Synergy

One of my favorite scenes from the Star Wars movies comes in Episode 2, when some of the Jedi are chained to poles in the middle of an arena and they're about to be eaten by monsters. They manage to get free and form a circle in the middle of the arena, each person facing outward. As people shoot at them, they use their light sabers to deflect the deadly rays. But since people are shooting at them from all sides, they would certainly be shot from behind and killed except that they are in a circle. Each person is protecting those behind them from being shot from behind. This is a wonderful example of synergy, which means, "The whole is greater than the sum of the parts."

Another example of synergy is seen when picking up several small objects (marbles, for example). See how many you can pick up with each hand independently, then see how many you can pick up by using your hands together.

I saw another great example of this on the freeway today. There was a flatbed truck transporting a Caterpillar (the type of machine used for digging huge holes). The truck is equipped to drive long distances and carry heavy loads, but it is not designed to dig. The Caterpillar is designed to dig with amazing efficiency, but there's no way that it can travel large distances because it moves too slow to be allowed on main roads. In this case of synergy, the flatbed truck and the Caterpillar are each using their strengths and accomplishing more than they could independently.

What about you? What are your strengths and weaknesses? What are the strengths and weaknesses of others in your team? If you haven't done so already, it's important to find ways that each person's strengths can support the weaknesses of others so that the team can have synergy.