Business culture tends to reward personal initiative. While at first glance this seems like a no-brainer, this emphasis on the individual can lead to a "me first" mindset. We focus on our areas of responsibility, on our own career advancement, on "what’s in it for me." This kind of focus can take our eyes off the organization’s goals and outcomes – it can even make us less likely to collaborate.
It turns out that we actually do better when we help others reach their goals. Recently a number of studies suggest that problem-solving becomes more creative when people are asked to consider solutions that benefit others.
In one of these studies, subjects were asked how to escape a tower with a rope that reached only halfway to the ground. You were allowed to make one cut in the rope. More than half of the people in the study focused on cutting the rope through its diameter. However, in the group that was asked how to save someone else from the tower, about two thirds of people decided to cut the rope lengthwise and then tie the two halves end-to-end.
Studies like these reveal why social business is so promising. With its focus on collaboration and teamwork social business has the potential to bring out the best of us, and help us to be more creative as we look for ways to help each other succeed.
