Nonprofit organisations are in the cooperation business.

Nothing we achieve is accomplished without cooperation in one form or another. From cooperation amongst members and stakeholders to form associations and charities, to cooperation in the selection of directors, to decision-making by those directors, and alignment of staff and volunteers with the vision and mission – all involve various forms of cooperation.

And yet … we are obliged to comply with competition principles and laws, some of which have the perverse effect of undermining cooperation.

Competition and consumer harm

Competition is often represented as good for consumers, chiefly because it keeps prices down, and promotes businesses trying to improve the value proposition offered by their goods and services.

Competition can serve to protect consumers from collusive behaviours. However, there are other instances where commercial interests are permitted to erode ethical commitments so that public benefit is compromised e.g. performance quotas for health service providers.

In a competitive and polarised environment, prosocial efforts are an essential counterbalance. Most nonprofit organisations are engaged in promoting social benefits. Central to those benefits is the concept of social cohesion. This requires cooperation at a community and social level, not just within our inner circle.

Celebrating cooperation

Media stories tend to favour examples of negative and extreme behaviours, so we can get a very skewed picture. We see this for example in the coverage of youth crime, which prompted a recent letter to the editor reminding us that the masthead failed to report that “Last week, 4 million Australian kids went to school, committed no crimes, and didn’t abuse or threaten anyone“. (Dennis Dodd, Shepparton, The Age 13 Aug. 2024)

At a time when polarisation seems more extreme, with social cohesion being challenged, it may be timely to remember that hundreds of thousands of groups in Australia (and millions worldwide) are working, chiefly on a voluntary basis, to generate benefits for their communities. These prosocial activities are under-reported and deserve to be celebrated.

The Evolution of Economic and Social Theories of Competition & Cooperation

My reflections on the tension between competititive and cooperative forces led me to consider some of the evolutionary developments in this area, especially as regards the increase in prosocial theory and practice.

Most political, legal, and media attention focuses on the evolution of economic perspectives on competition and cooperation. The chart below describes a selection of these, starting with Adam Smith in the late 1700s and tracking the development of various models and theories to the present era.

A parallel history occurred in the social sciences, with influences from disciplines like psychology, anthropology, and sociology, amongst others. The mainstreaming of an idea like the ‘social license to operate’ provides an example of how environmental activism ultimately forced mining corporations to take their sustainability obligations seriously. The broader adoption of sustainability goals and the expansion of the ‘social license’ concept to encompass broader ethical and public benefit perspectives is a most welcome evolution, with deep social impact.

The next chart tracks some of the key developments in the evolution of social theories regarding competition and cooperation. Looking back to the first chart it is interesting to consider the influence these social models had on economic models, especially this century.

Laws of Connection

David Robson’s book The Laws of Connection; 13 Social Strategies that Will Transform Your Life (Cannongate Books 2024) provides guidance to individuals seeking to improve the quality of their relationships with others. While this guidance is more directed at personal than organisational or community relations, it could be suggested that we build community one relationship at a time.

The chart below offers a summary of the 13 strategies for your reflection and reference.

Sennett’s Rituals of Cooperation

Richard Sennett’s book Together: The Rituals, Pleasures, and Politics of Cooperation (Penguin Press, 2013), is one of the more highly regarded recent developments in our thinking about the ways we cooperate, and the prerequisites for success in those efforts. The chart which follows distils some of the key factors which Sennett suggests help to cultivate cooperative relationships. Many of these will be familiar to those acquainted with emotional intelligence concepts and practices.

The Tamarack Institute’s Collaboration Spectrum suggests that the competition-cooperation continuum can be described using seven levels: Compete; Co-exist; Communicate; Cooperate; Coordinate; Collaborate; and Integrate. Readers with long memories may recall that a similar scale was offered in my 2021 post describing the kinds of community engagement offered by public agencies. In that instance, Arnstein’s Ladder of Citizen Participation identified eight levels divided into three groups. The first group was non-participation (manipulation and therapy), the second was tokenism (informing, consulting, and placation), while the third was citizen power (partnership, delegated power, and citizen control).

Kindness and consideration

I was struck by the similarity of some of Sennett’s rituals of cooperation to the qualities associated with kindness and compassion in Piero Ferrucci’s book The Power of Kindness: The Unexpected Benefits of Leading a Compassionate Life (Jeremy Tarcher / Penguin 2007). In the header chart above I have described these qualities as the 18 Faces of Kindness and Compassion.

A suggested breakdown of these similarities is offered in the next chart, with 20 qualities combined in 10 sets of parallels.

Prosocial Parallels

Another related set of parallels involves the juxtaposition of the Tamarack Institute’s Collaboration Spectrum, a portion of Michael S Lund’s Conflict Curve (which I have styled the Peace Ladder here), the Social Cohesion Continuum, and the Community Engagement Continuum. The common factors in this instance are comparable to those identified in the previous chart comparing the Rituals of Cooperation with the Faces of Kindness.

All six models offer a broadly consistent way of thinking about cooperation for public benefit. To that extent, they may be useful to nonprofit leaders wanting to adapt them for conflict resolution and harmonisation efforts in any sector.

Prosocial initiatives promote social cohesion

As we have evolved from self-interest, to taking care of our own people (however defined), to recognising our responsibility for the broader human family, quality of life has improved for vast populations. Nonetheless, the needs of a large segment of our human family remain urgent, and our work is clearly unfinished.

As we recommit to our shared vision of a socially cohesive community, it will be helpful to consider the shared values that provide a foundation for our work. A selection of these is summarised in the chart below, which echoes key messages in the prosocial parallels described above.

See also:
Cultivating cultural competence & social cohesion
Measuring your social value (impact)
Filters and Factors in Deliberation
The science of ‘worth’ – your Theory of Value
Magnetic and Attention Field Insights