How does Stephen Covey define synergy (habit six)? How does synergy relate to the previous five habits? <\/p>\n\n\n\n
According to Stephen Covey, synergy is the culmination of the first five habits. You need a deep conviction of your principles and values, a Win\/Win paradigm, and the skills to develop and nurture effective interdependent relationships.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Read more to learn about Covey’s concept of synergy, its benefits, what it entails, and how to improve your ability to synergize<\/a>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n Communicating synergistically means opening your mind and heart to different realities and possibilities. This requires vulnerability and comfort with (or at least tolerance of) uncertainty and some level of chaos; in its essence, synergy is a creative process\u2014you\u2019re working with others to create new possibilities\u2014and that means you don\u2019t know what the outcome will be when you start the process. You\u2019re not entering the situation to push your proposition or blindly accept the other person\u2019s, but rather to come up with a third alternative.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n Sometimes situations devolve into chaos instead of evolving into synergy, and those negative experiences can make the people involved skittish about opening up in the future to the possibility of synergy. For example, this can happen when a company creates policies that give employees the freedom to allocate some of their time to develop new ideas\u2014as long as they still get their work done in a timely manner\u2014but a handful of people abuse it and scare executives into reforming or revoking the policy.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n Additionally, many people have paradigms that cause them to mistrust other people and interact in protective or defensive ways. Often these people only have brief glimpses of synergy, such as when people come together in an exceptionally cooperative and collaborative way in response to an emergency. These events can seem like rare, extraordinary occurrences, but with the right approach you can experience synergy regularly. <\/p>\n\n\n\n To foster synergy, you must view a person\u2019s differences as assets\u2014rather than roadblocks\u2014to creating something new and innovative; someone who has the same view and opinion as you adds nothing to your knowledge and perspective, but someone with a different view gives you the opportunity to expand your perspective and come up with solutions that would never have occurred to your otherwise.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n Everyone sees the world through their own paradigms; that means no one\u2019s view is objective, including yours. If you think you see the world objectively, then you\u2019ll think that anyone who sees things differently is wrong. But if you understand that your\u2014and everyone else\u2019s\u2014lens of the world is determined by individual paradigms, then you can value and appreciate that other people\u2019s views can broaden your (admittedly limited) understanding of the world.<\/strong>\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n In fact, if you truly understand that your view of the world is limited by your lens, then it\u2019s easy to see why you need<\/em> to consider and integrate other people\u2019s perspectives so that you can approach life with more complete data. If you were trying to map the stars and were confined to the view from where you live, would you reject images of the night sky that someone sent you from another part of the world because they looked different than the photos you took? Or would you use them to expand your map?<\/p>\n\n\n\n In order to make lasting change<\/a> in your life, you need to make changes that foster that growth while also eliminating the factors that are limiting growth. Synergy is especially effective at minimizing the negative forces that push back against positive growth. <\/p>\n\n\n\n The sociologist Kurt Lewin uses the Force Field Analysis<\/a> as an analogy to explain: The performance level in any given situation is at an equilibrium between the driving forces and restraining forces<\/strong>. Driving forces encourage progress and are typically positive, logical, conscious, reasonable, and economic. Restraining forces restrict growth and change, and are generally negative, illogical, unconscious, emotional, and social or psychological. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Imagine you want to create a more positive climate in your family\u2019s home; you feel your children are too competitive among one another, the level of trust between parents and children is lower than you\u2019d like, and everyone has developed some bad habits in their daily interactions. Your positive, logical, conscious desire to improve your family\u2019s culture is a driving force, but that will only get you so far\u2014and most likely the effects will be largely temporary\u2014unless you also work to eliminate some of the negative, emotional, and psychological restraining forces at play.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The more change you try to create by focusing solely on driving forces, the harder it will become to make progress\u2014like if you were pushing a metal spring back, and the tension kept building until finally the pent-up force of the coils bounce back against you. When you use synergy to tackle a problem, you see differences and challenges as opportunities<\/a> to create new insights and possibilities, which actually transforms restraining forces into driving forces.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n For example, a land developer is working on a project that has faced major delays, and the developer has fallen so far behind on his payments that the bank wants to foreclose. In turn, the developer sues the bank to avoid foreclosure. The developer and the bank are caught in a conundrum: The developer needs more money to finish the project so he can get a return and repay the bank, but the bank refuses to lend him any more money until he catches up on his current payments\u2014and all the while, the project is falling further behind.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\nHabit 6: Synergy <\/h2>\n\n\n\n
View People\u2019s Differences as Opportunities for Growth<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Synergy Eliminates Barriers to Change<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n