Collaboration versus self sufficiency: an enlightening parable
Stumble It!In today’s hyper-individualistic world we often behave as if collaboration with others is a nice ideal but not absolutely essential. We believe that as highly equipped and capable modern individuals we can get most of what we need done by ourselves - alone if we need to.
In this classic parable of cooperation I, Pencil by Leonard E. Read (1898 - 1983). the author shows that such views of individual independence don't bear close scrutiny.
Read shows that even something as simple as a humble lead pencil requires massive collaboration beyond our wildest imagination and could never be created by one person no matter how clever or powerful they were.
If the humble pencil requires this level of collaboration then how much more is required to create anything of real complexity or meaning?
Nothıng ın your room today was made by one person alone
"I am a lead pencil — the ordinary wooden pencil familiar to all boys and girls and adults who can read and write. Simple? Yet, not a single person on the face of this earth knows how to make me. This sounds fantastic, doesn't it....?"...read on
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Bioteams Books Reviews
The coming shape of organizations and teams
Belbin sees Bioteams as the next step. Dr R Meredith Belbin, regarded as the father of "team-role" theory and one of the worlds foremost experts on teams predicts that we will evolve into bioteam forms. In his book "The Coming Shape of Organisation" Belbin picks out five observations human teams need to learn from "a diminutive masterclass" of social insects such as bees, ants and termites.
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