The Bible Edge
Everyone needs an Edge, Believers can have the Bible Edge
Ecclesiastes 4:9
Two are better than one; because they have a good reward for their labour.
Want an edge in business? Learn teamwork. Two individuals knowing how to work with each other are better than one working alone. This seems so simple, so basic, so intrinsically understood. But, if this concept of teamwork is so simple, why is it so rare? There is a difference between two individuals working in the same space, and two that actually work as a team.
In the old days of mules and wagons, any two mules could pull a wagon, but only two “matched” mules could maximize their effectiveness. They could endure longer routes, stop, turn, and back up more efficiently than two mules that had not been trained to work together as one. The same is true at your workplace. Two are better than one if they learn to work together.
Having worked in the corporate world for twenty years and having pastored for over 24 years, many things have been observed and learned. One of those things is, it doesn’t take long to learn if two can work together as one. Within just a few minutes of observing the work ethic of individuals it is clearly seen whether they can effectively work well with others. If they can’t it is not an indictment of their work ethic, or their desire to perform well. It just means they are not, and probably cannot be trained, to be a member of a team. There are jobs that an individual like this can do individually and succeed, but to expect them to be a happy team player, or work well with a group, is an unrealistic expectation. A pastor is most often one of these types. They can work with a group, but their actual work, the work they are called to perform, like prayer and ministry of the Word of God, is purely an individual task.
A failing of management is the inability to consider if a person can fit on a team. If not, don’t force it, keep looking for the one who can. By forming a cooperative team much more work can be performed by two than just by one. Two learning to work together, experience shows, they can do much more than just two. They may do the work of four or five. This was the core idea of the original McDonalds business plan. They organized the preparation of the hamburger as a team effort to increase efficiency thereby offering a product at a lower price, and a faster time than their competitors.
Whatever the job. Two are better than one. That is an Edge, a Bible Edge. For by learning how to work as a team they will have a good reward for their labor. Managers, pay attention to that, God expects you to reward the team members, not just take advantage of them. But that perhaps is a topic for another day.
William Howe, Ph.D.
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