The Hidden Cost of Internal Competition

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Rather than compete for job retention in a challenging economy, mechanics at American Airlines have collaborated to maintain full employment and make their function a profit center. Facing competition from foreign maintenance companies, American has cut the time and number of mechanics needed for major overhauls. This has freed the mechanics to take on additional work from other airlines and air freight companies. Essentially, the mechanics have collaborated across functions and have reduced internal competition to retain jobs and create new business opportunities.

So how can you as a leader reduce internal competition? Here are 5 ways:

• Reward People for Sharing Data and Information

Sharing data and information internally creates value by harnessing resources across the organization. Sales and marketing teams can avoid redundant client contacts, and product development teams can avoid duplication of efforts. Therefore, annual salary reviews should include an evaluation of how team members share data and information to create organizational value.

• Avoid Pitting People Against Each Other

Some companies create internal competition by giving two or more team members the same assignment and rewarding the person who does the best work. Instead, harness complementary skills by encouraging cross-functional teams to meet challenges.

• Recognize People for Gaining Broad Input

Successful collaborative organizations create value by recognizing leaders for gaining broad input into decisions. When leaders make decisions in a vacuum, the organization suffers. Worse yet, some managers make shoot-from-the-hip decisions without analyzing adequate data and information and without input from others. The organization benefits when people participate in decisions regardless of level, role or region.

• Change the Conversation

Language is a powerful component of organizational culture. Too often, shop talk includes sports metaphors and internally-competitive language. As a leader, encourage your team to change the conversation and embrace collaborative language. In a collaborative organization, you should hear language like: "Let's get input from sales" or "We can make a better decision if we engage finance to run the numbers" or "Let's connect now with corporate communications to see how different approaches to solving this problem will affect our reputation."

• Clarify Role of Competition

Team members need to know when to compete and when to collaborate. Educate your workforce that competition belongs in the marketplace rather than in the workplace.

Evan Rosen is author of The Culture of Collaboration and executive director of The Culture of Collaboration® Institute. He also writes The Culture of Collaboration® blog. Evan creates collaboration strategies for both the private and public sector, delivers workshops, and speaks globally on collaboration. He can be reached through www.thecultureofcollaboration.com.

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