"È stato dimostrato che la concorrenza è utile fino a un certo punto e non oltre, ma la cooperazione, che è la cosa migliore per cui dobbiamo impegnarci oggi, inizia dove la concorrenza si interrompe".
-Franklin D. Roosevelt
Our team has been studying Simon Sinek’s The Infinite Game. One of the key forces that he speaks to is the benefit of having a worthy rival to compete against, to push you, and to motivate you to do better. As we all know, the media loves to highlight rivals in the world of sports, politics, and business, and many communities also fall into this trap, comparing themselves city to city or state to state. Make no mistake, it’s certainly true that comparing yourself to the competition certainly has value. After all, it allows you to contrast your business, organization, team, city, or state to others, and that can create urgency, motivate teams, activate investors, and it certainly provides perspective. However, this never-ending game of comparison can lead to incrementalism, complacency, and tunnel vision while others look inward to innovate, create opportunities, and define new paradigms for success.
In the book Beyond Disruption the authors observe that “what we ultimately achieve through our imagination and digitally enabled power, however, is dependent on the kind of problems we set out to solve and the kind of opportunities we set out to create.” This prompts two questions that all community leaders should seek to answer and to revisit often on your development journey. What kind of opportunities are you really seeking to create? What problems are we setting out to solve?
Spero che questo ci spinga a pensare ai vostri degni rivali questa settimana, a cercare quelli che ci spingono a essere migliori, ma a farlo con prospettiva e senza diventare insicuri e paranoici. Spero che questo ci spinga anche a fare una pausa e a considerare che se stiamo bruciando tutte le nostre risorse ed energie per guadagnare un centimetro, potremmo invece perseguire mercati non sfruttati e opportunità inesplorate che migliorerebbero la vita e creerebbero nuove opportunità per le persone che serviamo.
Passiamo una bella settimana, solleviamoci a vicenda e andiamo avanti insieme.
Kenny McDonald