Imagine... You're stuck in a desert, only at 10am in weather well over 100 degrees. If you were given the essentials to survive and soon find a way out, would you be able to? Now imagine being stuck in that desert not only with essential survival tools, but 3 or 4 other people as well. While Most people would assume the extra help would secure one's destiny in escaping alive, last weeks class was useful in illustrating the positives and negatives of synergy.
What is Synergy?
Synergy is defined to be the interaction and/or cooperation of two or more variables placed together in order to produce a combined greater effect, or in some cases worse. Say for instance at work, a restaurant. A new employee is hired, they're efficient, comfortable in the fast paced environment, able to handle the singe of the hot plates. Someone like this would most likely improve the group dynamic of the companies operations, assuming they're easy to work with and competent in terms of communicating. Now, evaluate the same scenario, this time with someone less fit for the job. Maybe the drop plates, argue with customers or fellow employees. Someone of this nature would be considered detrimental to the job. If the reputation of the restaurant was known for its fast service and caring staff, the emergence of this singular variable could potentially ruin the momentum of the company.
While it may be overwhelming to think that the fate of a teams positive dynamic can rest in the hands of a singular participant, it's also comforting to know that improvement is also a possible factor. Returning back to the desert survival experiment, in class we saw that most teams exemplified negative synergy. Individual participants from certain teams had done a fairly decent job with their desert survival originally, however, with the converging of ideas and use of persuasion, those that "succeeded" alone would've most likely died in the desert by giving into the thoughts and opinions of their fellow teammates. However, there was one group that strayed from this trend, which luckily I was a part of. While one of us may've survived in the desert alone, the rest in our group would've died. However, when we came together and discussed the survival items and their potential uses, this dialogue of ideas allowed us to display positive team synergy. Though individually the majority of us were doomed for death, our collaboration together was able to provide for a new outcome, especially with the essential addition of the positive variable who would've survived. She was able to distribute her knowledge of the practical uses that came with the different tools, and provide new perspectives of their importance that we'd overlooked as individuals.
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