Collaborative Politics?

With the Presidential race well underway...and my recent spots on "collaboration". I would also like to point out that I sincerely believe that ALL of the presidential candidates are in this race with good intentions. They really want to do something good for this country. The difference lies in the steps they want to take to get us there. And the real lack of collaboration that exists in politics today. Like many organizations...our public office holders seem to favor the "competitive" culture. However, like many, if not most politicians, lawyers, doctors, police, and other public servants, I think that people are inherently good and choose their path in life to try to do good things. True, some people are in their profession for selfish reasons.

Likewise, you and I may have some primary goals of "paying the bills", "buying toys", etc, but there is likely some rationale to the line of work that we choose…that we go to work with the intention of wanting not only to personally succeed but to see our companies succeed and those around us do the same. And in our personal lives we choose to do things that we each may agree or disagree with, but again…the belief that I hold is that 'we' are good people. And we surround ourselves with good people!

So, I mention this because I don’t believe that many democrats or republicans have evil, devious, or conspiratorial plans (maybe a wee bit in all their cases!)…I simply disagree with some the beliefs and strategies that our politicians hold. And I will always vote with and for those candidates who are most aligned to my personal beliefs and morals.

Collaboration

Collaboration improves performance in most things that we do. This is true of sports teams and equally true of businesses and organizations. Cooperation, not competition, is the way to gain the most significant advantage for your 'team'. Alfie Kohn provides a simple explanation for us to realize this; trying to do well and trying to beat others are two different things.

Recently, I recalled this focus for collaboration while I have been discussing the best strategy for approaching "Configuration Management" (one of the key disciplines described by the Information Technology Infrastructure Library - ITIL). Configuration Management is all about 'collaboration'. It is dependent on the cooperation of most members of any IT organization if it is to succeed. When IT people realize that they are successful when others succeed, then the entire organzation begins to rally around each others accomplishements. This is really the distinction between Leadership and management.