Because I Is Everyone

‘Yes.’ he said.

It wasn’t the expected answer. It’s not what almost anyone else would have said. Almost anyone else would have given the social norm response. Some might have said it was the incorrect answer. That it was wrong. Everyone knew the right answer was ‘no’. It’s just what you say when someone asks, ’Is there an ‘I’ in team?’.

He knew that. He’d heard this question before, surely? And, even if he hadn’t, it is such a leading question. It is clearly signposted linguistically and socially. Isn’t it? And yet. Yet he still said, ‘Yes.’, with such strength that it surprised me.

I looked at him. He is prone to and does like being contrary. But there was no hint of either entertaining by playing devil’s advocate nor temper-induced entrenchment about him. Instead an expression of frustrated bewilderment flashed fleetingly across his face; quickly followed by a furrowed brow and sigh of simultaneous tolerance and rejection of the ‘right’ answer.

His gaze returned to the screen in front of him, as it had been before he’d been prompted to become involved in a conversation that in which, up until now, he’d taken no part. He tapped a few keys. I recalled the sense of strength in that ‘yes’. Was strength the right word? Why did I take note?

Yes, it was strong – but that wasn’t why I’d taken note. What had made me take note was the intensity, the depth and breadth, which he had given to the word. It bulged with a fullness of robust rationale, innate understanding and purity of consciousness. An alignment which not only gave the word purpose but also belief.  What then, if he was not being contrary? What if he was just being opposite?

I was about to ask him why he thought ‘yes’ when he raised his head again and fixed a look somewhere into the middle distance. He shook his head as if in disagreement with some imaginary adversary then said out loud, ‘Because I is everyone’. Then he did that little chin nod that people do once they have reassured themselves that they are right, and why they are right, before going right on back to watching Jacksepticeye on youtube.

Huh.

Because I IS everyone. BECAUSE I is everyone. Because I is everyone. Because I is EVERYONE.

How about that? The weight of this statement was so meta, it was almost uber-meta. And the 11 year old who’d just said it was now just sat watching a screen of somebody else looking at a screen. GenerationZ, eat your heart out.

In leading teams being able to shift people from an ‘I’ to ‘we’ mindset is the asserted desired state to ensure a high-performing, non-dysfunctional team. But we’re always warned against falling into the trap of group think. So, therefore, it’s possible for there to be such a thing as too much ‘we’ to be of benefit. And everyone’s worked with someone or somewhere, at some point, where there was definitely all too much ‘I’ going on to be healthy. Its understood diversity is beneficial and so is inclusivity. Employees must fit a culture, share values, be innovative and bring their own unique value to the company.

How can a leader or employee balance the ‘I’ with the ‘we’ to reap the rewards of both? Using imagery or expressions like teams being ‘a whole made up of many’ or as the ‘sum of all its parts’ are potentially misleading. It reduces team dynamics to a mathematical equation and implies a certain finite potential, not only of the value of the output, but also the individual value of each input. It also lays undue emphasis on the sum, or the whole as to be where you’re trying to get to. It proclaims a certain accuracy and consistency because you can assign a numerical measure, though there’s no persuasive data on that.

However, by thinking ‘we comes to be’  ‘because I is everyone’ prevents us being falsely drawn to placing ‘I’ and ‘we’ onto a sliding continuum, as if either only one or other of those states exist, when clearly they both exist simultaneously. It adds in the complexity of human nature of asking why for (because), who for (I, everyone) and what for (is). It takes the 3D definition of ‘we’ into the 4D inter-reactionary real world of ‘be’. ‘Be’ comes with a sense of the ability to grow, change, evolve, belonging. ‘Be’ can also signify clinging to tradition, of lack of agility, failing to keep up with the pace of change.

So what kind of ‘be’ do you need? What can you do to make sure there is an ‘I’ in your team?