Winning Teams: When “The Whole is Greater than the Sum of its Parts”
Winning Teams: When “The Whole is Greater than the Sum of its Parts”
This ancient quote, attributed to Aristotle, speaks to the importance of synergy between components of a system. As important as the heart, liver, kidneys, and other physical organs are, they only come to life when they’re properly connected in the context of a living human body. And a weak or failing organ similarly has a negative impact on the entire system. Each organ or element must function at a certain level to maximize a person’s health.
The same is true with winning teams. With Super Bowl LVIII now behind us in the USA (congratulations to the Kansas City Chiefs!), it should be obvious that winning, or even making it to the playoffs, wasn’t just about the individual ability of each team member. They had to learn to play together, to anticipate each other’s moves, complement each other’s strengths, and make decisions to benefit the team. They also needed to “like” or at least respect each other. They needed to spend time together off the field, learning more about each other personally and their individual motivations. (more…)
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This is not about team members complaining.
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