We hate that which we often fear

I have written about this topic a couple of years ago, but the subject keeps rearing its delicate head. It has been come up in recent conversations with Mikel Ellcessor of WDET and Jennifer Ferro of KCRW. What is the nature of competition?

The term competition came from the Latin competere which means “to strive in common". Competere was derived from two Latin roots:

• Com – which means to come together, to agree, to realize, to be qualified.
• Petere – which means to petition, which means to strive, to seek, request, supplicate, to pray, appeal to a higher authority.

…thus to compete means to "strive together".

The flow of energy in competition is understood in the martial arts where a battle or competition is won by drawing the force, by honouring and petitioning the energy of the competitor.

Destructive competition seeks to benefit an individual, group or organism by damaging and/or eliminating competing individuals, groups and/or organisms. It assumes a “winner takes all” outcome. Challenges are reduce into a zero-sum game. The success of one group is dependent on the failure of the other competing groups.

Destructive competition comes from a siege mentality rather than one of abundance. It derives from a wanting to consume, cling, claim and control, it comes from and generates fear.

Positive competition does not seek to change but to be changed by the best in oneself and society. It is not a wanting but an acceptance of the unknown that is in us and all around us. The challenge is to remove the blinkers that we cannot see, therefore focus us in ways we cannot know.

Positive competition begins with seeking to give not take, to learn not codify, to honour not destroy, to being changed not to change others, to seek and understand not judge or lable as good or bad.

Although many of these organisations changed later, the founders of many of the industry shaping organisations drew their strength from positive competition. McDonalds "strived together" through Ford Motor Company to pioneer mass retailing of food (or fast food as we call it today); Dell competed with Toyota by creating custom built orders through a strong supplier base and rationalisation of inventory; Southwest competed with Greyhound by combining simplicity with service; Starbucks competed with the café’s in Italy by bringing the "third space" between home and work into America.

These organisations were not competing narrowly, attempting to consume or destroy the "market share" but rather to create new value. They honored that which inspired them to suprise themselves with unspoken and unexpected value. They were applying what Marion Blackett-Milner called "wide attention".

We cannot learn contentment. It cannot be gained by thinking or trying or buying. It is within us, it surfaces by letting go of fear and accepting, opening ourselves up to uncertainty as a wonder to be discovered not something to be controlled and removed. Milner describes "narrow attention" as blinkers or blinders.

Acceptance and opening up to what is unknown within us, in the relationships and universe around us removes the blinkers and changes how we the face of the world and therefore how we experience ourselves "to make boredom and weariness blossom into immeasurable contentment". This often occurs in silence, quietude is the most under-estimated of skills.

People and organisations that alter the competitive landscape do not seek to shape but be shaped. They do not compete in the niave,cognitively obsessed sense taught by business schools and the negative way management text books define “competition”. In fact, go back and trace the history of all innovators, and you will see it is precisely the moment when the bureacrats took over that the value of the organisation began to die. We have worked with many self-destructive organisations that are sustained by people (many of whom go unrecognised and unrewarded because they do not crave attention) who apply positive competition. It behooves leaders in government, private industry, non-for-profits and private equity firms to remove their blinkers and surface these natural born competitors in their midst. These are the people who shape the future, with or without leaders telling them to.

The way we are taught to map business plans through a narrow, academic view of competition destroys value. This is why template driven business planning exercises are such a terrible waste of time and energy. They narrow attention to the confines of an existing industry or market or way of leading a church, a non-for-profit or a government department, etc.

We become whatever we gaze upon. Open your mind to the people and institutions that inspire you, then competed to your hearts content. Do not compete through fear, compete through the unknown. Then you will discover who are you striving in common with and the value that is possible.

"In time we hate that which we often fear"
Antony and Cleopatra
Act I Scene iii