No matter who we are or what we do, there are times when we realize that either the simplicity or the complexity of the situation is much greater than what we had been led to believe. Only then do we discover how that important factor can affect us as individuals.
Hold that thought as I fill in with all the details.
First, there is just you. Adding another person makes it a duet. Repeating that process four more times creates a trio, a quartet, a quintet, or a sextet. Most people are familiar with those labels because they are so common in the musical world.
But note this. Not only are you in charge when you are by yourself, you are in charge even if you are joined by two, three, four, or five other people. That’s because they each are in charge of themselves.
Imagine an instrumental musical quartet — keyboard, bass, drums, and guitar. Although each player of each instrument needs to join the others when starting and stopping, only they are responsible for playing their respective instrument. Viewed from another perspective, they need no director because in their own right, each is a director.
An interesting take off of this was brilliantly demonstrated in the 1967 box-office hit, The Dirty Dozen. Each of twelve quite different men were masters of a special skill. When given the details of the harrowing mission on which they were about to embark, each man knew exactly what to do. At the same time, they were acutely aware that success depended not so much on how well they were led, but rather by how well each man devoted himself to the special skill for which he had been selected. In the end, those twelve men were successful in completing the mission for which they were responsible.
If you understand that, then you will be able to identify and understand the logic of why some groups succeed while others fail. The greater the challenge, the stronger will be the effort of each individual member component.
There must be, of course, people in charge or as is often said, somebody has to push the boat away from the dock. That somebody, the leader, faces a simple but critically important challenge — getting everyone pointed in the same direction then telling them when to start and stop.
No matter the size of the group, that dynamic is always put into play. For example, it’s fascinating to watch an instrumental quartet begin playing at a pre-arranged signal such as the tap of a foot or wave of the hand, then continue playing their instrument at their best until all four stop in the same fashion as they began.
Even if the members aren’t fully proficient in playing their instruments, they must understand how crucial their contribution is to the total effort. That holds true regardless of the size of the organization. A choral director once said he would much rather have 25 who really wanted to sing than 50 who didn’t care. He knew the 25 who cared would always out-sing the 50 who didn’t.
The success of any group in fulfilling its purpose and mission rests not on the ability of its leader or staff of authoritative leaders but rather on the success of each person in the group — the result of them not being merely a member but rather being a provider of talent for which they hold themselves accountable.
Even if a group somehow manages to survive without that emphasis, it will likely never come close to fulfilling the potential of what it could and should have been.
It’s no different from that of a group in your community or the likes of the dirty dozen in that movie. It’s a matter of “show me the mission then give me the signal to get me started and I will take it from there.” The strength of such confidence promotes and compliments everything else associated with the effort.
This is one dimension of life and living in which the performance of one serves as a vital ingredient of success for all.
