We all grew up and have been conditioned into a competitive environment, some of us play sports and we are always trying to get ahead of others. When we look back at our so called achievements and think about what we have actually accomplished we often will wonder if we have actually achieved what we set out to achieve or if in reality the competition have prevented us from achieving our utmost. In some cases like sport, competitiveness forces us to be better, however in business sometimes the competitive environment causes us to make less money than we could have. This of course could be a great benefit to the consumer or sometimes we just simply lose money and nobody benefits.

How could Collaboration change the way we do what we do?

Innovation is needed in many areas of our lives, yet innovation can only truly happen when we work together, listen to other peoples’ ideas, challenge those ideas and add to the idea through dialogue with many people interested in the same things we are interested in. When this type of collaboration happens, innovation takes place. Therefore we need to actually engage more earnestly than ever so that we can collaborate more.

Let’s be more friendly, more open to the opinions of others and stop seeing other people as a potential threat – they could just become the best people you will ever joint venture with. You’ll never know until you try!

Photo credit: Richard.Asia / Foter / CC BY-NC-SA