In the public, community, and NGO sector, competition has quietly become normal.
Organisations compete for funding, visibility, territory, influence, and expertise. We often accept this as “just the way it is”, even though it feels absurd and misaligned with why many of us entered this work in the first place.
From an Asset Based Community Development perspective, this way of operating is not only inefficient. It actively undermines community wellbeing, equity, and care.
If our work is about strengthening communities, then how we work matters.
Here are three ABCD lessons that keep bringing me back to a simple conclusion. Collaboration is not idealistic. It is practical, human, and necessary.
1. Scarcity thinking shrinks us
Competition is driven by a belief that there is not enough.
Not enough funding
Not enough land
Not enough power
Not enough safety
Not enough recognition
So we compete.
ABCD starts from a different place. Abundance.
This is often described as a glass half full orientation. Not because we ignore what is missing or broken, but because we choose to start with what is already present.
Not because resources are infinite, but because human gifts, relationships, skills, ideas, and care are consistently underused.
When we look at communities through a glass half empty lens, we see gaps and deficits to fix. When we look through a glass half full lens, we notice strengths, capacities, and possibilities to grow.
When scarcity thinking takes over:
Information is withheld
Turf wars emerge
Creativity narrows
Trust erodes
Burnout increases
We see this even in charities and NGOs. Organisations meant to serve the public good, pushed into rivalry by funding systems that reward competition rather than cooperation.
This is not a failure of values.
It is a design problem.
ABCD keeps bringing us back to a quieter truth:
Communities are not empty
Assets already exist
Value grows when it is shared
When we stop competing for scraps and start paying attention to what is already in the glass, something shifts.
2. You are not replaceable when you are truly yourself
Competition assumes sameness.
If they get the funding, we lose.
If they deliver that program, there is no space for us.
If they are in the room, we are redundant.
ABCD offers a different lens.
Every person, organisation, and community carries unique gifts. Ways of seeing, relating, and contributing that cannot be replicated.
There are gifts of thinking, gifts of care, and gifts of action. There are also deeper gifts that emerge when people are fully themselves.
Places are the same. No two neighbourhoods are identical, even when they look similar on paper. Livability is not the same as lovability.
When people and organisations are grounded in who they are and why they exist:
They cannot be easily replaced
Their contribution is not interchangeable
Their work carries a relational quality that cannot be copied
ABCD invites us to value contribution differently. Through sharing, reciprocity, and mutual support. Through recognising that in a healthy economy, nothing and no one is wasted.
When organisations stop trying to be everything to everyone and instead lean into their distinct role, competition loses its grip.
There is room. Because we are not the same.
3. Collaboration multiplies what is possible
Competition assumes value is linear. If I gain, you lose.
Collaboration works another way.
When people and organisations work together:
Intelligence becomes collective
Learning accelerates
Trust deepens
Impact grows
The value created is not simply added. It multiplies.
We see this in community gardens, cooperatives, communities of practice, shared spaces, and place based initiatives where people commit to a shared purpose over time.
History keeps teaching us the same lesson. Change does not come from lone heroes. It comes from small groups of people working together with care, courage, and persistence.
In a time marked by loneliness and fragmentation, collaboration also restores something deeply human. Belonging, shared meaning, and relationship as a source of healing.
Relationships are not an extra in community work.
They are the infrastructure.
Competing is outdated. Collaborating is wise.
Competition in the public and community sector reflects an old worldview. One that values control, dominance, and accumulation.
Collaboration reflects something older and wiser. Interdependence, relationship, and shared responsibility.
From an ABCD perspective, collaboration is not naive.
It is common sense.
If we want stronger communities, we need to stop acting like rivals and start acting like stewards of shared wellbeing. Hosts, not heroes.
Together, we are not just stronger.
We are wiser.
If you work in this space, it might be worth pausing to ask:
Where am I competing out of habit rather than need
Who could I choose to work alongside instead
What might open up if I trusted abundance a little more
The future of community work will not be built by those who move fastest or speak loudest.
It will be built by those willing to work together.
Soulgen 
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