12.
MAKE IT US VS THEM, NOT US VS US

When you make two people or two teams responsible for the same job, too often the job will not get done.

That is why most leaders assign specific jobs to specific people or teams. It gives people a sense of responsibility and something to take pride in.

But many good people thrive on competition. Indeed, some are game-day players who only show what they can do when pressed. Knowing this, some leaders create competition within the organization in order to stimulate better work. They put two or three people, or two or three teams, on the same project, and then simply pick the best solution.

There is no denying that this system works, for it often produces more and better solutions faster, and it helps those who win believe in themselves more.

But like the use of fear, it eventually poisons the positive environment you must create. And it destroys pride, and wreaks havoc on the self-images of those who probably need help with their self-images the most.

The solution is not to eliminate competition, but to redirect it outward toward your real competitors — other companies.

When you feel that you must give an assignment to more than one person or group, make sure that those people understand that other people in other competing companies are quite possibly working on the same project, and that it is up to them to beat those other people in other companies.109

This makes it a team effort — Us vs Them instead of Us vs Us — and allows you to put two or three or four people on a single project without danger of hurting either the environment or the people.

Incidentally, this kind of outwardly directed team effort happens in advertising agencies when they go after new business, and it almost invariably results in great fun, great camaraderie, and great work.