The hardest part of school for me was the group projects. Negotiating the different working styles, coordinating schedules and dividing up tasks without any kind of clash was never easy. Once in the real world, though, I realized that most of life was a group project. Because when you really think about it, cooperation is the essential component for all parts of functioning society.
Of course, cooperation is not very cool these days. Some politicians make a career of their poor negotiating skills. They conveniently forget to mention to their constituents that once they are elected they will have to work with the very people they have demonized along the way. They essentially paint themselves into a corner of having the short-term power to get nothing done. And as is so painfully evident, democracy just does not work without cooperation.
You know what are excellent examples of cooperation (mostly)? Any place that has to do with food. From the diner where you have your eggs over easy to the grocery store you frequent weekly to the farm where your eggs come from. These places only work because of the coordination and cooperation of many different parties. Next time your eggs and toast get dropped off at your table, just think about how many people had to work together in order to make this happen.
Sharing food and eating together itself requires some coordination which has actually been shown to promote group cooperation (Fishbach and Woolley, 2019). Research done in firehouses found that there was significant positive association between eating together, cooperative behavior and work-group performance (Devine et al., 2015). In addition, a study found that when people ate from shared plates, they cooperated more and negotiated better after (Fishbach et al., 2019).
I am no way trying to distract you from the incredible amount of disagreement, strife, senseless violence and heartbreaking conflict that currently exists in the world. We are not doing great. And we are facing some serious problems. But in order to solve them it is going to take a helluva lot of cooperation with people we don’t really want to work with. How’s that for a group project? I guess we better get eating together…
So what is a dish that you love that requires some serious cooperation in the kitchen? And how do you navigate the many challenging contexts in your life where you have to work with others? How do we prioritize cooperation in a society where so many factors are pulling us apart?
In an attempt to promote more cooperation this summer we are going to get back to the (in-person!) table to eat, listen and learn with each other. Please get in touch if you are interested in planning a shared facilitated meal for your community!
Our next Virtual Gathering’s theme is: Cooperation
When: Community Lunch Pod - Thursday, June 2nd, at 1:00PM ET / 10:00AM PT
Virtual Gathering - Thursday, June 2nd, 8:00PM ET / 5:00PM PT
How: Sign up here. Zoom details will be sent on day of the event.
What: Please join the call with your meal, a snack or beverage and a story about a dish that you love that relates to the theme.
Cost: $20 to secure your spot (Venmo @communityincontext)