Competition and Cooperation

There are "dualities" that I think many people have in their minds as ways for considering important aspects of their lives. So for example, maybe some folks see the world in terms of "good and bad", or "mind and body", or "work and play", or "us and them", etc.

For me, I've always been fascinated by the duality of "competition and cooperation". Over the last million years (give or take a few), humanity has springboarded into a realm of existence that is well beyond other species on Earth. It's mainly because we figured out how to cooperate in large numbers, whether it be through necessity, coercion, or altruism - to build clans, eventually develop farming, build cities, and yes even perform flash mobs. We did this as we simultaneously competed for survival with each other and every other species. In my own life, competition and cooperation have informed much of what I've focused on and thought about personally and professionally over the years.

As a youngster, I was very sports-centric, and played on many teams for many years (some of which were memorably bad!). There was always an obvious competitive aspect to this, trying to beat other teams, and also within the team to secure playing time. And yet cooperation was crucial for team success - we all had to work together to do our part. None of us could be successful on our own without being good teammates acting in concert to achieve our goals.

I've spent most of my professional life working in private companies before taking on this Chamber Director non-profit role. Competition was the arena in which we did business every day, trying to set ourselves apart from all the other similar businesses in our industry to grow and prosper. It was never easy to do that well, everyone in the business needed to cooperate to be as efficient and effective as possible to achieve company-wide goals. And yet, at an individual level we competed within the company for promotions or higher salaries within the hierarchy of the organization. The duality was ever-present, constantly shifting back and forth like a dance, from emphasizing competition to emphasizing cooperation.

When you think about competition at a macroeconomic level, it's the underpinning of our economic system of capitalism. Individuals and companies engage in the marketplace to create products and services that find demand, and the process of competition results in growth and allocation of resources through the "invisible" hand of supply and demand. And yet there are so many aspects of our culture and our society for which competition is not an optimal way to organize how resources are utilized, such as health care, education, childcare, and so many other vital aspects of our lives. So while it's a helpful construct to organize competitively within our private enterprise framework, it's certainly not sufficient on its own.

Here is what I've come to appreciate about these two concepts. To some degree competition and cooperation flow fluidly back and forth depending on the context, but ultimately they are states of mind that you can choose for yourself vs. having imposed on you. At a mindset level, competition and cooperation are prisms with which to think about resources and guide your behavior. If you choose to think like economists do and conceive of the world as a place of scarcity, producing a zero-sum game of winners and losers fighting over limited and finite resources, competition is the relevant framework. Alternatively, if you think of the world as a place of abundance with more than sufficient resources for everyone to grow and thrive, being cooperative with one another is the natural way forward.

Both of these concepts obviously have and will continue to play a key role in all of our lives. As I look back on everything I've done and been involved in, it's cooperative activities and efforts that I remember the most, and that yielded the most meaningful experiences, feelings and results. Competition was always a factor, but I recall very little of value or positive recollections ultimately created with the competitive mindset vs. a cooperative one. As just one obvious example, most of us come to realize that family is and has always been the most important thing in our lives. A family is a great example of people cooperating to take care of one another (even if some healthy elbow-throwing brother-in-law hoops battles did take place over the years).

What does all this mean for us here in Biddeford & Saco? Every business needs to compete to be successful. But in many ways cooperation is what makes our region so special. We see businesses collaborating and supporting one another, and non-profit organizations joining together to work on important problems. Local service clubs like the Rotary clubs, volunteer efforts, civic initiatives, our Main St. programs, our schools and the Chamber (along with many others) bring people together to make a positive difference - and enjoy our many local amenities and establishments in the process.

Competition can be black and white, while cooperation can bring amazing color to life. Competition sets you apart, whereas cooperation brings you together. An anonymous quote sums it up aptly: if you want to be incrementally better, be competitive. If you want to be exponentially better, be cooperative.

Jim LaBelle is the executive director of the Biddeford + Saco Chamber of Commerce + Industry.