Team Work can Work Wonders!!

A flock of hungry pigeons were flying across the sky in search of food. Having traveled a long distance, they felt tired and settled down on a tree. Just below the tree, they saw grains strewn all over the ground. The pigeons were happy to have found enough food to eat. All the pigeons came down from the tree and started eating the grains. As they were doing so, a huge net fell on them and trapped them all.

The pigeons were taken aback. They noticed a hunter sitting at a distance from the tree, a bow and arrow in hand. The pigeons realized it was the hunter who had attracted them by strewing the grains and it was he who had trapped them in the net. The hunter got up and began to move towards the pigeons.

The leader of the pigeons spoke, "Friends, we are in great trouble. The hunter will catch us if we do not act swiftly in a few seconds. There is only one option available at this moment. Let all of us use our force together and fly up along with the net. If all of us use our force and fly together, we can fly carrying the net along with us. Let us start now."

All the pigeons agreed with him and flew high carrying the net along with them. After traveling sufficient distance away from the hunter, the pigeons settled on a tree and carefully came out of the net one by one and thus escaped the evil design of the hunter.

POINTS TO PONDER

1. Teamwork can work wonders.
2. A group of a people becomes a team when members have a common goal, and is goal links members to the team.
3. In a good team, members use each others strengths to balance their weaknesses.
4. Teambuilding requires great care. It is important to choose the right people who can and will work in tandem.
5. Focus should be on the team's progress, not individual growth.
6. Coordination between team members helps in completing the toughest job!

Teamwork leverages the strength of each team member and works around the weaknesses. Teamwork represents a set of values that encourage behaviors such as listening constructively, respecting different views and recognizing the achievements and interests of others.
There is frank and open exchange of ideas, and the team leader helps in increasing trust and mutual respect among the team members.

Good teamwork of team and individual goals. It also ensures that collectively team is far more effective than the sum of individual effectiveness results in alignment, and each member experiences pride and belongingness.

Bad News, Good News-Who Knows?

The Chinese tell the story of an old man who owned a bony plow horse. One spring afternoon the horse ran away. The old man's friends, trying to console him, said, "We're so sorry about your horse, old man. What a misfortune you've had." But the old man said, "Bad news, good news-who knows?"

A few days later the horse returned home leading a herd of wild horses. Again the friends came running. Filled with jubilation, they cried, "How wonderful!" But the old man whispered, "Good news, bad news-who knows?"

Then the next day, when the farmer's son was trying to ride one of the new horses, the young man was thrown to the ground and broke both legs. The friends gasped. The old man stood still and said, "Bad news, good news-who knows?"

And a short time later when the village went to war and all the young men were drafted to fight, the farmer's son was excused because of two broken legs. Good news. Bad news. Who knows?

LESSONS FROM GEESE by Milton Olson

1. As each bird flaps its wings, it creates an "uplift" for the bird following. By flying in a "V" formation, the whole flock adds 71% greater flying range than if the bird flew alone.
Moral: People who share a common direction and sense of community can get where they are going quicker and easier because they are traveling on the thrust of one another.

2. Whenever a goose falls out of formation, it suddenly feels the drag and resistance of trying to fly alone, and quickly gets back into formation to take advantage of the "lifting" power of the bird immediately in front.
Moral: If we have as much sense as a goose, we will stay in formation with those who are headed where we want to go (and be willing to accept their help as well as give ours to the others).

3. When the lead goose gets tired, it rotates back into the formation and another goose flies at the point position.
Moral: It pays to take turns doing the hard tasks and sharing leadership - with people, as with geese, we are interdependent with each other.

4. The geese in formation honk from behind to encourage those up front to keep up their speed.
Moral: We need to make sure our honking from behind is encouraging - not something else.

5. When a goose gets sick, wounded, or shot down, two geese drop out of formation and follow it down to help and protect it. They stay with it until it is able to fly again or dies. Then they launch out on their own, with another formation, or catch up with the flock.
Moral: If we have as much sense as geese we too will stand by each other in difficult times as well as when we are strong.

Steps Toward Peace of Mind

Peace of mind is not just something that comes to us when everything is going well. It is something that comes from a combination of many sources, and that can sustain us even when things are not going well. Even through tragedy.

1. Reserves
Not necessarily the large reserves that we sometimes refer to in coaching (though those would be wonderful, too), but awareness that you are not going to run out of the minor things that can easily cause disruption in our lives, e.g. gas/petrol, postage stamps, toilet paper, essential food items.

2. Forgiveness
Know that you need not be full of anger, or nagging hostility, toward anyone, including yourself. Remember that we all do the best we can with what we believe we have. There are few people who harm others on purpose.

3. Acceptance... of self and of others
In the same vein, know that the only person about whom you have the right to make decisions is yourself. Others will be what they will be, depending on their own combination of circumstances, genetic inheritance and choices. For yourself, know that your choices are and always will be your own. Don't berate yourself for your past, it is past. If you don't care for it, make the decisions necessary to create a different future.

4. Clear conscience
Act always as though someone else who you respect will know what you do. If you would not want others to know that you did something, then don't do it, for you (and quite likely someone or Someone else) WILL know.

5. Support
Know where you can turn for support, for a shoulder to cry on, and for other forms of help when you need it. Know your friends, keep your fences mended, and keep a list of agencies and institutions to which you can turn if you must. Never let pride stop you from requesting help when you need it.

6. Surroundings that you can enjoy
Your surroundings may not look like a magazine cover, but they can be kept sufficiently tidy, organized, and attractive that you feel pleasure as you look around you. We often think of surroundings as what we are aware of visually, but the other senses may be involved too. We may need music, or silence. We may choose to enjoy the scent of burning candles, or of baking, or of well polished furniture.

7. No undone have-tos, deadlines, overdue debts
These will undermine peace of mind every time. Decide on a schedule to get rid of them. If you have to call on someone to keep you on schedule with this, enlist a friend, a family member, or even a coach. Just knowing that you are making progress will enhance your peace of mind. Catching up on these things will do so even more.

8. Know that you are connected to Something
If you are religiously or spiritually inclined, then you already know this. Even if you believe there is nothing beyond us except nature and the earth, then at least you know there is that. Know that you ARE connected. Trust that connection, and know that you DO belong.

9. Know that you are at choice, not a victim
Recognize that you DO have choices. If you feel you do not, look again, and see that what you have previously dismissed as lack of choice is actually a choice that certain alternatives are unacceptable, or that you had not seen them in the first place. Reconsider your options. Brainstorm with someone you trust.

10. Knowledge that you can affect your world, that you need not be a pawn Sometimes it is difficult to imagine that any one person can change the world. We certainly need to change ourselves before we can change anything else, and even then we do not have the right to change other people. Yet the changes that we make in our own behavior, our willingness to reach out and help, volunteer, to try to make the world a better place, CAN be far-reaching. If every person reading this list were to reach out... Imagine!
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Each man has a choice in life; he may approach it as a creator or critic, a lover or a hater, a giver or a taker, a liar or an earnest man. It is a matter of choice.
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