Stanford: Competition Doesn't Make Your Team Faster. It Makes Them Smaller.

Jack Welch fired the bottom 10% every year. The theory was that competition makes people perform. New Stanford research says it also makes them smaller.

Valentino Chai and Nir Halevy tested Division I athletes, employees across industries, and federal workers from two dozen agencies. In every group, people who saw their environment as cooperative reported more autonomy and more motivation. In controlled experiments, cooperative conditions consistently raised people's sense of freedom; competitive ones narrowed attention and raised stress. Cooperative workers also reported higher job satisfaction and lower intent to quit (Stanford GSB, 2026).

For real estate team leaders, that's a direct warning about internal leaderboards. A little contained competition is fine. But make cooperation the default—shared goals, rewards for helping a teammate—and you get the autonomy, retention, and output that constant rivalry quietly burns down.

Originally published by Dylan Walsh at Stanford Graduate School of Business. Read the full piece here: https://www.gsb.stanford.edu/insights/why-cooperative-workplaces-boost-your-sense-freedom