Challengers -vs- Competitors

In the sports world, we see competitors as the enemy almost. A group that is trying to take something away from us. A team of people that are out to do something harmful to us. When an underdog team wins, people that are often neutral to a rivalry even celebrate. Stepping back, that feels a bit negative.

The other day after practice, some of my soccer team talked about who we are playing on Saturday as ‘competition.’ The conversation wasn’t positive. Why that struck me so abruptly at that moment is I had just got done reminding them that our league is about having fun and just playing to play.

Without thinking, I employed one of the tools from the Ideation Emporium of Creativity called Reframing combined with a tool called Ask A Question.

“Ani, what makes you think that the other team is so good that we might lose?” I asked.

Without hesitation, he replied, “They always win. They have been playing together since Kindergarten.” It is worth noting I coach 3rd-grade boys soccer.

“That sounds like that won’t be as much fun,” I said, to which my kid said, “Duh!”

After a quick Dad look to Jackson, I said, “So the game is going to be a challenge, right?”

The five boys in front of me started to nod. I continued, “What if we think of them as challengers and not competition. They are challenging us to be better, right?”

I got the response you would expect, blank stares.

“OK,” I said, “have you heard of doing things that are challenging?”

Will said, “yes, my Mom talks about taking on new challenges all the time.”

“Why does she do that?” I quickly asked.

“She says to be better and experience new things,” he said.

“Does she have fun?” I asked.

“Yeah, she does,” said Will.

“OK, cool. So if we think of the other team as challengers, we can go be better and have fun, right?”

They got it. Then, it got me.

In the business world, we make so many analogies to the sports world to introduce working together and having common goals. However, as I reflect now on that conversation with a bunch of eight and nine-year-olds, I think we have also taken some of the negatives.

The word competitor is viewed as us vs. them. That inherent negative view is now attached to that word. There is enough negativity in the world that we can’t control, but we can control the words that we use. I offer to think of competitors as challengers. Perhaps that will spark some authentic positive reactions in your organization and lead to new, creative, exciting breakthroughs so that they can rise to the challenge you present to them.