Counting the Omer: Thursday Night, 9 June 2016/4 Sivan 5776

Today is Day Six of Week Seven of the Omer.  That is Forty-eight Days of the Omer.  The Theme is:  Seven Principles

Here it is, Thursday night.  Since you know there are only two more evenings – this and tomorrow’s – before Shavu’ot, you know that we’re on the Home Stretch here.  In the Seven Habits of Highly Effective People we’ve reached the sixth Habit, the third of the three that have to do with being effective in interdependence.

So the Habit for today is:  Synergize.  I know you’ve noticed, that this Habits all sound familiar.  That’s because these words and phrases, coined by Dr. Covey, have entered into popular consciousness.  Covey’s Habits have, in effect, become part of our culture.  Today’s Habit is no exception.

Synergize is a term that most of us know, and most of us know what it means.  It means that, by combining together, we equal more than we do collectively as individuals.  To put it differently, the total is greater than the sum of it parts.  In maths, two plus two always equals four.  But what synergize teaches us, is that in human capital two plus two could effectively equal five.  The reason is that, when we pool our talents to complement one another, we in effect make each member of the team stronger and more effective.

Although this concept seems to break the laws of mathematics, most of us see the deep truth in it.

I don’t know about you, but I can usually find reasons to forget trying to work together with others and go it alone.  No matter how hard we work to build a team, at the end of the day it is comprise of individuals who, in addition to their strengths, all have their quirks and challenges.  It is always tempting to take your own talents, make the most of them, and don’t worry about motivating and working with others.

But we must.  Because however many times others have disappointed me, I’ve probably disappointed others as much.  It’s simply a fact of life.  Because we’re all imperfect, subject to mood swings, errors of judgement, and muddled thinking.  So even when I think I’m avoiding others’ quirks by working on my own, what I’m really doing is operating in a bubble where I am not availing myself of others’ perspective.

The Habit synergize applies to teams at work.  In clubs and organisations.  In religious life.  In marriage and other interpersonal relationships.  It’s really universal.  This Habit – like all the Habits – can help you whatever your walk in life.  They are universal, like few things in life are.