… agents of purpose
What is the one specific trait that makes us human?
We are hardwired for cooperation, since we are “relatively weak animals”, not being provisioned to deal with a lot of things on our own. We need one or more “others” to help us getting things done.
We have developed the ability to cooperate in large numbers, and even with people we don’t even know personally, based on shared ideas. Still we like more to work with people we know, we share similarities with, and we are close with.
It takes a conscious effort and strong convictions to deal effectively with conditions outside of this comfort zone: anything that makes our fellow collaborator more diverse to us increases the potential of conflict in a group. Think of gender, age, ethnicity, language as some of the commonly known aspects, but think of function, profession, capabilities, geography, too.
At the same time this diversity increases the breadth of skills, knowledge and intelligence to creatively solve problems. So it’s worth developing a working mode to tap into the potential of diversity, while at the same time smoothing internal conflict.
Are you ready for constructive cross-cultural collaboration?
As an individual or a team?