A Whole Different Vibe

It’s not always like this but it could be: A committee in my community put together a resident speaker series. One resident not on that committee just this week wrote out of the blue how grateful she was for the impact to the community: “A Whole Different Vibe.”  

The Buddhists teach doing right things right, without undue fretting about results. Fair to say we met this test because, honestly, her email caught me by delightful surprise.

One member joined the speaker series subcommittee just because he felt like it, but not without saying to those spearheading the effort that he hoped it was okay. Especially because he was so respectful with his entry, it was. People don’t always realize that’s it’s polite to knock first but he, an HR professional, did.

What’s more, without even realizing it, this little band of buddies did exactly what they taught me in business school, “Rotating Leadership.” Everyone reached out to potential speakers, who were then funneled through one of us for topic refinement, then off to the graphic artist among us for the announcement, back to project leaders for review, and off to Committee Chair for interface with management to make the thing real. Everyone doing exactly what the enjoyed and did well.

Seamless, really. Like a Ouija board, everyone’s fingers on the thing, hard to even tell who was doing what and, best of all, no one much cared.

Maybe it was because we’re all busy with other things. Maybe it was because we were not trying to get recognition for a promotion, raise, or bonus. Maybe it was because we just love the idea of the series. Or maybe it was because we love each other.

Whatever it was, it was easy peasy. We knew the talks had gone well, but “Whole Different Vibe”? Who knew. Now we do, and I suspect and submit that whole different vibe was as much in our process as in its outcome—and that precisely because it was in our process it glistened in our outcome.

Moral of This Story

The moral of this story is that humans are competitive and cooperative. There is controversy these days on how much of each is the more natural to us, which you can read about in Steve Taylor’s, “Humans aren’t inherently selfish.” 

Now if you ask me: Do I like putting this kind of intellectual shine on our community, which is embedded in a whole slew of neighboring communities competing in the real estate market? I will tell you: You bet I do!

But I already had that, and only went over the moon about this after the outside appreciation, when I took a moment to reflect on what awesome teamwork we had done. For everyone involved, I have to say there was as little ego involvement as I have seen in some time. A little pocket of intelligent goodness that we can grow.

We can do this. Yes we can. One by one. Everyone doing what they love, and passing on what someone else can do better. Steve Taylor, author of The Fall, believes that this kind of awesome teamwork is what we are really wired for.

Practice, practice, practice…and do let us know what you think, find, feel in the comments below. 

Warm wishes,

Madelaine