Summary Of Habit 6 of 7 Habits

Covey’s Habit 6 revolves around synergy. According to him, the best way of finding a solution to the problems is by creating an environment where everyone can share their ideas concerning using their experience and expertise so that one best possible solution can be picked out from the pool of ideas. Valuing differences and open mindedness are what is behind synergy and creative cooperation. This synergy translates into creative solutions for finding solutions to the needs of all stakeholders. It will be a far better approach since it helps to deliver quality results with a combined effort rather than an individual giving the solution.

In this habit, he discusses the details regarding the path of synergies and shows how one can reap all the benefits that come with the synergy because he believes that the whole is greater than the sum of the parts.

From The habit 7 Of Highly Effective People Habit 6 Synergizing Synergy is quite necessary to become a successful leader because it provides the capability to merge multiple forces, like companies, people, etc. to work collectively by overcoming all the challenges. Open-mindedness is necessary in promoting this cooperative atmosphere.

To understand the concept of synergy, let suppose that there are two similar manufacturing companies A and B. Company A is equipped with cutting-edge technology that produces top-quality products that the other company lacks. Company B has an outstanding logistical system which is far better than Company A. They can get synergies by merging because they are compatible with each other.

The biggest advantage both these companies can have after synergizing together is that they can enhance their revenue and decrease their expenses, which is simply not possible if they work separately.

Introduction to Synergize

Synergize, the 6 habit of highly effective people, is all about harnessing the power of creative cooperation and valuing differences to achieve results that go far beyond what any individual could accomplish alone. As Stephen Covey explains synergy is the principle that the whole is greater than the sum of its parts. This concept is at the centre of principle-centred leadership where people come together, share their unique strengths and generate new solutions that simply wouldn’t exist if they didn’t work together.

The importance of synergize is that it has the power to change the way that we think about challenges and challenges in the workplace, as well as in everyday life. By accepting this habit, highly effective people learn to listen to people’s ideas, respect different points of view, and create an environment where everyone’s input is valued. This not only improves communication and leadership skills but also opens up the space for innovative solutions and increased sense of teamwork.

Finding synergy involves than merely forming a joint venture but to take the initiative to identify any difference, investigate new ideas, and improvise on the individual strengths in order to come up with something that is beyond the expectation of others. The habit of synergize will enable you to find new ways of thinking and get better results not only when leading a team or dealing with relationships but also when achieving more results by facing more advanced problems.

According to Covey, one cannot achieve a lasting change and succeed without gearing synergies. The practice is one that challenges us to go off the middle ground with attempts to find win-win solutions that can be of help to all parties. Learning to synergize people and teams will be more innovative and be able to build trust and generate innovative outcomes which can bring real change.

Finally, synergize is not only a habit but a great principle that can change the work, leadership and life approach. With the help of appreciating differences, coming up with creative collaboration, and capitalizing on the strengths of individual members, you may help to establish a climate where new solutions can thrive, and each will have the chance to perform better than he or she thought he/she could.

Critical Components that are Requirement to synergetizing

To achieve synergy, there are some essential elements that both parties must have are listed below:

  • They must have similar goals

  • They have a sense of self

  • They stay open to new ideas

  • They embrace trust

  • They should understand that the best to do things is by working together

  • They show respect to each other

  • They must have the courage to apologize

  • They should have the aspiration to comprehend others

  • They should be capable of controlling the negative judgment

  • They must have trust in win/win instead of win/lose

  • They should recognize and value psychological differences to enhance collaboration and creative problem-solving

Key Points Discussed By Covey in Habit 6

Covey, in his book, discusses many important things to obtain synergy mentioned below:

1 - Lay a thought on the opinion of other people

Covey elaborates the need to appreciate differences when he grants value to those views by the people who are against you since each person has a different frame of mind. There is need to attach significance to the opinions of other people to acquire synergy. It also serves to check your own emotions and lets you give the right solution to the problem as when you hear your thoughts of various people, then chances are high you will be able to reach the ideal solution.

2 - Take Criticism with Patience

It’s quite hard to take criticism of people patiently because it needs a lot of practice to master this skill. Many people get embraced by the criticism of others, which is not a good habit. In this book, Covey gives importance to handle criticism patiently because it helps you to identify some of your weaknesses in the eyes of others.

