Helen Keller was the first first deaf and blind college graduate who went on to achieve remarkable feats; Publishing 14 books and becoming world-renowned as a keen activist for a range of causes. According to her, you won't accomplish much by yourself because we need other people.
The counterclaim to this is that sometimes it’s just more efficient to operate as an individual and not rely on others. In fact, it’s emotionally and intellectually exhausting to have to work with people and manage all of their different expectations and desires.
One of the benefits of cooperation is that people can pool together their skills and creativity towards a common aim. Because of this, they have a higher chance of being more successful. Here are more:
1. It fosters peer learning and self-improvement
Cooperation inspires collective knowledge, resources and skills + self improvement. Working with allows opens our minds and creates space to reflect on our own thinking.
2. Teamwork promotes diversity
Our individuality brings varying backgrounds and ways of thinking. Working within diversity broadens our own bank of knowledge, generates cultural understanding and levels up our problem.
3. Delegation of tasks becomes easy
For leaders, having a group of people with unique skills can help accomplish bigger goals. For example, one to handle research, another to take charge of social media marketing, and another to look after presentation. Teamwork allows you to get the most of each person’s attributes.
4. Cooperation can encourage healthy competition
When you assemble a group of goal-oriented people, healthy competition will usually naturally follow. A balance of friendly rivalry within teams has been explored academically and a moderate level is healthy. A little friendly competition will benefit not just the organisation itself but even the team members.
5. Cooperation increases creativity and innovation
The seeds of creativity and innovation spring from the exchange of ideas that come from people of different backgrounds.
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If you can have patience for cooperation to grow with time and not expect teams to necessarily gel straight away there are loads of benefits for all involved.