Good competition?

In the marketing environment competition is good, healthy and encouraged.
But, I am not referring to competition in the marketing environment. I am referring to competition between teams within an organisation.

I had an interesting conversation with one of my colleagues, who was convinced that the current competition between the various teams in the organisation is a good thing.

The general perception by management is that competing teams drive targets and get the work done. This is true in a sense, but it holds no long term incentive.
My intention is not to offend anyone, but there is no such thing as good and healthy competition between teams within the same organisation.

Competition has two outcomes. You have winners and you have losers. If both teams are working towards the same goal, for the same organisation it makes no sense to me to have losers. You are not suppose to have losers to begin with.

No one likes to lose. By creating competition you create an environment where resources and knowledge gets hidden or under-utilised in an attempt to keep it out of the competitors' reach.

The general trend is to set a specific target per week or per month. The team that exceeds the target, or achieves the highest outcome wins. This is great, but it can be compared to an award winning mathematical equation that has no answer.

If you encourage competition make sure that there is a common goal. No race or competition can carry on forever. There must be some goal to accomplish. Something you can use as reference as to where you are in the race. If management don't provide some kind of reference (vision) the competing teams will be running a race and make good progress, but they won't know where they are in the race.

Competition inside your organisation should be carefully planned. There should be measurable objectives, reference points and an end. Through careful planning of competition you will unlock more resources and create access to knowledge that would otherwise have been lost due to tyranny and "mobbery" between the various teams (competitors).

Create an environment where teams collaborate with each other. Where they can link resources and knowledge in order to achieve the outcomes of the organisation.
Competition between teams within an organisation is toxic, a waste of energy and resources. It wastes the efforts and goodwill of the teams that come in second.

Take a good look around. Is your team devouring itself? Perhaps its time to ring the bell before the team suffers from melt-down and stew in their own troubled juices.