Sharing the Marbles and the Rewards in Team Production

Note: This homework assignment has been split into two parts. Part one answers the actual prompt and the second part addresses the larger issue of sharing the spoils and why we have lost that mentality. This is part one (the actual assignment I suppose).

In the article presented by Jonathan Haidt, “How to Get Rich to Share the Marbles”, the University of Virginia professor talks about a so called “share-the-spoils” mentality that exists among humans. According to studies conducted by researchers at the Max Planck institute in Germany, this mentality does not exist with our closest cousins, the chimpanzees. It developed for us thousands of years ago when humans started foraging and hunting together for food. Unfortunately, this mentality resides within us as a switch that is not permanently on. The positive feelings of community and together-ness generated by this mentality are expressed, i.e. the switch is turned on, when everyone collaborates and cooperates together for the greater good. As the author pointed out, throughout history we have been asked to come together, for a higher calling than just working for ourselves. This pertains to not only presidents like Lincoln, Roosevelt, and Kennedy but other leaders, like Martin Luther King and Churchill, as well. They presented compelling cases why, through cooperation and unity, we could overcome adversity and achieve grand projects and goals. Such things that could only be dreamed about became reality. Then, the reward could be equally felt and shared among all involved. Teamwork is always rewarded, whether it is a team sport, or a huge project or research program. There are some tasks that are too big for any one individual to take on alone. In that scenario, it is always better to form a team to tackle it. Not only does it make the process faster, but more enjoyable and easier to handle.

I have always felt that doing certain tasks as a team, such as large finance, statistics or programming assignments, are better and more efficient for the people involved. For two of my classes, CS 105 and Fin 221, we had group Excel projects that we had to finish. I honestly felt we accomplished so much more by working together. I don’t mean just the project itself, but I mean the learning process and completing it in a timely, efficient manner. In the same vein, I played soccer throughout middle school and high school and the sport instilled in me a sense of cooperation, teamwork, and working hard, but playing by the rules, results in a big rewards and payoff. Working together means you don’t have to share the burden and you get to interact with others, and those very human feelings are important for the real world. So these experiences extend and translate to the real world, especially with jobs and working in an office. Some of the biggest inventions and products, like the iPhone, facebook, or Windows, were possible because they were not an individual task – they were collaborations between groups of people among divisions in a company. For an example of this, I refer you to a recent New York Times Magazine piece about Steve Jobs, Apple, and the creation of the iPhone: http://www.nytimes.com/2013/10/06/magazine/and-then-steve-said-let-there-be-an-iphone.html

Imagine that, without the incredibly hard efforts of Apple employees, we would have never had a smartphone revolution – or at least, it would not have come as fast as it did.  So yes, the conclusions in the given New York Times article piece certainly do jive with my experiences and what I have read so far.