Competition is not the only way

One of the philosophies which pervades business (and society) is that competition is good for a whole range of reasons, including that it brings out the best in people.

That is wrong - or, at the very least, a dangerous simplification.

A few year's ago, my nation's female swimming team started getting exceptionally good results - much better than the men's team. The reason for this was that they had a sensible coach who stopped the needling (that is how many women see it) and changed to mutual encouragement, and it resulted in the women's team becoming more successful.

The drive for competition in the workplace, both within each company and against other companies, is an expression of stereotypical patriarchy, and harms women, many men, and the economy.

Some men and some women "benefit" from that - they find it stimulating, and they are often the sort of so-called "go-getter" that claws their way to the top of the corporate ladder . . . and then, cursed by their lack of human understanding, inflicts what works for them on everyone else.

I have probably half a book's worth of thoughts on this - including the costs to society of companies developing structures based on winning work, and hiring people who, far from being technical experts, or in addition to that in some cases, are experts at "beating others", which adds overhead costs and inhibits the functioning of companies, but that is for a different time. (On a slightly different note, I have also thoughts on the costs of support staff, such as accounting, insisting those doing the actual work apportion some of their mental energy to using systems that convenience the support staff and inconvenience the actual workers.)

This is not a new problem - I've seen it throughout my career, and reflects the effect of patriarchy: I would love to see an enquiry into the costs and benefits of this matter, but I doubt anyone would be able to be comprehensive enough.

Incidentally, I want to note that there are benefits from a market - one of our clients received a much lower, better bid for a plant because we prepared a flexible (what is termed "performance based") specification for them, but that is flexibility, not competition.