Cooperation Beats the Tug-of-War

“Okay lads, take up those lines and put your back into the job. That stump over there needs to be dragged five feet from where it is. Be quick about it. Have it done when I get back, I’ll double your pay.” The lads grabbed their ropes, circled the stump and put their all into pulling at the stump.

It hadn’t moved an inch by the time the boss returned.

I’ve seen this scenario play out more often than I care to recollect. Well, not people trying to pull stumps around. Groups of people with a job to do going off in their own direction, in their own way and nothing getting done.

Cooperation, communication and compromise will move even the heaviest load when a group of people are willing to engage in all three. Had the lads above taken a few minutes to talk among themselves, reach consensus which direction to pull that stump and then cooperated to all pull in the same direction, there would have been some extra coin in their pockets. Happiness, instead of frustration.

Many years ago I took over leadership of an organization which was teetering on the edge of closure. Years of doing what didn’t work over and over again had contracted the resources severely. It was time to either turn the ship or scuttle it and not much time to get the momentum going.

I’d hand-picked the executive with an eye to people who would work together with a spirit of cooperation and unity. We didn’t always agree but we were able to stay at the table and come up with plans that put the organization first and our egos second.

Within weeks, the first signs of stability emerged. That stability grew over the next decade. It was never on financial easy street but the bills were paid, the doors were open and we engaged in upholding our mission statement: serving our veterans, their families and our community.

In the last few years as the group central to the financial rebirth either moved on, died or burned out they were replaced by people not as inclined to work toward the common goal of the mission statement. They have their own agendas and not always related to each other.

That spirit of cooperation has been replaced people trying to pull the place in different directions at the same time. With about the same result as the stump caper earlier.

It’s a ship adrift. I’m not sure where it’s headed. Time will tell.

Cooperation builds communities. Self-interests pulls them apart.

Until Next Time — Just Steem on

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