By Daniel Bobinski
Almost everyone has heard that cooperation is necessary for a workplace to function well. People on teams work better when individual team members are assisting each other. And if we take a broader view, teams are more productive when they collaborate with other teams. Can it get any better than that? If we proactively look for ways to capitalize on our differences, the answer is yes.
Let’s start by discussing what we can do in urgent situations. Imagine that work projects have been coming at you from all angles and suddenly you find your plate is overflowing. You might look at the workload and realize there’s no way you’ll be able to accomplish everything that is required in the time window available. Our prioritizing skills are helpful in such circumstances, but if you’re on a team, you can ask people for help. Here’s where it’s beneficial to know the strengths and blind spots of each person on your team, as you can create better and faster results if you ask people to help in their areas of strength.
Cross-training is beneficial, but in crunch time, we’ll get faster and better results if we ask someone mechanically inclined to assemble a piece of equipment and ask an analytical person to rectify a billing problem.
A phrase foundational to this basic idea is “value the differences,” but I want to underscore that this way of thinking is a choice. Everyone has strengths and everyone has weaknesses, which I tend to call blind spots. An effective and efficient workplace is much more likely to occur when people are working in their areas of strength.
Naturally, everyone has their own unique set of strengths and blind spots. The thing to remember is that each strength has a corresponding weakness, and if we start focusing on people’s weaknesses instead of their strengths, we weaken our team overall. Another way to look at this is we should be valuing differences instead of criticizing them.
Think about making a hiring decision. We often chose people to work on our teams because of their strengths. But as I said, every strength has a corresponding weakness. If we stop valuing the strengths and start criticizing the weaknesses, we’re creating division, not unity. It’s imperative for solid teamwork and optimal productivity – as well as everyone feeling respected, appreciated and engaged – that we value the differences and adapt to them.
But to really optimize a workplace, we can choose to capitalize on the differences. This is part of what Stephen Covey meant in Habit 6 of his book, “The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People.” Covey names Habit 6 “Synergize,” and unfortunately, it’s become somewhat of a nebulous buzzword at corporate meetings. In practice, I see two important facets to synergizing. One is a valuable key to successful conflict resolution (which I will address in this space next month), and the other is what I’ve described above: proactively capitalizing on the different strengths people bring to the table.
It’s one thing to work alongside someone and help each other when asked, but we reach an entirely different level when we actively seek ways to capitalize on others’ strengths. The whole really can be greater than the sum of its parts.
Daniel Bobinski, who has a doctorate in theology, is a best-selling author and a popular speaker at conferences and retreats. For more than 30 years he’s been working with teams and individuals (1:1 coaching) to help them achieve excellence. He was also teaching Emotional Intelligence since before it was a thing. Reach him by email at DanielBobinski@protonmail.com or 208-375-7606.
