Page 136 - How Great Leaders Build Abundant Organizations That Win

WHOM DO I TRAVEL WITH? (RELATIONSHIPS AND TEAMS [TH]AT WORK)

ization. We all need at least some friends who play the
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important role of connecting us with people we don’t nec-
essarily claim as best friends. Malcolm Gladwell’s “tipping
points” are fueled by such people, who always seem to know
somebody who knows somebody who . . . As these folks share
information and bring people together, trends are born, deals
are made, and ideas are cross-germinated.
Are there ample opportunities for people in your orga-
nization to come together for support and ideas and also to
work independently with sufficient privacy? Are you includ-
ing on your teams people whose backgrounds and ideas
differ? Where do people with divergent viewpoints come
together to learn from one another? Who are the connec-
tors, and are they valued and encouraged? What problems
are people facing today that others from completely differ-
ent backgrounds might shed light on if brought together to
brainstorm?

Resolve Conflict

When one of our kids was about seven, we overheard her
in conversation with a young friend who had come to play.
They were squabbling about some now-forgotten offense,
and the friend threatened to “tell.” Our daughter, unmoved,
replied, “It won’t do any good. They’ll just tell us to work
it out ourselves.” We didn’t know whether to be happy or
sad about our daughter’s assessment. On the one hand, we
hoped it meant she understood that people, even young
people, could work out their problems and that we had
confidence in her ability to do so. On the other hand, we
wondered if our daughter felt a little too alone with her rela-
tional challenges—if she thought we were unwilling to get
involved and that she was on her own.

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