A forest proves that competition and cooperation can occupy the same ground.

Trees compete fiercely for light and simultaneously feed each other through the soil, shelter each other from wind, and depend on the same fungal networks. Both things are happening at once, in the same ground, without contradiction. The idea that a system must be one or the other is our invention, not nature’s.

Hold that in mind where you work. You can want to do better than someone and genuinely want them to do well. Those are not in conflict, and pretending they are makes for smaller, more anxious effort than the situation requires.