Shawnee Love   •  
August 30, 2010

In an article awhile back on company rivalries, I listed three tips for reducing that type of internal competition:

• common purpose
• collective pride
• contribution understanding

Each company has a “circle of life”. If I was more technically adept, as you read the first sentence in this paragraph, The Lion King’s “Circle of Life” song would cue and you would be transported through sound to a place where each animal knows its place in the animal kingdom. We use all kinds of animal metaphors in business (e.g., dog eat dog world, rat race, etc.) yet we rarely have the clear insight that animals do as to who their predators and prey are. In the business world, think of predators as suppliers (because we provide food for them) and prey as customers (because they provide food to us).

Unlike the animal kingdom, we must strive to be of service to both our customers and our suppliers.  We should be good to our suppliers because you never know when you will need something fast or special, and we should be kind to our customers because we want them to come back.

My advice to companies that want to reduce internal rivalries is to map out the “food chain” in your organization. Draw the detail with all the interdependencies and two way feeding systems. Then take that map and share it with everyone in your organization. Ensure every person understands who feeds them and who they feed.

Combine this practice with a common purpose and pride in our organization, and we have a greater likelihood of pitching in to help each other and completing other department or individual’s requests because we know how important they are in achieving our vision. Rivalry, what rivalry?