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Making A Habit Of.... Succeeding Through Synergy
This is the sixth of seven articles based around Steven R Covey’s book, “The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People.” We’ve been exploring each of these habits to show how they can be applied in the world of insight.
Covey’s definition of synergy is that ‘the whole is greater than the sum of its parts... each of the parts combines to create new and exciting unexpected discoveries that were not possible before.’ He goes on to say that synergy – the way in which things work together – is the true test of all of the other habits combined. It can only be really effective when based on a foundation that is established by practising the other six habits.
Benefiting from synergy
He suggests that synergistic communication opens people’s minds and hearts to new possibilities. Synergy enables new things to be created. This is the essence of team spirit – i.e. people can achieve more as a group working in harmony than they ever could by themselves.
In terms of insight, the benefits of synergy are one of the great outcomes of good teamwork, if the other habits are being put into practice.
Searching for synergy
You can find synergy when you are working in a small group of two or three - and you should also certainly find it across your whole team. As long as you have developed mutual trust and co-operation and you are prepared to work together, your overall output can be synergistic. This means that the results of working together can be greater, more creative and more far-reaching than any output that you could have achieved alone.
Vive la difference!
But please be wary of getting bogged down in any differences in approach relating to synergy. As a team, you will have a blend of different areas of expertise and different levels of experience, as well as different personality types. This should offer a great opportunity for bringing different views to the party. For example, you could combine attitudinal and behavioural data, as well as competitor and market intelligence, to build bigger insight pictures.
And when you’ve developed strong relationships with your key internal clients, you can also start to look for opportunities for bringing synergy and creativity to their business challenges as well.
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