"Co-opetition"

I have a new favorite term from my friend Lois Bolin, Ph.D., co-founder of Naples Backyard History (www.naplesbackyardhistory.org). Instead of "competition," organizations in the citizen sector are wise to practice "co-opetition." I love it!

I'll tell you, the caliber of people Jane and I have fallen in with since moving to Naples is mind-boggling. (And no, it isn't because a friend came up with a catchy term.)

Building on the concept of co-opetition...

Everything Jane, Michael, and I have done with Naples Social Action.org over the past 1.5 years has been to bring the citizen sector together. We've encountered a lot of push-back from folks stuck in the old-fashioned paradigm, but rather than butt our heads against the wall of these human obstacles, we try instead to just move our attention to those who have a more enlightened view.

I see this "Us versus Them" attitude as akin to jealousy and/or mistrust - and you know what they say about mistrust:

Those who do not trust others are probably not trustworthy themselves.

My view of cooperation is that we in the citizen sector aren't fighting over donors and dollars. The actual fight is to get a potential donor to open his wallet in the first place. As the largest study of its kind from Indiana U. showed, people of high net worth who donate at all always do so to multiple causes - so the term "my donor" is nothing more than flagrant ignorance.

Lois and I both come from a business background, so this accountability concept (and its practice) is easy for us. Through The Naples Institute, we're creating an Ashoka Support Network here in Naples. Ashoka (www.ashoka.org) is committed to tearing down the artificial, imaginary gap between "nonprofits" and "for-profits." We're actually all on a continuum, with straight-out charities on one end, profit-only corporations on the other, and plenty of organizations all in between. We all have to operate by the same rules of accountability and results, though, in order to run well. Sadly, many in the citizen sector have no understanding of this - or no education in it.

...For that matter, many in the "for-profit" realm don't get it, either. What is a consultant gonna do?