{"id":7101,"date":"2017-01-26T07:12:52","date_gmt":"2017-01-26T12:12:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/intramuralist.com\/?p=7101"},"modified":"2017-01-26T07:12:52","modified_gmt":"2017-01-26T12:12:52","slug":"synergize","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/intramuralist.com\/?p=7101","title":{"rendered":"synergize"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"sl5coy-rhcq-hannes-wolf\"<\/a><\/p>\n

My family has long been fans of Steven R. Covey, the American author and businessman who passed away a little more than six years ago. Said one brother, \u201cCovey\u2019s books are about more than time management; they\u2019re about life<\/em> management.\u201d<\/p>\n

Covey was brilliant.
\nCovey was wise.
\nAnd Covey would be good for each of us to defer to now.<\/p>\n

In his most popular work, Covey offers \u201cThe 7 Habits of Highly Effective People.\u201d In this book \u2014 which has sold over 25 million copies worldwide \u2014 Covey promotes what he labels “The Character Ethic\u201d \u2014 or aligning our values with so-called “universal and timeless” principles. He then shares the infamous 7 habits:<\/p>\n

(1) Be Proactive
\n(2) Begin with the End in Mind
\n(3) Put First Things First
\n(4) Think Win-Win
\n(5) Seek First to Understand, Then to be Understood
\n(7) Sharpen the Saw<\/p>\n

Oh, wait\u2026 sorry\u2026 I forgot #6. My apologies.<\/p>\n

The sixth habit of highly effective people is to \u201csynergize.\u201d Allow me to expand a little more on its insightful meaning. Take not my word for it; take Covey\u2019s:<\/p>\n

\u201cTo put it simply, synergy means \u2018two heads are better than one.\u2019 Synergize is the habit of creative cooperation. It is teamwork, open-mindedness, and the adventure of finding new solutions to old problems. But it doesn’t just happen on its own. It’s a process, and through that process, people bring all their personal experience and expertise to the table. Together, they can produce far better results that they could individually. Synergy lets us discover jointly things we are much less likely to discover by ourselves. It is the idea that the whole is greater than the sum of the parts. One plus one equals three, or six, or sixty \u2014 you name it.<\/em><\/p>\n

When people begin to interact together genuinely, and they’re open to each other’s influence, they begin to gain new insight. The capability of inventing new approaches is increased exponentially because of differences.<\/em><\/p>\n

Valuing differences is what really drives synergy. Do you truly value the mental, emotional, and psychological differences among people? Or do you wish everyone would just agree with you so you could all get along? Many people mistake uniformity for unity; sameness for oneness. One word \u2014 boring! Differences should be seen as strengths, not weaknesses. They add zest to life.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

I see some great truths in Habit #6\u2026 valuing differences\u2026 truly valuing the mental, emotional, and psychological differences among people\u2026 not mistaking uniformity for unity. I admit\u2026 I think we struggle with valuing differences. I also wonder if it\u2019s because we\u2019re fearful we may have to admit our own flaws or weaknesses or areas of wrongful thinking in the process. Said a long time professional colleague of our family, \u201cI wish I was as correct about one<\/strong><\/em> thing as some people think they are about everything.\u201d<\/p>\n

That\u2019s it.<\/p>\n

We\u2019re just not very good at valuing what\u2019s different in another\u2026<\/p>\n

Especially now.<\/p>\n

But before I conclude this day\u2019s post, let me again apologize for the error in omitting #6 above \u2014 the need to synergize and learn to value those who think differently.<\/p>\n

Then again, that omission seems pretty frequent these days\u2026<\/p>\n

Respectfully\u2026
\nAR<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

My family has long been fans of Steven R. Covey, the American author and businessman who passed away a little more than six years ago. Said one brother, \u201cCovey\u2019s books are about more than time management; they\u2019re about life management.\u201d Covey was brilliant. Covey was wise. And Covey would be good for each of us … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “synergize”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7101","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-current-issue"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/intramuralist.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7101","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/intramuralist.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/intramuralist.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/intramuralist.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/intramuralist.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=7101"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/intramuralist.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7101\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7105,"href":"https:\/\/intramuralist.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7101\/revisions\/7105"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/intramuralist.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7101"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/intramuralist.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7101"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/intramuralist.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7101"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}