“Unity is strength. When there is teamwork and collaboration, wonderful things
can be achieved.”—Mattie Stepanek
***
In any organization or group, the leader represents only one component of the overall dynamic. The other component consists of the team members. It is essential for both parties to collaborate effectively. Without a sense of unity, achieving success becomes impossible.
This can be likened to the human body. If the leader is analogous to the brain, then the remaining parts of the body—such as the heart, eyes, hands, feet, and stomach—must also operate harmoniously. When one part fails to function properly, it adversely impacts all other parts.
That’s what Scottish-American industrialist and philanthropist Andrew Carnegie calls teamwork. “Teamwork,” he explains, “is the ability to work together toward a common vision. (It is) the ability to direct individual accomplishments toward organizational objectives. It is the fuel that allows common people to attain uncommon results.”
Take the case of the dynamics of the performance of a symphony orchestra, according to Filipino businessman Manuel “Manny” Villar. “Under the baton of a conductor, the orchestra comes to life in a synchronized fluidity,” the former senator said. “Each orchestra member is important. Behind their great performance are discipline and passion for perfection. And there is an abundance of team spirit in all the members of the orchestra.”
“No one can whistle a symphony,” H.E. Luccock states. “It takes an orchestra to play it.” American inventor Thomas Alva Edison, when asked why he had a team of twenty-one assistants, answered, “If I could solve all the problems myself, I would.”
Edison’s desire is described effectively by poet Edward Everett Hale, who wrote: “I am only one, but still, I am one. I cannot do everything but still I can do something. And because I cannot do everything, I will not refuse to do the something that I can do.”
“I love to hear a choir,” British singer and composer Paul McCartney said. “I love the humanity… to see the faces of real people devoting themselves to a piece of music. I like the teamwork. It makes me feel optimistic about the human race when I see them cooperating like that.”
But when there is a great challenge to be faced, the team needs more than just cooperation, which is defined as the process of working together to the same end. The essential quality the team players ought to possess is collaboration. “Cooperation is working together agreeably,” explains Dr. John C. Maxwell, America’s leading authority on leadership. “Collaboration is working together aggressively.” That’s the difference between the two.
Maxwell further expounds: “Collaborative teammates do more than just work with one another. Each person brings something to the table that adds value to the relationship and synergy to the team. The sum of truly collaborative teamwork is always greater than its parts.”
(By the way, synergy, according to Stephen Covey, “is the highest activity of life; it creates new untapped alternatives; it values and exploits the mental, emotional, and psychological differences between people.”)
Among American entrepreneurs, Henry Ford is one of my favorites (not because we have the same name). It’s because he valued his subordinates. “Coming together is a beginning,” he said. “Keeping together is progress. Working together is success.”
The team spirit can be best illustrated in basketball. As one sage puts it, “Behind every winning basket, there is that important pass, where some unselfish player passed the ball to the point-maker. Without that pass, there would be no score, and no heroes.”
American President Franklin D. Roosevelt once said, “The point in history at which we stand is full of promise and danger. The world will either move forward toward unity and widely shared prosperity – or it will move apart.”
One demonstration that by uniting together, the world can be a better place. This is best demonstrated during the Olympics, the aggressive competition that we all love to watch. It is a beautiful example of countries putting aside their differences in order to come together to celebrate the world’s best athletes.
But of course, there is always a conflict. Even among members of a family, conflict is always present. The Bible has chronicled so many conflicts between siblings and leaders. “All your strength is in union, all your danger is in discord,” Henry Wadsworth Longfellow once reminded.
Should there be conflict among team players, the words of Max DePree should be heeded: “The key elements in the art of working together are how to deal with change, how to deal with conflict, and how to reach our potential… the needs of the team are best met when we meet the needs of individuals persons.”
