Man (like other lower species) is by creation a social being. No person is an island. No person can function and develop effectively entirely on his or her own. We need other fellow human beings from the time we are born to the end of our lives and the disposal of our dead bodies. We can not do that on ourselves. All along the way, others support us: our parents or other guardians, relatives, friends, the community, nursery nurses, teachers, employers, customers or clients (if we are in business) health service workers, fellow faith believers, supplies of goods and services, etc.
We need each other in both celebrations and grieving.
There is strength in numbers. Two heads are better than one. Socially and in business. Collaboration (pooling resources) is the key to human survival. It is also the key to the success of modern business. Accordingly, if you want your business to grow from a one-person-operation or family business, to a national and international business, you can not do it alone. You are limited by time. There are only twenty-four hours in a day, and some of that time is taken up by sleep and rest, reading, recreation, shopping, food preparation, eating, washing dishes, personal hygiene, socialising, commuting to and from work, visits to the doctor or dentist. The remaining time in the day limits the amount of work you can do.
However you can multiply your time by engaging other people as employees, partners, share-holders, etc and share resources and knowledge. They will help you build your business while you also help them earn their living. This is what other successful businesses have done and still do. Public companies are owned by hundreds if not thousands of shareholders. By making others rich, their founders have also become very rich. It’s a win/win situation.
Business forms of Collaboration
- Partnerships
- Limited companies
- Co-operatives
- Joint ventures
- Consortiums
Other forms of human collaboration
- Employers’ organizations: chambers of commerce, confederations of businesses
- Workers’ organizations: trade unions
- Merchants guilds
- Associations or societies
- Religious organisations
- Military alliances
Collaborating communities and countries are generally more successful and strong than their individualistic counterparts. That is why the policy of divide and conquer always work. When people are divided, they are easily conquered and controlled. Colonizers used that policy to conquer people. They would arm one tribe against another. Unity is strength.
The bigger the project, the greater the need for collaboration. Big building and construction projects work through the collaboration of different contractors and sub-contractors with different skills: architects, surveyors, ground workers, civil engineers, builders, plasterers, plumbers, electricians, carpenters, roofers, painters and decorators, land scape architects, etc.
For people to collaborate successfully, they must be honest and open with each other. There should be no cheating. The parties concerned should aim for a win/sin outcome.
Collaboration is nothing new. Throughout the ages of earth’s history, all over the world, humans have always worked together. In spite of their social problems. they lived in villages, which eventually grew to become towns and cities.
Village men often went out hunting and gathering wild food from the country side in bands and shared their catch. Women also generally went out to gather firewood from the forest or draw water from rivers or wells with other women for security and for company.
There are modern military alliances.