In union, there is strength

REGARDING HENRY

By Henrylito D. Tacio



IN UNION, THERE IS STRENGTH



History records how Alexander the Great and his army were dying of thirst after marching eleven days. Suddenly, they came upon some local farmers who were fetching skins full of water from a hidden river. Seeing the famous general choked with thirst, they offered him a helmet filled with water.

Alexander asked them to whom they were carrying the water. "To our children," one of them answered. "But your life is more important than theirs. Even if they all perish, we can raise a new generation."



Then, Alexander took the helmet into his hands and looked around to see all his soldiers eyeing the water and licking their dry lips. He did not have the courage to drink, but gave back the water untouched to the farmer who gave it to him. "If only I would drink," he explained, "the rest of the soldiers would be out of heart."



Hearing those words from their general, the soldiers rallied around him as never before and defied their fatigue and their thirst. "To follow such a leader is a privilege," they chorused.



And to Alexander, to have such kind of soldiers under his command was also an honor. In any organization or group, the leader is just one part of the equation. The other part is the players. Both parts should work together as a team. Without unity, there would be no success at all.



Just like our body. If the leader is the brain, the rest of the body – heart, eyes, hands, feet, stomach, and others -- should also work. If one part is not functioning well, all other parts are affected.



That's what Andrew Carnegie calls as 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 Manny Villar. "Under the baton of a conductor, the orchestra comes to life in a synchronized fluidity," the Filipino senator explains. "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. The essential quality the team players ought to have 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 of 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."



In every team, there is always a conflict. Even among members of a family, conflict is always present. "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."



It is easy to find the best people to be part of a team. But can that person be a team player or, to quote the words of Dennis Kinlaw, someone "who unites others toward a shared destiny through sharing information and ideas, empowering others and developing trust."



However talented a person is if he is not part of the team, the team will not go far. As basketball phenomenon Michael Jordan puts it: "Talent wins games, but teamwork and intelligence wins championships."



"In order to have a winner," Paul Bear Bryant suggests, "the team must have a feeling of unity; every player must put the team first-ahead of personal glory."



And this is perhaps what Senator Villar has in mind when he wrote: "Team spirit which should lead to team play is present when there is a shared desire to work together. There is a unifying vision. There is a unity of purpose. There is a genuine concern among its members. Nobody takes exclusive credit for group accomplishment. The credit belongs to all."