Haidt states that studies show that intergroup competition increases love of the in-group more than it increases dislike of the out-group. Intergroup competitions, such as friendly rivalries between divisions, or intramural sports competitions, should have a net positive effect on hivishness and social capital. But pitting individuals against each other for scarce resources (such as bonuses) will destroy hivishness, trust and morale. This aligns with the studies cited by Daniel Pink that monetary rewards reduce individual performance.
Since the principle includes the word “healthy” and there isn’t any clarification of this phrase we have to think about what would tip competition from healthy to unhealthy. I will expand the concept of intergroup competition to the idea of teams as individuals and if you pit teams against each other for scarce resources in the same way that you pit individuals against each other – you would destroy a large project team in the same way that you could destroy a small development or operations team. I would start with some idea of bragging rights as the reward that keeps competition in a healthy state. You have likely seen this as a character or mascot that is passed between teams as a visible indicatory that they have “bragging rights.” I have never seen pathological behaviour to obtain this type of reward, however I have seen it drive teams to greatness (or at least betterness).
Very early in my consulting career I adopted a practice of stating my expectation that any team that I lead to be the “best team on the project.’ I always tailor that statement to each engagement, but the common practice is that I make this announcement and restate it regularly to establish “hive greatness” as a purpose. This shared purpose has consistently created a competition between my teams and others within an engagement completely unbeknown to the other teams. Since this purpose doesn’t come with any material reward and it is simple bragging rights it has stayed a healthy competition.
Reflecting on your team leadership, does your team see themselves in a competition with other teams? If they do, you likely have a high performing team and now you know why. If you don’t have a high performing team, maybe it is time to create a competition!
I had a recent experience leading an agile coaching team on a large digital transformation and will explore how I employed these 3 principles in taking the team from a group of chimps to a cooperative group of humans. That story is next in “How the IBM Coaching team activities align with the “Hive Switch” Principles.
Previous blogs on this subject: Fool proof principals for building high performance teams, Exploring Principle #1 Build Similarity, not diversity, Exploring Principle #2 Move Together
Enterprise Agility 