Win-Win is where it's at!
Competition is a good thing.
It drives us to succeed and demands that we learn from one another in the process. It provides useful benchmarks and keeps us moving when we’d rather stay comfortable where we are. In essence, competition encourages us to simply pay attention to what other people in our field are doing. This helps us notice our own unique strengths and shortcomings. It helps us see where we fit as individuals and companies in the larger scheme of things — the general direction our field is moving. Depending on how much we like what we see, if we’re smart, we adjust ourselves accordingly. We think hard about what unique value we can offer. We get together with our teams, compare notes, and talk about what we’d like to do differently. Sometimes this kind of competition leads to what everyone seems to be talking about these days — some genuinely groundbreaking innovation that dramatically changes the way we live and work, moving all of society forward.
This is competition at its best.
Unfortunately, the competitive mindset in business quite often looks like something else. Companies hold onto information that could be useful to everyone out of fear that others will steal their good ideas about what to do with that information. Individuals and teams within organizations work in silos, opting to let problems linger rather than talk about them. Startupers eager for funding or more publicity proceed with their “big idea” without reaching out to established companies or other startups doing very similar or related work. All of these competitive, self-protecting behaviors are to be expected — tough economy or not. I’d argue they’re even beneficial at times. But they hold all of us back in ways we can’t always see. When I find myself consistently looking out for No. 1 rather than reaching out, I try to think toward collaboration, to look for potential win-win scenarios right under my nose, or to one way or another be generous with my time and energy.
One organization that gets this concept of the “win-win” (and models it consistently) is Boston World Partnerships (BWP). Founded in early 2009, BWP “aims to raise global awareness of Boston as one of the world’s foremost centers of intellectual capital and innovation, offering tremendous competitive advantages to growth-minded businesses.” As part of this larger strategy, BWP does a great job of simply connecting Bostonians to one another for the purpose of supporting entrepreneurship and economic growth.
I’ve yet to find another network that cuts across so many different ages, backgrounds, disciplines, and sectors. In the last year and a half, BWP has assembled a diverse group of 170+ “Connectors” who do exactly this — effectively connect people and resources to each other so that as a city, Boston grows together. In addition, BWP regularly hosts open networking events inviting others to connect with the BWP community. And the more connectors give to the City of Boston, the more resources and intelligence BWP gives back to its connectors.
BWP operates from the very simple mantra, “Inform and Connect.” For readers of this blog who are in the process of building their own startups, I encourage you to think about ways you can inform and connect within your own network. In my experience, the return on this investment has been pretty fantastic.
The bottom-line lesson here?
Talk about your projects. Get advice from people who have been on the scene longer and know about your industry. Don’t be afraid to reach out to competitors either. Startups are constantly iterating and pivoting (the good ones, anyway), so this month’s “worst enemy” could easily become next month’s “best friend.” If you execute well, you probably don’t have much to worry about in sharing your ideas. Go ahead, talk your dreams into reality.
Alexis is a freelance writer and editor and co-founder of The New Prosperity Initiative (NPi), a media organization dedicated to knowledge sharing in the social justice field. She began her career on the publishing team at the Lean Enterprise Institute in Cambridge. Lex serves on the board of directors of The Writers’ Room of Boston and is a “Connector” for Boston World Partnerships. These days she’s very interested in systems thinking, social entrepreneurship, humor, poetry, and design. Lex holds a B.A. in Government from Smith College.
Tags: Boston World Partnerships, Op-Ed
