Competition

Today my second grader got in the car excited because she got a blue star in her behavior folder. We attend a "Make Your Day" school. "Make Your Day" is a comprehensive citizenship program designed to encourage accountability in our youngest children. Between you and I, it kind of drives me nuts in the younger grades but really pays off as the kids get older. Well today, she had made her day, which she does most of the time (no one is perfect) and she got a star on her "Make Your Day" tracking sheet. They are always different colors so I didnt understand the signficance of getting a blue star. It turns out blue stars are special.

Blue stars indicate that each student in her class made their individual days today. Enough blue stars and, wait for it, a popcorn or cookies and milk party. The pinnacle of childhood bliss apparently. Needless to say it benefits everyone to help your friend not screw up.

This my dear friends is the perfect example of the collaborative model of education that have been evolving in our schools for well over a decade. We began the mantra of noncompetitiveness in the mid-eighties when we were concerned about self-esteem. Its evolved into dynamic systems in and out of the school setting.

My son runs for fifteen minutes in gym. Its not the fifteen minute mile, its simply everyone runs for fifteen minutes. Remember when you had to complete that mile in fifteen minutes to pass that part of PE? My daughter plays on a city soccer league. Its advertised as a noncompetitive league. There are no scores, no team rankings even up into the older age groupings. The registration fee covers the uniform and a trophy for participation at the end of the season. Competitiveness is no longer a soft skill taught in schools. The PE class of today is dramatically different from the PE of a generation ago, if schools even offer it now. The mantra is collaboration not competitiveness.

Now this collaborative aspect is beneficial to your company. You're not as likely to see territorial behavior over ideas, teams communicate and work more effectively together, and your new employees aren't as threatened by evaluations as your older employees. The younger set view it as a way to grow instead of as criticism. The drawback is your probably not going to be as successful at initiatives that pit peer against peer. Cohort and cohort can work with limited success, but the fight to be the top dog just isnt in this group mentality anymore.

Instead of survival of the fittest its more we are only as strong as our weakest link so lets figure out how to strenghten it.

It makes me wonder if we'll begin to see a resurgence of employee loyalty to companies, assuming corporate america responds in kind. Of course that would take some strong relationship building and recognition of the individual needs of each employee. Think about it.