We just wrapped up the Elegance Summary for building great teams.
You may recall that we started with Aristotle’s Level Four Happiness. He described this level as being the highest form of happiness that every human being innately desires. The words he used were Truth, Love, Beauty, and Unity. There was also a fifth word in the middle. That word is Purpose. I haven’t spent a lot of time on Purpose because my assumption is that business teams know their purpose. But, if there is not a purpose for the team or the understanding of the purpose is not aligned across the team, this must be fixed first before the other elements of great teams can be effective.
TREC
I’ve altered Aristotle’s terms of Truth, Love, Beauty, and Unity to Truth, Respect, Elegance, and Commitment. The reason for the change is to use language better suited to the business environment and to put together an acronym that may help you remember the list more easily.
Truth is Truth
The word truth doesn’t need to be changed. Truth is truth. Sort of. Each of us builds our truth based on experiences, environment, history, beliefs and others. It’s important that a team share their beliefs and assumptions so that truth is understood.
Love is Respect
I had one business leader tell me not to use the word love in their meeting. They were tough-minded business people and the emotion of love did not come into their decision making. The love that Aristotle was talking about was the Greek word agape. It has nothing to do with emotion, it is related to respect and how you treat others.
Beauty is Elegance
Beauty may be the hardest one to understand in a business context. In the business world aesthetic’s are not the main issue although companies like Apple have proved that devices that are beautiful also have business appeal. But here I’m talking about simple, elegant, efficient, unambiguous business practices. Does your business run elegantly?
TREK is TREC
An acronym to help you remember. We all know the word TREK. The definition is “a long arduous journey.” Building a great team is a long arduous journey. It doesn’t happen overnight and you’re always striving to reach your destination. I hope TREC will help you remember that it’s a journey and that it’s made up of Truth, Respect, Elegance, and Commitment.
Unity is Commitment
Our next several blog posts will be about building unity on a team. Real unity! Not just nodding of heads and not just compliance, but a deep commitment to a unified path and direction. You won’t build a team without the first three, Truth, Respect, and Elegance but without deep Commitment, the team won’t accomplish the goals of the purpose. Unity and Commitment take hard work, even as part of a long, arduous journey.
Request
I have a request to make. Most of you have been on this blog journey with me right from the start several years ago. I appreciate and cherish the fact that you’re still here reading and commenting. My goal all along was to build a community of readers where we could share concepts together.
My request to you is to share this resource with others. Whether they be colleagues, friends, family, someone you’re mentoring or even a broadcast resource that you use. Would you help spread the word and share these blogs with others? While our numbers have increased at a steady pace since the beginning, I would like to see them increase at a higher rate.
Thank you so much. I appreciate you being with me on this TREC.
Ron