3 - Listen to the Ideas of Others

Each person differs in his point of view in a problem. In some cases, the other individuals may have better idea to address a situation than you did. This is why it is good to hear the idea of everyone so that you can find the most creative idea or make modifications to your ideas once you have heard the reviews of other people. Having listened to the ideas of others can bring other solutions along with innovative thinking.

4 - Creating Change

A lot of individuals are not willing to change since it is quite frustraunting. It happens that there are moments when you realize that your argument is great and, nevertheless, you notice that people are not ready to change anything since they want to remain with the solution.

Synergy means achieving greater outcomes through collaboration and mutual respect. It involves the collaboration of individuals to create results that exceed the capabilities of working separately, valuing differences, and open communication to enhance problem-solving.

Covey, in this book spotlight, that the forces that motivate you for the change are logical and the forces that push you away are emotional. According to him, the best way is to encourage logical forces. It can be done by creating an atmosphere that weakens the emotional forces. Doing this will not only decrease the negative forces but also provides a helping hand to the increasing local forces.

With such an atmosphere there, you can easily get the explanation as to why they do not desire to change in a manner that you will completely be dedicated to addressing their concerns. When their concerns are addressed, you will then be able to collaborate with them to develop the winning solutions.

5 - Look for Challenging People

When you associate with other people with a different way of thinking then synergy will occur. Such individuals are somewhat challenging since they do not think but feel outside the box. It will not be that easy working with them, and that is why Covey underlines the importance of being able to listen to them in order to be able to work on them and to find a must-win solution.

Major Benefits of Synergy

Synergy brings many remarkable benefits listed below:

1 - Trust

One of the key benefits that synergy provides is trust because it helps to create a collaborative atmosphere using which both parties can work together.

2 - Focus

As you know that “The more you focus on something, the bigger it gets.” Using synergy, it becomes easy to create focus because it provides a platform using which two similar parties think together towards the same objective with more concentration. It helps them notice every single aspect of the problem to get the perfect solution.

3 - Diversity

Diversity is also an important benefit that comes with synergy because it allows you to work with different people from different geographies. When you work in a multicultural environment, then it brings you the opportunity to get the benefit from a wide range of ideas which the people have in their mind.

4 - Creativity

With the help of synergy, a safe environment is created in which people have the freedom to share their ideas without having a fear of criticism. This environment is quite helpful to get benefited from the creativity of other people, which they don’t show because of the distress of embarrassment.

5 - Better Solution

Through synergy it is very easy to arrive at the best possible solution to the problem since it allows a variety of talented minds to give their view regarding the problem. Synergy also takes advantage of the entire potential of teamwork as opposed to compromise which brings about half of the possible gains. It will need to combine the rest of the habits to reach synergy, and develop a cooperative environment in which different views can converge to develop novel solutions.

Conclusion

Synergy contributes significantly in assisting you to play as a team since in so doing, you will be in a position to exchange your ideas with other gifted individuals. This working style can assist you to fashion out more alternatives on a problem as opposed to individuality of working with a finite set of skills.

Synergy allows people to gain new insights because of the influence of different people. So, start synergizing and enhance the proficiency of discovering new techniques for your business to achieve better results.

Key Takeaways Of Habit 6

Among the lessons of synergy, one of the main lessons is that once you collaborate, then you have the opportunity to pool ideas, which other people could not think of. It eventually makes you seek the most suitable solution to the problem that could not have been achieved without synergy.

  • Every person is different in their way and can only be leveraged only if the work environment is collaborative. When you synergize, you become more creative because you can take the best part of each of the team member’s expertise to bring something more unique and innovative.

  • Synergy helps you to get things done faster because you are working as a team. If one lacks any skill, the other team member is there to cover it up, instead of working individually with a limited skill set.

  • Synergy also enables you to gather a pool of different ideas to work with. As your entire team is on the same page and working in the same direction you are at the luxury to choose the best solution to get the problem fixed.

  • Synergy helps you build an environment of a 360-degree feedback system, where everybody has an equal opportunity to contribute and recommend. It also helps in building a healthy relationship among the team. This atmosphere brings trust and lets others be open with you discussing things.

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