Collaboration Is The New Competition
Photo credit: Kelsey Lynn & Pacific Lutheran University
Thursday and Friday I’m attending a conference called “Working Collaboratively for Sustainability,” put on by Seattle University. The title is an interesting – and arguably bold – call to action: we need to work together, to break down old barriers, to truly move toward “sustainability.” This because the old paradigms of siloed competition are dying, or dead.
This topic echos that upon which my colleague, Brett Horvath, and I spoke at last weekend’s Green Festival: it’s time to go beyond the paradigm of “green” and into a paradigm of systemic change, of recognizing the holistic aspect of our very real, global challenges.
To echo Vanessa German, how can we save the polar bears if we can’t save our people living in the ghettos?
The talk we gave last weekend focused on two core problems with the current green movement. The first is that the “green” movement has lost its focus: What is the green movement about? Is it efficiency? Recycling? Buying the right kind of car or light bulb? Social justice? To whom are we speaking, and who are we? The second problem is that the green movement is unsustainable. In essence, it’s a zero sum game: there are only so many funders, so many volunteers, so many people who will actively identify as “green” and do what the movement is trying to get them to do (assuming the movement has defined that).
Brett’s and my proposed solution is this: it’s time to move beyond green, to meet people where they are and to find the issues that matter, and then to bring them together under a much larger tent. Green can’t be a catch-all term; for too long, we’ve been trying to use the (marketing) momentum of “green being the new black” as a way to simultaneously address climate change, pollution, and poverty.
The reality is that these are all fundamental human issues – things about which all humans can and should be concerned. How will we truly address issues of such scope, such immense breadth? Through (competitive) collaboration. Through tearing down old silos, agreeing to share resources and move forward toward common, clearly-identified goals. It’s no longer about who has the biggest list, the biggest crowd; it’s how one engages that crowd, how one helps leverage that crowd to help others, that now matters.
Now, back to the conference to see Auden Schendler speak; a long-time hero of mine, he’s been pushing the dial on this thinking for longer than most.
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