The longer I live, the more I find certain things to be undeniably true. One of those things would be the principle that "two are better than one". Maybe you have heard of The two-horse rule. The concept of teamwork can be illustrated by the two-horse rule. If one horse can pull 700 pounds and another horse can pull 800 pounds, how much weight will they pull yoked together? The answer may surprise you. The two-horse team will pull their own weight plus the weight of their interaction. Therefore, yoked together, the horses can pull 3000 pounds!
Not many things seem more evident to me than the profound impact of teamwork. When people join together with all of their strengths, all of their experience, and their ability to encourage, and motivate, monumental things can be accomplished. When we operate on our own, we are hindered by so many things of which we have no answer in and of ourselves. Whether it is a lack of ability, understanding or experience, left to ourselves, our potential is drastically less that of a partnership or team.
The life blood of a community is the many different relationships that are formed to achieve a greater goal. Think for a moment how many things are accomplished all across our community on a daily basis through the principle of teamwork. From families, to schools, to businesses, to city government, civic clubs, churches and so on, the fact is that hardly anything of significance happens without people joining together.
At Shared Blessings, I spend most of my time pulling people together to accomplish great acts of service. Day after day is filled with planning meetings, volunteer groups and other partnerships that result in lives being touched. When a single mother comes through our doors and has a variety of needs, our ability to meet those needs is the result of multiple partnership having already come together. The food that we provide to nearly 300 children every weekend is an undertaking only achievable through teamwork.
Honestly, I cannot think of anything more vital for our community than for people to continue, and even expand, their commitment to partnerships and teamwork. What challenges do we face that cannot be met by our unified resolve? What problems are so prevalent that the appropriate partnerships cannot solve? If we are willing to lay down our own agendas, there is very little beyond our reach.
The English poet, John Donne, was famous for his poem, "No Man is an Island". We do not stand alone, and why would we ever want to? Things of significance are usually always accomplished in concert with one another. Today, embrace teamwork. Do not spend the day trying to do it all yourself. Look for ways to partner with others. There is more joy and effectiveness in this method. We were not created to go it alone.
