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> It's not competition that is the problem. It's score-keeping and secrets. IMO the healthy interpersonal dynamic between you and your friend will not scale be

> It's not competition that is the problem. It's score-keeping and secrets. IMO the healthy interpersonal dynamic between you and your friend will not scale beyond say 10 people. That is the problem. No matter how well managed an organisation is internal competitions turn vicious in no time and drain the company of its precious resources. Co-operation must be constantly fostered from the top management and the first sign of competition must be dealt with. In today's age of promotion-driven-development it isn't easy. Everyone wants to build the new and shiny service.

wildmanx 5y ago
I think you are self-contradicting yourself here. "No matter how well managed an organisation is" versus "Co-operation must be constantly fostered from the top management". You're basically saying "this can't be fixed by management" and then saying "it must be fixed by management". I'm probably just misunderstanding you. Could you clarify? FWIW, in the organization I'm working at, I don't have that problem. There are literally hundreds of other sw engineers that could do exactly my job, and we all have the same title, and collaboration works really well between everybody. There are some personal differences here and there, but the overall environment is excellent and we don't compete internally. We try to learn from each other and push each other forward.
- vishnugupta 5y ago
  You are right, I expressed that poorly. I wanted to disagree with the GP's following assertion. > in an unhealthy organization people can take advantage and not get back. I interpreted it as "unhealthy competition is a result of unhealthy organisation". My take is internal competition is a big reason that results in unhealthy organisation. The point I wanted to make was if the management is not careful to snuff out competition at early stages it'll get bad and that the upper management must constantly foster co-operation, not just by talking about it but by showing it in action. For instance if leaf level workers see that there are two VPs with overlapping charters who are sort of having a rift then they will copy their behaviour. And in your org it's clear that co-operation is being fostered, a great example is everyone having the same title. It's a terrific way to show to everyone that the management means what they say.

wildmanx 5y ago

I think you are self-contradicting yourself here. "No matter how well managed an organisation is" versus "Co-operation must be constantly fostered from the top management". You're basically saying "this can't be fixed by management" and then saying "it must be fixed by management". I'm probably just misunderstanding you. Could you clarify? FWIW, in the organization I'm working at, I don't have that problem. There are literally hundreds of other sw engineers that could do exactly my job, and we all have the same title, and collaboration works really well between everybody. There are some personal differences here and there, but the overall environment is excellent and we don't compete internally. We try to learn from each other and push each other forward.

vishnugupta 5y ago
You are right, I expressed that poorly. I wanted to disagree with the GP's following assertion. > in an unhealthy organization people can take advantage and not get back. I interpreted it as "unhealthy competition is a result of unhealthy organisation". My take is internal competition is a big reason that results in unhealthy organisation. The point I wanted to make was if the management is not careful to snuff out competition at early stages it'll get bad and that the upper management must constantly foster co-operation, not just by talking about it but by showing it in action. For instance if leaf level workers see that there are two VPs with overlapping charters who are sort of having a rift then they will copy their behaviour. And in your org it's clear that co-operation is being fostered, a great example is everyone having the same title. It's a terrific way to show to everyone that the management means what they say.