Cooperative Human
By: Vinod Bhardwaj
Tags: Teamwork, Cooperation, Competition, Science Of Consciousness, Happiness In Life

Cooperative Human

Cooperation — where individuals work together to create a benefit for an entire group — seems at odds with what many people assume are the elemental evolution forces. After all, it’s a jungle out there; only the strongest survive, humans, are selfish, etc. Cooperation lies at the heart of human lives and society — from day-to-day interactions to some of our most significant endeavors. Understanding Cooperation — what motivates it, how it develops, how it happens, and when it fails to happen — is, therefore, an essential part of understanding all kinds of human behavior. Human beings are a social species that relies on Cooperation to survive and thrive. Understanding how and why Cooperation succeeds or fails is integral to solving the many global challenges we face.

But most scientists don’t share that view of evolution. “The role of unbridled violence in evolution is greatly overestimated,” says Danny Grunbaum, an oceanographer at the University of Washington and a pioneer in revealing the ways that ocean life cooperates to survive. “When we see animals like elephant seals fighting with each other — as we do in lots of nature documentaries — we see only a tiny sliver of time. Much more of the time, they’re accommodating each other and respecting where the boundaries are — and that’s Cooperation. There is a tremendous amount of Cooperation in nature.”

The science of Cooperation reveals that Cooperation is not unique to humans. It’s not even unique to animals. Cooperation is part of nature, down to the cellular level. The reason why is simple, according to evolutionary biologists: Cooperation is one of the most essential and beneficial behaviors on Earth. We literally would not be here without it.

Humans, plants, and animals are made up of cells that learned to cooperate long ago. Together they formed multicellular organisms, increasing each cell’s chances of replication and survival in the process. From these biological blocks, Cooperation prevails at every level of the animal kingdom. Ants that march to the same drummer move faster. Fish rid other fish of harmful bacteria for a free meal. Small birds protect each other from predators. Bats that share food survive.

Ants: If you’re looking for it, you will never see an ant stuck in traffic. Ants have evolved a three-lane, two-way traffic system: As many as 200,000 ants a day pour out of their nest in search of food, splitting into two groups to form two outgoing lanes; they return in a single canter lane, sometimes carrying more than 30,000 edible grasshoppers or other insects. This ultra-cooperative ability of these simplistic organisms arises from living in large groups for millions of years.

Fish: Among fish, Cooperation is motivated by a simple trade-off: food for cleanliness. “Cleaner” fish swim into the mouths of the bigger fish — called “clients” — to eat parasites and harmful bacteria. The cleaners get a meal, and the clients get a healthier mouth. Cleaners are small, hardly a satisfying meal, and a good, trustworthy cleaner takes work to find.

Birds: When a predator enters the area of a sparrow-like bird called the pied flycatcher, the flycatcher will alert others by screeching loudly. It’s a risky and costly move — screeching draws the predator’s attention. The more birds that join the mob, the more likely the predator will flee, and the quicker the flycatchers can return to their business.

Bats: Have a system of food sharing that helps ensure their survival as a species. Bats die if they go two nights without a meal, and hunting for blood — their only source of food — is a risky business. Adult bats fail to find blood eight percent of the time. Younger bats forget one night out of every three. But hunger is rare because bats that find blood share it with bats that don’t. But they do this only as long as the favor is someday returned. If a colony didn’t share food, four out of every five bats would die each year. But by cooperating, the death rate is slashed to one in four.

Humans: Our species, Homo sapiens¸, first appeared about 200,000 years ago in Africa and rapidly spread and diversified across the globe — a success that has, in part, been attributed to our capacity for Cooperation. Until the advent of agriculture about 10,000 years ago, all humans lived by hunting game and gathering wild plant foods. Today, there is a rich array of human populations with diverse subsistence modes, languages, religions, and forms of Cooperation. Because much of this diversity originated very recently in evolutionary terms, the puzzle of human Cooperation is best understood within the context of hunter-gatherers’ lifestyle (also referred to as ‘foragers’) and the adaptive problems solves. Unique aspects of the human diet, life-history, and reproduction made Cooperation a necessary human life element.

Researchers have concluded that our brain is wired for Cooperation. One of the Cooperation’s benefits is that people can pool their skills and creativity towards a common aim. Because of this, they have a higher chance of being more successful. Now, let’s put together the five benefits we can gain out of teamwork and collaboration:

It fosters peer learning and self-improvement.

Working within a team helps us create an environment that inspires collective knowledge, resources, and skills. Consequently, this allows us to pick some ideas and to reflect on our way of thinking. Teamwork also encourages self-improvement — an essential skill to acquire regardless of our role within an organization. It helps us expand our horizons and make better use of our intrinsic capabilities. And since self-improvement helps us seek better ways to perform our role within a team, it improves both the group’s efficiency and productivity. Teamwork promotes diversity

The very nature of teamwork requires a group of people from varying backgrounds to come together and share their experiences. As a result, this kind of environment nurtures diverse opinions, approaches, and problem-solving techniques.

Delegation of tasks becomes easy.

If you’re a team leader, one apparent reason to favor teamwork is that it allows you to convene a team of individuals who each have unique skills to help you with the project. A task can be delegated based on a person’s skills and expertise. For example, you may assign one person to do research, another to take charge of social media marketing, and another to look after the presentation. Teamwork allows you to get the most of each person’s attributes. Collaboration encourages healthy competition.

When you assemble a group of goal-oriented people, they somehow see each other as a rival. A healthy balance of friendly rivalry within the team won’t do much harm and could even benefit the organization itself and even the team members.

It increases creativity and innovation.

The seeds of creativity and innovation spring from the exchange of ideas from people of different backgrounds. For instance, researchers who come from other disciplines could tackle climate change could potentially lead to ground-breaking research. In the academic world, researchers have essentially migrated from the era of ‘traditional’ research in which one researcher pursued a theme over several decades. Instead, academia is fostering a new research culture, whereby academic works advance through the creation of interdisciplinary research.

Takeaway

With the benefits that an organization could gain from teamwork, they also come with potential problems. For one, you should not expect a multidisciplinary team to gel straight away, and if you are the team leader, you have to consider whether to reward (or punish) individuals or the entire group. But, arguably, the benefits of teamwork and collaboration could easily outweigh those drawbacks. And of course, in considering the benefits, an excellent place to start is with the end in mind: how will it help your organization position itself for growth.

The key to our happiness is Cooperation, not competition.