SYNERGY IS AN OUTCOME OF INTEGRITY

It can’t be but it is!

Think about it, the whole is greater than the sum of the parts.

This is like saying 2+2 is not four but more.

Synergy means that things work together.

Words can’t explain the essence of this. We know it and want it but what and how do we get it?  

For a long time, the known world had no thought of synergy. The second law of thermodynamics dominated. It stated that everything will increase in entropy.

In other words, disintegration is the way of the world and chaos is destiny.  

And since we are of the world, well then ….the way and end are clear.

Buckminster Fuller had another idea. The second law of thermodynamics was incomplete.  

Although we have decay, we also have growth. What about the creation of life in the womb?

He studied systems in transition from the beginning to the end. He concluded that the behavior of the whole cannot be predicted by the behavior of any isolated component.

For example, you cannot understand an avalanche by studying snowflakes.  

He focused his research on the growth or what he called emergent behavior in systems.

Jeffrey Goldstein defines this emergent behavior as: "the arising of novel and coherent structures, patterns and properties during the process of self-organization in complex systems".

In other words, in any system with a few set rules, something new can emerge that is more than the sum of its parts.

 Like a sports team that plays the game of its life at exactly the right time to win the great prize.

Or like a down and out song writer who pens an immortal song.

By accident or design?   Perhaps both.

The accident we can do nothing about.  

We can do something about the design.   

Integrity and synergy are interrelated and interconnected.  

I define integrity as doing the right thing, doing the next right thing and doing things the right way.

Synergy means that things work together. Things work together when they are done right.

Synergy then is a natural outcome of integrity.

What does this mean?  How does that work?

Doing the right thing is transparent.

All things are revealed. Nothing is hidden  

The energy invested in deception is released into conception. It is a beginning not an end.  

Doing the right thing is being authentic. In other words, it is truthful.

If you tell the truth you don't have to remember anything.

Doing the next right thing is next thing you do after you do the right thing.

It is this emergent behavior that creates the chain reaction..

Energy is released in each successive right action. Momentum increases. Tipping points are reached.   

Doing things the right way is about objectivity or purity.

Less is more.

Less waste, less baggage and less mistakes.

More economies, more efficiencies, and more effectiveness.    

 So where do you start to build synergy into your life?

 Start in the simple, the small, the ordinary.

Take care of the little things; the big things will take care of themselves.

That is synergy

And synergy is an outcome of integrity.

Douglas Ross is father, husband, businessman and an advocate for integrity. He is the creator of The Practice of Integrity and Results through Integrity.

Want to learn more?  Contact me at principledynamics@comcast.net or call me at 706-267-0609.  I want to speak to you about integrity and how it can help you and all of us.