Collaboration Will Take Us Where Competition Can’t

by Michael Sussman, Founder and CEO of OnTrackNorthAmerica and Consulting Chairman of CAPSI

At the heart of OnTrackNorthAmerica’s work are the twin practices of collaboration and coordination. We believe this combination is a superior means of ensuring that government and business serve the best interests of all stakeholders and, ultimately, the entire community. But are collaboration and coordination even possible given the competitive climate that capitalism has fostered for almost two centuries? And, on a more organic level, are people inherently altruistic, or are they self-centered?

In America, in particular, we have been taught that striving for individual success is beneficial for everyone, as a productive capitalist society depends on it. The scientific basis for this precept is ostensibly “survival of the fittest,” which has come to be widely accepted as the fundamental finding of Charles Darwin’s research. The modern interpretation of survival of the fittest posits that humans, like other species, are naturally selfish and that selfishness drives progress. But is it possible that this belief is not only mistaken, but that it exerts an undue and debilitating influence on society? And does it actually represent Darwin’s findings?

Most people would be surprised to learn that Charles Darwin never used the phrase survival of the fittest in the original volume of his seminal work, On the Origin of Species. Contrary to prevailing belief, Darwin’s observation of natural selection did not highlight individual competition. Darwin observed that in nature, the community provides the best perches, food, and resources to the strongest members, which confers on them reproductive advantages, so they ultimately produce the healthiest offspring. Harmony within the community, not domination of the community, is what Darwin observed. Moreover, he wrote that individuals in nature are inherently social, which is ultimately what produces and sustains well-being for the whole community.

So, how did we come to misapply Darwin’s transformative work? Why did we orient commerce and governance around competition and mistrust rather than cooperation and trust? What would have us think that we must pit individuals, companies, organizations, political parties, and countries in an endless competition?

“Darwinism” gained popularity during the mid-19th century, when American and British industrialists sought a belief system to justify their massive accumulation of wealth and power. They sponsored members of a new intellectual field called Social Philosophy to promote a misreading of On the Origin of Species. One of the movement’s leading figures, Herbert Spencer, originated the term survival of the fittest, and because the public’s access to Darwin’s book was limited, those in power used this disinformation campaign to influence public support for their versions of capitalism and democracy.

We all suffer under the influence of Spencer’s false and destructive misinterpretation of nature and, indeed, humanity. Modern governance and commerce have since developed around an over-reliance on competitive debate, competing factions, and constant jockeying for attention and favors. However, competition stifles the collective potential of a society and is ultimately highly inefficient for towns, counties, states, countries, and their businesses.

The most effective and efficient organization of all components of a sustainable industrial system is only possible through collaboration and coordination.

Of course, competition has its place in sports, games, and some aspects of business. However, orienting our civilization’s primary functions around competition is outmoded and unsustainable.

The mounting environmental stresses of the world’s exploding population and the ever-increasing competition to exploit the globe’s abundant, yet finite, treasure trove of natural resources threaten our peace and prosperity.

There is a better way.

It is more crucial than ever to discard outdated and limiting assumptions and embrace a new paradigm, a paradigm of commitment to our community, both locally and globally. It is time to redesign our systems of governance and commerce around collaboration and cooperation, to ensure sustainability and prosperity for everyone.

What is OnTrackNorthAmerica’s role in this essential shift in priorities? We begin by convening stakeholders in productive dialogue using our question-based dialogue method, IntelliSynthesis^®. By their nature, questions are inherently interactive, opening our minds to intelligent thought, exploration, and shared knowledge. By synthesizing, cataloging, and utilizing this collective intelligence, diverse stakeholders can solve problems and implement action plans effectively.

Our work is informed by close interactions with more than 11,000 individuals across the continent who have overwhelmingly expressed their heartfelt desire for a world that works for everyone. As Darwin discovered almost two hundred years ago, a society advances when its members orient around essential collaboration and coordination, striking a balance with useful competition.