Collaboration and Competition ...

Tuesday, Oct 11, 2016. What is a good relationship between collaboration and competition? We need both of it! We need competition, since when you do not compete any more to find better solutions than those you have already, you will not make progress any more. On the other hand, when you do nothing else than competition, you will not get to any sustainable development as well! We need to think about this in more depth.

Brotherly Love …

In the New Testament, we are called to unity in the church. It is an important call! We are called to brotherly love in the church. This is between all who belong to Christ, between all who believe in him. We are called to repay everything with love! Let us listen first:

8 Finally, all of you, have unity of mind, sympathy, brotherly love, a tender heart, and a humble mind. 9 Do not repay evil for evil or reviling for reviling, but on the contrary, bless, for to this you were called, that you may obtain a blessing. 10 For “Whoever desires to love life and see good days, let him keep his tongue from evil and his lips from speaking deceit; 11 let him turn away from evil and do good; let him seek peace and pursue it. 12 For the eyes of the Lord are on the righteous, and his ears are open to their prayer. But the face of the Lord is against those who do evil.” (from 1 Peter 3, 8ff)

The biblical lines here written by the apostle Peter are basic and important. To repay everything with love, with truth, with dedication is a core and important command. It reflects the ways of the Lord, it reflects the way of the eternal God! But also: let us think about what this means for competition and collaboration.

Competition …

To compete originally came from court business - it was about people who tried to apply for getting some contracts. To compete means to try to suggest good solutions and get them approved by some institution or decision makers. Today, competition is about a framework where good solutions can be sought. It is about creativity, about the protection of ideas and about the delivery of good services.

We all want good service. We all want good solutions. We want progress in medicine, in information technology, in provision and management, in engineering and in our understanding of this creation - in science! We have a general need in further progress - we all know that we need to feed so many humans on the planet, and they all need shelter and work and schools and clothes and attention and appreciation.

Let us open up a competition for good solutions, which is organized in a way that there is space for all of us. I believe in this - I know how widespread human talent is, how diverse and helpful all the gifts and abilities are, on so many levels of human life. When we have love in our heart, competition is a good thing. With hatred, even collaboration will not lead anywhere! Let us open our hearts for the love of the eternal God in Christ Jesus, and we will experience his presence and guidance, today and tomorrow! (Roland Potthast) ... more texts