Looking for synergy but finding conflict instead?

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Synergy is when the whole is greater than the sum of the parts. A team of ordinary people can accomplish extraordinary things. Or the whole process of working together can feel like juggling porcupines. Is synergy elusive on your team? Are you looking for the magic of synergy but finding conflict instead?

What synergy is NOT


When you add more coffee to your cup of coffee, what you get is - more coffee. If, on the other hand, you add the proper proportions of sweetener, steamed milk, and maybe a sprinkle of cinnamon or pouf of whipped cream to complement your coffee you wind up with that cold weather treat - cappuccino. (OK, yes, it's espresso for the purists out there. But it's coffee. Roll with me on this, OK?). 

The point is that you won't create a product that's greater than the sum of its parts if you have formed a team that is exactly like you. In a team of clones you'll get you, amplified or echoed. It might be tempting to hire and promote people who see the world from the same perspective that you do, but that means they will have the same blind spots that you have, too. Agreement does not create synergy. It's not cappuccino - it's just more coffee.

What synergy IS

Here are some ways to find synergy. 

  • Take one idea and ask another person to stick a different idea onto it. 
  • Turn the idea upside down or inside out. 
  • Tear an idea in half and assemble it in a different way, or perform the steps in a different sequence. 
  • Stand in a clump with your team (masked in Covid times of course) and rearrange sticky notes on a wall, mapping processes or categorizing ideas.

    Synergy arises from the inclusion and application of different perspectives, a variety of skills. Synergy grows when you stretch to see beyond the ideas that confirm or align with your preconceptions.

    Diversity feeds synergy. Diversity in thought process, gender, race, religion, age, upbringing and more on your team can help you create something that is completely new. Diversity leads to things like new processes, new product colors, new markets, and new ways of communicating to new categories of customers.

    In 2018 Forbes magazine shared these statistics: 

    "Companies with more culturally and ethnically diverse executive teams were 33% more likely to see better-than-average profits. In McKinsey’s previous study—conducted with 2014 numbers—that increase had been 35%. At the board of directors level, more ethnically and cultural diverse companies were 43% more likely to see above-average profits, showing a significant correlation between diversity and performance."

    What synergy NEEDS

    If you want greater synergy you need a team that embodies diversity in all of its facets. You also need a climate of mutual respect, so that ideas are welcomed when they are pulled out of heads and laid gently on the conference table or written on the flipchart. Synergy needs a foundation of interpersonal trust, so even the wildest ideas are brought into the conversation without pre-emptive judgment. You need a process for the conversation, where there are rules of engagement among the team and a path to your desired deliverables. 

    Synergy needs time and space, because it takes longer to involve people in discussion than it does to make a unilateral decision. Moreover, sometimes in the process of innovating you'll need to start over, or get your hands dirty. Innovation may surprise you when it emerges from a muddy mess. Contribute, disagree, and then commit.

    What now?

    This depends upon whether your synergy issue is that your team is currently "just more coffee", or whether your team is locked in conflict and arguing over competing ideas. To the first issue, add diversity. Shake your team up a bit and add contributors who aren't usually in the room. For the second issue, consider using an external facilitator to mind the process and make sure all in the room are heard. Be sure that you have established rules for engagement for the conversation. You need the right people in the room AND you need to do everything possible to elicit full and candid participation from each of the members on your team. Disagree as you work through your ideas, but then commit to the outcome.

    ProActive Leadership coaches are trained to help you generate the synergy your team needs to grow your business and help it thrive into the future. Go to www.resultsimproved.com for more information.

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