Cooperation

It's a word thrown around quite a lot, especially recently with plans of developing bills together in the US between the elephants and donkeys, in the EU to better the economy, the UN and whatever it is they claim to do. And yet no one actually cooperates.

I have some experience in this matter through school and work, and I find the same is generally true everywhere. There is an overachiever who has generally written off the group as useless from the start. There are the members who want to contribute but are just not educated enough or not experienced enough and anything they submit is worth its weight in feces. There are the members that do a lot of work quietly and end up not getting any credit for it. Then there are, of course, the free riders.

So the problem is whenever a group has such different people with completely different goals and understandings of what is a reasonable amount of effort. Different goals is the simpler of the two, as no one wants to be educated on what is reasonable effort. If you're in a group, at work let's say, and you want an A, another member is happy with a B or B+, and one is just intent on passing, there is no way to convince the latter for example, that they ought to contribute more, because YOU want an A. In fact, you'll likely have more problems with the member wanting a B, because to them you would seem high strung - what's wrong with a B or B+?

How do you resolve it? I haven't gotten that far yet. I know a lot of things don't work - being a dictator doesn't work. Being their friend doesn't work. Negotiation doesn't work.

Thoughts are welcome.