「競争は、ある時点までは有用で、それ以上は有用でないことが示されてきた。しかし、今日、我々が努力しなければならない最善のものである協力は、競争が去ったところから始まる。
-フランクリン・D・ルーズベルト
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?
このことが、今週、私たちにふさわしいライバルのことを考える動機となり、私たちをより良くするために背中を押してくれるライバルを探し求める動機となることを願っている。また、もし私たちが一歩でも前進するためにすべての資源とエネルギーを費やしているのであれば、その代わりに未開拓の市場や未踏のチャンスを追い求め、私たちが奉仕する人々の生活を向上させ、新たな機会を創出することもできるはずだ。
素晴らしい1週間を過ごし、互いに高め合い、ともに前進しよう。
ケニー・マクドナルド