Competition vs Cooperation

Competition vs Cooperation

In one of my children school function, the chief guest while addressing the gathering, said, “All great achievements that the ever been accomplished by man is owing to one of the 2 things – Competition or Co-operation”. This line caught my attention and forced me to probe a little further. These two words, Competition and Co-operation do not sound like complementary words, but sound like contrary words. How then can one say that all great achievements are achieved by two contrary things? But if we look at the way our lives have evolved, we would find it is true.

 

Let us first talk about competition. Competition creates a spirit to excel the other, out beat the other, break an old record. Once in 4 years an Olympic game is organized. Sportsmen from nations across the globe meet, to compete. At the end of every Olympic Games, a new record is set, which serves as a new benchmark for the future sportsmen. The next generation needs to find ways of breaking this record, and setting a new record. The ultimate purpose of an event like this is not to see which country has won the maximum number of gold or silver, but an event to explore the human potential. It is a place where learning happens: where the human potential, is challenged again and again.

 

Let us say, you play one of your favourite sport with someone, where you are an ace player and the other is an amateur. You will be winning all the time, but you will lose interest in the game. You know why? Because, there will be no sense of accomplishment. There is no spirit of challenge. In due course you will find yourself playing like an amateur, because the amateur by the way he plays, has brought you down to his level. On the other hand, when you play the game with an equally tough opponent, you will face the risk of losing, but the spirit of challenge will make you put your level best to win the game. In the process your game technics and tactics will improve. When you win this game, the amount of happiness and satisfaction, you experience, would be beyond words. Therefore the purpose of playing a match is not only to decide who is better than the other, but to bring out the best in us. The essence of competition is therefore to bring out our hidden potential.

 

We are all proud to be Indians. This pride is a result of our past achievements. We cannot afford to continue basking in this glory for long. We need to constantly improve our performance in order to be ahead from the rest of the world. For this to happen, we need competition. Competition therefore, should not be something to be feared about, but something we look forward to as an opportunity for our growth. We compete to excel and winning is just a topping in the cake.

 

Now let us talk about Cooperation. Cooperation strives for team work, team coordination, team building and works on the principle of give and take. It believes in Synergy. Each one of us, have a different strength. As a team, when your strength adds to the strength of the group, there is a great synergy. It defies the mathematics logic and says 1+1 is not 2, but 3.

 

In most of the inaugural and closing ceremony of grand occasions like the Olympics, we see a number of team events performed with great level of synchronization accuracy, which is a treat to our eyes. It could be a group dance, a musical orchestra, a parade, a mass drill or whatsoever. We are awestruck by the magnanimity of such fete.

 

Competence is therefore a blend of Competition and Co-operation. While you need to have a competitive spirit to succeed, we also need to have a co-operative spirit to be a good team player. The most important quality of a good leader is that he should be a good team player. As an individual we compete with each other in our school, our career, our chosen game to come to the top and gain a leadership position. But as a leader our major role is to make sure there is co-operative effort.

 

Team work is therefore nothing but collective competence. This collective competence in full bloom is the ultimate flowering of human accomplishment. Let us learn to compete and cooperate in our effort to achieve our goals.

D. Senthil Kannan,

Managing Trustee, PALMS, Tuticorin.

Author of "Transformational Thoughts" - A Journey of learning 

Email: senthilkannand@gmail.com 

Mobile Nuisance

 

Mobile Nuisance 

Other than the Television and Internet, one more modern invention which could make it to the debate of boon or bane, is the mobile phones. Well as we all know, the entry of mobile communication has largely changed or influenced our lifestyle. Gone or the days when we needed to be glued to an office chair, in order to be able to communicate. Mobile phones have given us the freedom to move places yet be connected with business, family and friends. At the same time it has given way for unhealthy intrusion into our private time.

 

Mobile phones have become hardly a part of our life since 2000, but all of a sudden we feel a sense of being lost in this world, without it. Is it not, true?

 

The purpose of communication is to enhance understanding, but looking at how mobile phone usage has evolved, it looks like it seems to cause more misunderstandings, than understanding. Well, just read the below sentences and see if it sounds as a familiar complaint, in the recent days.

 

1. 
   I tried to contact you a number of times, but you did not pick up the phone. ( in a frustrated tone).
2. I hoped you will see my number and call me back, but you didn’t. ( in an accusing tone)
3. Are you so busy that you don’t even have the time to attend my phone call or return my phone call? (in a cynical tone).
4. I called you, but you cut my call (in a disappointed tone)

 

Now, let us take a quick look at the possible reasons why people don’t attend to calls or do not return calls.

