If We All Only Ate Pizza
Can you imagine a world where we all dressed the same, acted the same, ate the same thing, and enjoyed the same activities? How boring. And how terrible that would be for society.
If we all only enjoyed hamburgers and pizza – nobody could sell tacos or ice cream.
If we all only enjoyed fishing – we wouldn’t have other sports or hobbies (and probably no more fish).
If we all had the same thoughts – nobody would ever invent something new.
The same applies in a team setting. Too often a team feels they are supposed to act and be a certain way and only say certain things.
What’s wrong with that?
Everything.
How can new ideas be born if individuals on a team feel like they have to fit inside a cookie cutter role? How can change happen? How can a team or organization move forward if employees don’t feel like they are allowed to think outside the box, present their ideas, give suggestions, or even…dare I say it…fail! *gasp!*
Too many times our team members are scared to fail. Scared to say something that may seem too “out there”. Individuals try to be like everybody else to fit in. Just as society would struggle if we were all the same – teams will struggle if everybody is the same.
Within a team, you must embrace everybody’s differences. Sure, maybe Sally’s ideas are pretty outrageous. Maybe Bob’s jokes are annoying. However, the way we solve problems as a team and move an organization forward is embracing everybody’s differences. The way we come up with new ideas, solve problems, and begin thinking strategically, is by understanding that we are all different, see things differently, experience things differently, and react to things differently. All these differences coming together, is what allows a team to solve issues faster and come up with new ideas.
You must first embrace the fact that everybody is different, encourage everyone to be themselves, and then come together, unified, to solve problems and make progress as a team.
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