Habit 6– Synergize: “The ‘High’ Way”

“If we want to engage effectively with others, we must become celebrators of difference and
resist roadblocks to this celebration such as ignorance, cliques, and prejudice.” This quote by
Covey expresses the importances of acceptance. Covey informs the reader on how to celebrate
the differences of others rather than treating them with blunt ignorance and prejudice. We can’t
truly hope to synergize with others if we don’t accept them for who we are. Learning to accept
the differences of others is the first step of teamwork and collaboration. For instance, I had been
pooled together with a group of people I hadn’t talked with before and I had felt uncomfortable
with working with them. After a while, I learned to accept the differences of others and our
teamwork moved smoothly from then on. Having any sort of understanding with your partners
will improve your work ethic, and your synergy with others as well.

“Once you are committed to seeing the value of working with others, you can work on getting to
synergy.” In this excerpt, Covey informs us about the benefits of working with others after you
get over the stage of “tolerance.” Many people see teamwork as a burden or just something to
deal with until their assignment or task has been completed, but there are many ways to use
teamwork to your advantage. When you value the hard work of others, you begin to work in a
way where everyone can use their own advantages to shine as a team overall. A time where I
appreciated the value of teamwork is when I had been working on my science fair project that I
had neglected doing for a week because of other schoolwork. My friend, who had already
finished her project, had lent me a hand and we both used our abilities to finish the poster on
time. She was good at designing the parts I had been stuck on, and I rattled off the information I
had gathered beforehand. It had been a lot easier to work when I had the company of someone
else instead of just tolerating their presence. Learning to see qualities in people, especially your
partners, will improve your synergy with any future teammates.

“We are all different, but difference should not be defined through a negative paradigm in which
we view others with suspicion. Instead, we should celebrate our differences.” In this, Covey tells
us to change our perspective. Having negative paradigms may pervade your teamwork and the
actual work that the person brings to the table may be overshadowed by your negative opinion
on that person. Accepting differences as positive rather than negative is an important step to
synergy. A disadvantage may be an advantage in disguise. For example, I had been frustrated
with a classmate that simply would not listen to my perspective on the project. I understood that
they had their own solution, but I simply believed mine was more well rounded and executed
better. However, it would be difficult to synergize if we didn’t compromise, so we came to the
conclusion to combine our plans into a single one, which was the best decision we could have
made.