<p>There can be a sense that competition is bad for a social business, and not without some justification. It's easy for most of us to imagine after all a scenario where heightened competition encourages individuals to look out purely for themselves, hoarding information in the hope that it will secure them the promotion or the pay-rise they believe they're due. This can even occur on a more base level if one believes their job is at risk, it seems rational for that employee to highlight the value their individual contributions bring to their employer.</p><p>All of which can ensure that competition gets a bit of a bad rap. Does it have to be like that? When you're looking to create a social business, it will undoubtedly require a shift in focus away from the kind of behaviours that corporate culture has spent a century building up towards something a little more collaborative. When attempting such a shift, there are various levers you can use to create an environment that encourages such behaviours (eight to be precise), but I want to focus on three here today, because these three look specifically at the issue of competition.</p><p>Lever #1 Measurement</p><p>An obvious place to start is what it is that you measure in your organisation. Many organisations measure individual contributions. Key performance indicators are fed from job descriptions that tend to focus on what we each do as individuals. If you wish to be collaborative however, this would be a good place to start, because it feeds everything else that comes from it. To encourage collaboration, start measuring for it, and make those measurements important.</p><p><a href="http://www.managers.org.uk/practical-support/management-community/blogs/role-competition-social-business">Keep reading...</a></p>