Allow me to indulge you a little in a part of my life that I’ve mused endlessly about. I’ve argued it, debated it, so now I’m going to write about it so you too may see what part you belong to. Meet my two neighbors- Michael and Emeka (both fictional names).
Michael is in mid 30’s and quite successful and feels very confident of winning a “Mr. Swagger Man” award, whenever an organisation decides to start that. But he lives permanently in a hurried state just like a neighbor you too may know. He’s always hurrying to do stuff. Right from the moment the alarm clock starts buzzing in the morning. He is suddenly reminded of the need to do a million things within only 19 hours! Coz he sleeps by 2a.m and has to be up by 7a.m daily. So he jumps up from bed, says a hurried prayer (rarely) and is about to achieve what Hussein Bolt the Olympic gold medalist would be envious of, he’s in and out of the bathroom in less than 6 minutes. Has a shirt ironed and shoe polished and ready to go in less than ten minutes and is on the road for an 8 km drive to the office. Along the way, he calls the office to ask his secretary who’s in the office just before she had the time to say good-morning. He just wants to be sure, Emeka doesn’t get there before him this Monday morning especially as staff evaluation and promotion is around the corner at the end of the month. So he’s always 30 minutes earlier than Emeka each morning but still is paranoid that Emeka may do a turnaround and decide to become an early bird.
So he tries to make an 8km drive with four busy intersections and eight traffic stops in less than 11 minutes, enough to make even Michael Schumacher green with envy. He never succeeds but then he never stops trying even though the 11 minute benchmark was previously achieved during a bank holiday (which he didn’t hear of) with almost no traffic.
So he curses and swears at all the green cab drivers and he scrapes and dodges near accidents and by the time he is in the office, he is in quite a state and not in the mood to greet anyone “good-morning” with as much as a smile.
Now enters Emeka, a gentleman you’ll love to be with, more inclined towards living a comfortable than one of luxury. He doesn’t wake up in the morning with an alarm because he gets in to bed by 10:30p.m daily and is up by 5a.m and has adequate time to meditate before taking the kids on a 20 minute ride to school before making his way to the office. He volunteered to pick up his boss kids too so he’s never really queried when he comes in 5 or 10 minutes late.
In the office he coaches his team members on the need for collaboration and within them the reward system for remuneration based on commission is shared by all not just by the person who landed the job. This has made it possible for everyone to share contacts and delegate responsibilities based purely on perceived individuals strengths and skills. So naturally, the team is always ahead in regional sales year after year much to the consternation of Michael!
Michael on the other hand is what economists love to describe as a “hard-core capitalist”, so he drives his team like everyday is a race against time. He pitches them against each other and makes them compete directly amongst themselves for the big client or the highest sales weekly and he has a policy he calls, “The Winner Takes it All”. Something I suspect he learnt from a track from the 80’s music band ABBA. Needless to say, his team is constantly in a pensive mood and turnover is highest. However a member of his team is always sure to come out with topmost individual sales record and all others struggle with worst sales performance. It has become quite the norm these days.
Fast-forward to next month, evaluations have been done and recommendations have been made. Michael is called into the President’s office, and his boss says in a deep but friendly voice,
“Hey Michael, you gave us quite a tough choice with deciding who would be the Vice-President, we went for the best option, do accept our decision”. Michael walks out dazed and wondering if this is a practical joke and how was he going to explain to his wife the new BMW X6 he just leased in anticipation of a new raise? Could Emeka become his new boss?
The President picks up the phone and calls Emeka on the intercom, requesting him to come into the office and shaking his hands, he says heartily, “Congratulations, my old friend you deserve it” They shake hands and Emeka walks out and five minutes later his team begins cheering and a bottles of champagne can be heard popping off like a gunshot by Michael in the next office.
Herein lies the difference between competition and collaboration, in competition, there’s a 24 hours-a-day-365-days-a-year desire to climb to the top even if it means stepping on toes and climbing on heads of everyone around you. On the other hand collaboration makes great teams win awards. Teams would aspire to make their coach or captain win more awards selflessly. Great teams help achieve aspirations. Bad teams help create more perspiration. It’s really that simple.
Competition may pay off in the short run and thus seem good at first for the overly-ambitious person, business or country. But there’s only so much you can take from people without giving back; at the end of the day, they’ll have nothing left to give and you’ll have nothing else to take. What happens then? You’ll be gloomy that you’re not receiving anything anymore and they’ll be mad at you for taking all they have. How long do you think it would take before you’ll begin losing sleep and losing friends faster than a dog with a bad case of fleas loses its hair?
Collaboration doesn’t mean the absence of competition; it is however the appreciation of another’s unique natural gifts and abilities then finding a way to combine these unique qualities and making it work for the mutual benefit of all involved. Collaboration necessitates that all parties put their best foot forward and share the rewards afterwards. A simple analogy to illustrate this argument would be saying Hussein Bolt, might be the fastest runner in a 200m dash. But in a 1200M relay race, if he decides to run alone against 2 average runners, they will undoubtedly outrun him.
I run a partnership because I and my partner previously were working independently, but we decided to work inter-dependently as our skills complemented each other’s! In the same vein I believe companies can work together and avoid closing up completely especially during a recession. A good example will be banks and airlines sharing resources by identifying what the other party does best and entering a non-compete agreement in exchange for information or customers. Same goes with countries and multinationals fighting for scarce resources when the truth is: there’s more than enough to go around. The good book assures us that God created the Earth and the fullness thereof. Fullness means abundance, abundance means sufficient. Only stupid children struggle over food in the kitchen when there is more than enough to go around.
Ebuka Anichebe is the Managing Partner of Jean-Paul and Associates Consultancy. He has an uncommon approach to marketing media consulting, business development and customer experience evaluation. He’ll like to hear your views on this article and more, write to him at ebuka@jeanpaulconsult.com or call 07040448749
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