• The person was taking a bath or using the restroom.
• He was in his meditation or prayer.
• He had gone for his morning walk or exercise.
• He was having his meal.
• He was driving.
• He had left the mobile phone in another room and was sitting elsewhere.
• He was in a meeting with a client.
• He was in a social occasion, where the external noise was so loud that he could not attend the phone or felt uncomfortable to do so.
• He was upset over some personal problem and was not in a mood to pick up the phone.
• The person thought he would call you back, but then totally forgot about it in his busy day’s work.
• He was focused on some important project that he did not want to get diverted by the phone call.

 

The reasons could be many and there is no obligation for the person to confess to us every time, why he did not pick up the call.  Now, it is not fair to expect someone to attend our call, irrespective of his preoccupations. We need to respect their privacy.

 

Well, very often in the above situations, we too would not pick up a call, but when we take the other side, we tend to get irritated. When exercising judgement, the benefit of doubt should always be in favour of the opponent. We need to understand that no one is under any compulsion or obligation to attend to our call. Just because someone did not pick up our call, we do not have the right to condemn them. If we do so, it just means that, we are spoiling a relationship.

 

We all experience that mobile phone has taken away quality family time.  People are finding it more and more difficult to cope up with official pressure which is due to the mobile intrusion in unofficial hours and vice versa. It really annoys me, when someone finds my mobile number in my business website and gives me a call at 9:00 pm and asks me for some business information. Life has to be a balance of work, family and personal interests. If we are really interested in achieving this balance, we need to be ready to make some life style changes.

 

While mobile phone has given us the luxury of staying connected irrespective of where we are, let it not take away the freedom of allowing us to do what we want to do.

D. Senthil Kannan,

Managing Trustee, PALMS, Tuticorin.

Author of "Transformational Thoughts" - A Journey of learning 

Email: senthilkannand@gmail.com

 

How important is Customer Feedback?

During one of my weekend shopping, at a local retail store, I spotted a brand of wafer biscuits that I used to love during my childhood days. I was surprised to see that brand of wafers after such a long gap. I was in the assumption that the company was no more in existence. Out of my interest to give my children the happy experience of crunching delicious wafer biscuits, I bought 5 packs of 5 different flavours and took it home. To our disappointment, we found that the wafers were not crisp. The product wrapper indicated that it was very much within the expiry date. I cut a sorry face in front of my children, to whom I had raised a high anticipation. I felt bad.

 

At moments like this, our normal tendency would be to stop buying that particular product again. But, something within me told me that I should not just leave it there, but take it to the notice of the manufacturer. So, I decided to write them. Now that luckily most companies give a customer care hotline number or email id, it made it easy for me to key in an email to the company stating my experience.

 

Within just a day, I received a mail from them which read as under: “We are in receipt of your mail and noted the contents.We were sorry to learn that the wafer packs you purchased recently were not crisp. To help us to find the reason, please let us know the variety and packing of these packs and also when and from where (name of shop and place) you purchased them. We shall take remedial actions immediately. We sincerely thank you for writing to us.”  

I was glad to see a positive response from them, so I send in the details they had requested. After a week, I received two packs of complimentary wafer biscuits along with a thank you card. This time, the wafer biscuits were truly good and it ended up as a delightful experience.

 

The idea behind me sharing this incident with you is to emphasize the fact that, “Good quality products and services in our country is not just the sellers responsibility, but also the buyers responsibility”. It is only through a good feedback mechanism can any product be improvised or the standards be maintained.

 

Many a times, we brood over having bought an inferior quality product or getting a bad service. Does the experience feel good or bad? If it felt bad, what can we do to change the experience?  Are we OK with inferior quality products and services in this country? If not, how are we going to bring about the change? We could either continue to brood that Indian quality goods are not in par with foreign goods, or we could take a proactive initiative to raise the quality of Indian products to global standards. The choice is ours. The initiative can be through our feedback. It is our social responsibility to give feedback with an intention to raise the standards of Indian products.

 

A famous quote goes, “If you refuse to accept anything but the best, then most often you end up getting it.” This is the attitude with which we need to approach customer service. Demand for the best. Never settle for anything less. Don’t buy inferior quality products because it is cheap. Let the manufacturer realise that people are willing to pay a better price for a better product. Soon, we will see the day, when Indians and Indian products are not considered inferior or cheap. “Made in India”, should be synonymous with high quality.

 

 The companies that will survive in the future, are the companies that are sensitive to consumer feedbacks. If they are not sensitive or just ignore it, it just goes to say that they have started to dig they own grave.

D. Senthil Kannan,

Managing Trustee, PALMS, Tuticorin.

Author of "Transformational Thoughts" - A Journey of learning 

Email: senthilkannand@gmail.com