I read a story in the news today about a situation that had reached a painful tipping point. I was sorry to read this news since clearly if this issue was attended to in its early stages, that painful tipping point would not have been reached.
How can we avoid the kind of tipping points where people get hurt, money is wasted, and good progress is blocked? What can we do?
As I thought about this situation, I thought about sensitive and conflicting situations in my own life--situations that could result in painful tipping points without good attention before that happens. These are some of the strategies I came up with in order to avoid the wasteful, hurtful tipping points that can occur.
- Pay attention to the details of life. Often sloth and sloppiness create problematic situations. When you pay attention to the details and deal with the little problems as they arise, you're less likely to reach painful, wasteful tipping points.
- Listen. Often people don't listen to one another, and when that happens situations become worse. Make the time to listen and hear what people have to say.
- Teamwork definitely helps people to avoid painful, wasteful junctures in life. Work on building strong, respectful, collaborative teams.
- Positive, regular communication. When people don't communicate well, problems arise.
- Knowledge of a team's past, present, and future goals is integral to positive efforts. When people ignore taking a full view of an organization, they miss important stories and details that inform the present and future.
- Make the time to work for a common mission. When working with any team make sure you have a common mission. Too often, people ignore the time and energy needed to come up with a common mission that they can invest in together.
- Look ahead together. As a team, plan the future together leaving room for the collective goals as well as the team member's personal goals.
- Always work with dignity and respect. If you find yourself acting with disrespect, get some help to figure out why that's happening. When you engage in dehumanizing behavior, you tear apart the team and a team's potential.
- Encourage each other and work for each other's best results. Make time to encourage one another, don't simply work for your own success.
In the situation I read about today, sadly, new and some existing leadership put their egos ahead of teamwork and respect. Rather than build a strong, collaborative team with a common, positive mission--some leaders bullied their way ahead without regard for the organization's past and the need for a renewed, common, positive, inclusive mission. Lots of people who had committed exceptional time and energy into their personal efforts and the organization's goals were demeaned and left out of the processes of leadership, decision making, and mission creation. This steamroller-like exclusion tore the organization apart in countless ways.
On a much smaller scale, I've been dealing with a situation of struggle with regard to teamwork. As I look at this greater example of struggle, I wonder what I can learn for my situation. Most of all, I can see the need for greater positivity, better communication, and the creation of and acknowledgement of a common mission statement. What is it that we hope to do together, and how do we hope to work together to achieve the mission in inclusive ways? How can I contribute in ways that create greater good, positive investment, and a sense of team. I've been thinking a lot about that and I've tried many approaches. Yet, I'm still not satisfied, but I've learned a lot and made some incremental steps forward which is good.
I want to avoid those harmful, hateful, hurtful tipping points in life mostly because they waste a lot of capacity, capacity that could be used to support the greater good instead. I think that should be an aim of most organizations and individuals--together we need to focus on the good we can do as a team, the kind of good that moves people forward in positive ways. Onward.