnessed a cooperative act will "pass it on," sharing some degree of cooperation with the next person they meet. Anytime you help another person feel better, you have increased the probability that he or she will be cooperative toward you. "Actions speak louder than words and encourage another person to cooperate with you."
10. For your health's sake, experience cooperation. Cooperation not only makes you happier, but because there is less stress it also makes you happier.
http://www.charleswarner.us/articles/com...