Moving from a competitive enviorment to a collaborative one.
What is the first thing that pops into your head when you hear the word Competition? Is it a negative thought? Well if it isn’t, then I believe you probably have been on the winning side of this two-faced concept. Competition actually means “ to strive harder than others to claim your superiority”. My question is why and what for?
Why do we have to establish our supremacy?

Competition is associated with one of the two outcomes, whether you win or you lose. It’s great if you make it and you win but what if you don’t? The winner establishes his supremacy over the rest of the participants, and the rest of the participants lose self-efficacy. When you enter a competition you put a lot at stake. Competition is not just about the consequence anymore but about pride, self-confidence and the will to continue. Some people quit because they lose and find themselves unworthy. Is this right? Self-efficacy is highly endangered by this concept.
I agree that competitions motivate us to work because there is a tangible incentive attached with it. Be it a promotion or say a trophy that urges you to perform better. But better is not enough, is it? Let us assume that a student wants to ace in a particular subject and the class topper scores 75 out of 100. So to be a class topper this student has to score 76 out of 100. He will perform better to win the competition but that’s not his best. Winning is a short term achievement that caters to short term goals that only affect you. Now if you associate others with your plans and collaborate, you have a responsibility an urge to perform, to give your best. The fact that you now have to perform others can generate better results and that will not only benefit you but the group of individuals. This leads to the growth of all the individuals and establishes qualities like trust and self-confidence that help you achieve more.
Let us assume that there is a student (for clarity we’ll call him “A” )who studied alone and read a particular set of books and never interacted with other students. The pretty obvious thing about this student is that he’ll have a definite approach towards anything that will remain same throughout his life. Now there is another student, Student B who read books and discussed his ideas with others and shared his thoughts. It is quite obvious that Student B will have a better pool of knowledge and would have a better insight of things. Collaboration exponentially increases your knowledge and widens your gaze about things.

I have observed this thing amongst various systems that we’ve been bred to go for the competitive approach rather than a collaborative one. Time to time people try to question the competitive testing methods but these rebels are short lived. It only seems fair to revolutionize our approach and ideology. To bring in a collaborative approach that helps both the community and individual to prosper in their own terms.
Sarthak Mehta is a part of a community, CampusBox that focuses on building a creativity community that caters to talented people all around the world. To know more visit our facebook page or log on to our website.
