Synergize. What does that even mean? It’s a pretty simple definition and basically means that 1+1 equals more than two. When two or more people work together they are able to produce something greater that what they could have produced individually – what the group produces is greater than the sum of the individuals. Naturally this assumes that the group in question is not competing in The Hunger Games…
Synergize
Creative cooperation like this is usually only found when people have already mastered Habits Three (Put First Things First), Four (Think Win-Win), and Five (Seek First to Understand). Which makes sense right? How can people work well together when they are self centered? If you don’t have priorities in your relationships, are not willing to work so that everyone wins and do not seek to understand others then how would you hope to create something incredible with them?
Teamwork SynergyI tried to think of an example of this from my life but to be honest, I could only think of this blog. My mom and I work really well with each other. My mom could have done a site about home schooling or personal finance and I could have done teen finances or rock climbing. And those would have been fine. But by working together I have been able to talk about personal finance specific to teens and mom has been able to write to parents. I take care of all of the social media stuff and mom keeps track of the editorial calendar. I do the interviews and she does all of the editing. And with my terrible spelling, that is a huge job! There is no way that either of us could have produced this specific blog on our own. We have similar goals and values for the site so this has been fairly easy. And so much fun!
The main idea from the book that caught my attention is Mr. Covey’s explanation about one of the problems that prevents synergism. He points out that we all tend to think that we understand the world around us as it is. And it’s just not true. We don’t always have the full story or complete understanding about a situation. By working with others and seeing their unique perspectives we can gain so much. There is great strength for the group with similar values and a common vision when they work together.