In this week’s “Spreading the Word”, I share with you a video. It is a TED talk given by Amy Edmondson, a professor of leadership and management at the Harvard Business School. The video lasts only about 13 minutes and it speaks of the great value and immense importance of teamwork. The talk is not about the standard teams as in sports where players regularly practice together. Here, it is about those situations when people from various backgrounds who often do not even know each other need to come together and create a solution to a given problem. That’s called teaming.

I have chosen to share this video as a kind of antidote to the growing state of global division that I am sad to observe. Who would have thought that even a pandemic, a matter of international concern would not be enough to curb the tribal “me vs you” behaviour. A short look into the latest news illustrates this unfortunate trend. Country leaders playing mutual blame-games and sliding into dangerous power competitions, large corporations steering their activities based on criteria “who gave us more money quicker – wins”, and overall tendency to resign from cooperation back into taking care only of own interests without regard for the reality that we all live in a world that has never been as interconnected and interdependent as today.

Our future is not predetermined and our decisions are critically important. So, it is up to us – given the global reality we live in, do we start teaming or do we continue competing with each other?

“To truly innovate, we need to work together.”

From the video (link below)

Enjoy!

Link to the video: https://www.ted.com/talks/amy_edmondson_how_to_turn_a_group_of_strangers_into_a_team#t-771983

Keeping up the new “Spreading the Word” tradition, every Thursday I hope to share with you an article I’ve read or a video I’ve seen and considered it to be inspiring or enlightening. Especially now, during our uncertain times, I feel it is important to take good care not just of our physical but also of our mental well-being. Humans have always turned to storytelling when everything else fails. My Thursdays’ “Spreading the Word” articles are an online version of sharing worthwhile stories.

keep exploring and storytelling!