Cooperation Teamwork Benefits of Cooperation
John Nash, the American, Nobel Prize winner for economics, found that working cooperatively with others, for whatever reason, produced greater success than when an individual struggles on alone.
Working in a team with others offers a number of advantages. Because different people think differently they tend to produce different ideas because they approach the issue from a variety of viewpoints. That variety is a strength in any team. Having a pool of new concepts and problem solving solutions to a task can only benefit the progress of any project. No one person is left trying to find the answers from their limited perspective and each person can feed ideas from others.
Each person will bring skills which their life experiences and training have honed and developed. Having a variety of abilities available to work on the task will give greater flexibility and the likelihood of more far ranging success in dealing with difficult issues when they arise. In a team everyone has something useful to contribute from a number of points of view.
Because a group of people have a variety of skills, each member of the team can learn from their coworkers. This allows the individuals to broaden their skill base which can only enrich them as people and give them greater knowledge to bring to future projects. The result of teamwork is each member becoming more competent and a more useful member of the team and society.
Many jobs at work will, at some time, come to a halt or be held up because a hitch has occurred which requires rethinking about how to proceed. Working as a team allows the group to toss in ideas, however wild, as ways forward. From such a brainstorming session, patterns of possible answers will emerge which can be developed from which a solution can often be found. In this way no one person is left to find the answers. Working with the team produces a greater source of potential answers because of the creativity and experiences of members of the group.
A well made team starts off with a pool of knowledge in each person. As they work together to complete the task, the individual members learn from each other and the respect they have for each others’ skills and abilities develop their own insight. While they may not be able to take active participation in a particular colleagues’ skills, such a medical expertise, they can at least, appreciate what they are and they know in the future who they can call on when a similar opportunity arises.
John Nash’s work showed that cooperation and teamwork was the best way to succeed and win at life.
