Many animals and species utilize cooperation to function, protect, sustain and support the members of their society. Many examples such as ants, dolphins, lions and prairie dogs have been utilized to study the benefits and process of cooperation.

If and when you’re looking for it, you will never see an ant stuck in traffic. Army ants seem to be controlled by a single brain. Researchers (using video analysis) track the movement of ants following a trail of pheromones. They have identified a few simple rules of ant group behavior for an army-ant highway.

The findings show that 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 center lane, sometimes carrying more than 30,000 edible grasshoppers or other insects. The theory is that the ultra-cooperative ability of these simplistic organisms arises from living in large groups for millions of years.

Why do humans cooperate and live in groups? Cooperation is really important to human survival! Our ability to cooperate is what allows us to live in big groups. So, cooperating with each other has allowed humans to build cities, make more complex technology, and cure disease.

Humans cannot survive without society and societies cannot exist without members. It is very clear that relation between individual and society are very close.

Cooperation is the process of groups of organisms working or acting together for common, mutual, or some underlying benefit, as opposed to working in competition for selfish benefit.

Competition or a competitive approach seems to be aligned as the anthesis of cooperation; but, truly both are beneficial if approached in a mature and balanced manner.

A cooperative approach aligns with the process of interest-based or integrative bargaining, which leads parties to seek win-win solutions. Competitive approaches align with the process of distributive bargaining, which result in win-lose outcomes.

In very general terms, cooperation refers to the attempts of maximizing the collective outcomes, while competition refers to the attempts of maximizing the difference with others in rivalry for supremacy or prize.

Competition urges children to challenges their status quo and try new things, which improves their creativity and problem-solving skills. On the other hand, competition can be detrimental to your child’s development when poorly executed.

Healthy competition encourages us to work harder, push beyond perceived barriers and strive to be our best. It motivates us, giving us a tangible target to set our sights on. Often, competition extends the boundaries of what we think we are capable of. Healthy competition also teaches us how it feels to lose.

The five basic elements of cooperative learning are:

• Positive interdependence.
• Individual and group accountability.
• Interpersonal and small group skills.
• Face-to-face interaction.
• Group processing.

One of the best parts about watching sports is seeing a team work in unison, with a common vision, and watching it succeed. Championships are won through the efforts of talented individuals who work together towards a common purpose. The same lessons we learn from sports can also be applied to the business world.

While great teamwork can inspire and unite us, teamwork failures occur too and can cause discontent, conflict, and of course, losing records. We can all learn from real-life examples of teamwork in sports. Here are three pillars of cooperation that relate to both sports and business.

Trust and Anticipate

Developing relationships in the workplace and building trust is essential to developing team confidence and working with others effectively. By knowing and trusting your teammates, you increase opportunities for collaboration and gain confidence knowing that the team supports you even in risky situations. Building that trust requires honesty and integrity, caring, competence, and consistency in doing what you say you will do.

Team Strategy

An organization’s strategies must be planned and executed in a similar fashion. They must be clearly communicated throughout the organization so that everyone can make smart choices on a daily basis. Making strategy everyone’s job by articulating clear, simple goals and directives will help everyone focus better on how to reach those benchmarks.

Total Focus and Awareness Leads to Agility

Anticipating the possibilities, looking beyond what’s immediately in front of you, and sensing changes on the business horizon allow workers to make better decisions and give them the ability to respond and adapt to changes. A tailored but flexible approach to taking-action promotes agility and provides people with the ability to better handle ongoing evolution in the market and uncertainty in the business environment.

A quote from the road scholar Michael Jordan says “Talent wins games, teamwork and intelligence wins championships”.

When “I” is replaced by “we”, even illness becomes wellness.