Competition comes naturally to us, are we taming it enough?

The other day, we were reflecting & debriefing on an experiential activity in which a group of young executives had participated. 

They were thrilled to realize that they were killingly competitive, and that it came naturally to them! When giving instructions to the activity, though I had divided them into two teams, and had suggested different vantage points to operate from, I had never asked them to compete with each other (between teams). But they did!

1. Thanks to our warrior archetypes of the archaeological past, and socio-educational upbringing of the recent past. Competition - willing to pick up a fight, taking pleasure in the opposition's adversity, and assuming an opposition in the first place, happens so seamlessly and naturally.

2. Most often, organizational structures, channels of communication (presence or absence of them), team boundaries based on nature of work, and even the way people are seated in the workspace seem to trigger those competitive streaks in us, though not intended.

The cost of competition amongst employees, and amongst teams within an organization could be very significant.

Competition in itself is not destructive. But a misplaced competition is. And hence maturity is in demonstrating discretion - where to compete and where not to.

Before mastering collaboration, it only makes sense to know & tame competition within us, and outside of us.

The author is a principal consultant at Bisykle Learning Systems

He could be reached at naveen@bisykle.com