Teamwork

 

By Kelly Battese

The Buddha once said, “A jug fills drop by drop.”

One drop alone cannot fill a jug, because it takes many, so teamwork is essential.

In our modern Western world we tend to want to get as much done as quickly as possible.

And we tend to value doing things with as little help as possible so we can take all the credit. Ive noticed that with my generation and older, we were taught self reliance from an early age—the idea that relying on others is bad. This takes away from our ability to ask for help and work together.

So as we grow and mature and when we start out in the corporate world  we are forced to do team exercises, team building or team enrichment events and we are left with this feeling that we should be self reliant—that we shouldn’t need a team. We may feel that we can simply do it by ourselves.

Or, on the other hand, we might be put in a work environment where we are given many tasks with little help and expected to do all of them.

Team work is all around us.

We can see it in all walks of life and all species. Creatures often work together for a greater cause—for a bigger picture—helping one another just because they can. This is team work in the truest sense of the word.

The ability to put aside all differences and not see someone simply in need of something, but as a fellow human being, can give us opportunities to  lose walls of division and self-imposed set backs.

It is then we can see ourselves as just a drop falling into the jug with the other drops.

As parents we are role models to our children. Our actions influence their decisions in their lives. Keeping that in mind, if we set team work as a priority to our children, they will pick this up and use it in their lives. Also making your children a part of the team teaches them teamwork, strengthens your bond and gives you a chance for a new type of bonding by accomplishing goals together.

Children need to feel valued and wanted (we need to feel it too at times). They need to feel and know they are a part of something bigger.

At school they are a part of a class and among their peers they build team work and school spirit. Outside of the school they need an environment to keep that momentum going.

The habits and patterns they are setting now will become routines later in life—ones they will use both professionally and personally—forming a strong foundation. Teaching the ability to ask and accept help is a tool that will last a lifetime.

In the end it gives us a chance to teach one of the Buddha’s lessons: A jug fills drop by drop.

 

Photo: (source)

Editor: Dana Gornall

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