Synergy:  The Superpower of Successful Companies, Part 1

Greek philosophers held the belief that “the whole is greater than the sum of its parts.”  This is, in fact, the underlying premise of synergy.  In fact, the word synergy comes from the Latin word, synergia, which is derived from the Greek word, synergos, meaning “to work together” or “to collaborate.”  At its core, synergy is about effectively connecting, communicating, and collaborating with cross-functional partners in order that together they are significantly better and greater than what they can each do individually but for the good of the whole.  Synergy is how a team grows together to achieve higher levels of potential and satisfaction while accomplishing even greater things for the collective.  When they are following, supporting and sustaining the same thought values, principles and processes, a team of 10 is always more powerful and effective and will always outperform 10 individuals each with their own thought values, principles and processes.  But when they do that enough times, they achieve a level of harmony that produces even greater results for the whole.  It’s rare and magical and something that every organization, company or team should aspire to achieve.

Synergy is something that is occasionally found in sports teams and in some sports more than others.  Consider the sport of competitive rowing.  An eight is a rowing boat used in the sport of competitive rowing. It is designed for eight rowers (a crew) who propel the boat with sweep oars, and is steered by a coxswain, or “cox”.  So a crew team has a total of nine people.  But if one were to take nine athletes who row individually on a regular basis and put them together in an eight boat and have them row together, they would invariably lose in a race against any team of nine rowers.  That sport, like most team sports, requires immense teamwork where every person is pulling their weight.

Consider what a college rowing team goes through just to get to the point of competition.  To start, just getting on the team is more competitive than practically any college sport, including football and basketball.  At the beginning of a school year, as many as 400 potential athletes show up at boat houses across the country for a chance to make the few members of a rowing team.  Coaches are looking for a very specific kind of athlete.  It is a process that takes months to identify.

The first week of practices is used to see who’s tough and can feel pain and push through it.  They are looking for those who don’t complain and can roll with the punches, even when things get extremely tough.  That’s because rowers have to fail a lot, in a good way, before they can really reach their potential.  It’s such a high-training sport that rowers must be able to push their bodies on a regular basis.  And, to find their edge, they must fail multiple times.  So grit matters. 

To find those with a positive attitude and never-quit mentality, novices might be asked to do a timed run of the football stadium.  The right athletes don’t have to be the fittest right away, but they shouldn’t try to cut corners.  Then, at subsequent practices, they might be asked to do circuit on the indoor football field that is designed specifically to be challenging to the point that people want to quit.  They might throw in a one-mile timed test and some short erg tests (which measure current speed or power output, elapsed time, meters, and stroke rate).  The rowing candidates are pushed to their max, which means each person is near vomiting at the end of a workout. The goal is to not only see how they perform or what their power output on the erg is, but what kind of athlete they are mentally. 

After the initial week of testing, rowing candidates might row indoors on the ergs or start training on the water for the first semester.  The training is grueling both mentally and physically.  For college rowing teams, the NCAA limits ‘team together time’ with the coach to roughly eight months (plus holiday breaks).  In-Season Hourly Practice is limited to 20 hours of required team-related activities per week and no more than four hours per day.  In the off-season (usually the beginning or end of the fall term), coaches include several consecutive 8-hour weeks, but hourly limits do not include travel time or set-up/break-down.  Because most of these athletes have never had to coordinate their own bodies, it is particularly challenging to coordinate their own bodies as well as with the person in front of them and the person in front of that person.  They begin to learn teamwork. That is a challenge.  Even some who were tough enough to make it through the first week might be gone by the end of the first month.  The roster begins to thin.  At about six weeks into practice, when they’ve got blisters covering their hands and the new excitement of the sport has worn off, more quitters begin to fall.  That’s when those with a deep determination start to shine.

But even then, there’s another round of weeding the roster – winter training.  Athletes are expected to know what they’re doing by that point.  For many athletes, it is the first experience out in the freezing cold weather before the water freezes.  In 20 degree weather — with ice floating by and limbs feeling frozen – only the truly committed persevere.  By the time conference championships roll around in May, most colleges only have two 8s worth of rowers left plus a few spares… from 400 down to less than 25. At this point, those athletes who remain are completely in sync, physically tough and have the right mental attitude. The arduous workload required creates a bond that is similar to the military.  They know one another deeply and move together gracefully much like ballet dance troupe or a group of synchronized swimmers.

Teamwork vs. Synergy

At that point, some might say that rowing is the ultimate example of synergy in action. However, even in rowing, achieving synergy is a rare event.  Sometimes it is merely a passing occurrence, achieved once, maybe at practice, maybe during an important race, but it does not happen every time a rowing team is on the water.  Not only is it more rare, but it is also more desirable.

That’s because synergy is more powerful than just teamwork.  What is able to transform teamwork into synergy is something called Tacit Knowledge.  Tacit knowledge is the non-codified knowledge individual team members have about each other which they themselves may not consciously be able to define, but which enables them to perfect their timing as a team.  From working together in tandem for so long, a team is able to read each other in a form of shorthand that allows them to second-guess one another’s actions.

In rowing, tacit knowledge is seen in how crew members can feel another’s rhythm and predict without having to be told, to vary their stroke power phase to fit their boat or fellow team member’s.  That happens when the right combination of people work together for a long time, trust one another, and fit together well.

This has been seen in other sports teams.  For example, the Miami Heat won back-to-back championships in 2012 and 2013 with exquisite team defense. LeBron James, Dwayne Wade and Chris Bosh – some of the game’s best players, were among the most unselfish superstars in N.B.A. history.  They played “team ball”, a system of selflessness in which no single player stood out in the team.  But they also knew each other’s strengths and trusted one other completely.  In those seasons, the Heat was able to achieve a level of synergy that is not seen often in any sport.

Synergy in Business

Just as in any sport, synergy is highly desirable in business and gives a business a competitive edge.  It is something that every company or department would love to achieve.  But just as in sports, synergy in business is elusive.  Team members fail to achieve synergy together for various reasons.  The result is ‘Working as an Individual.’  

Sometimes the reason is that one person on the team is the “super star.”  That person must shine brighter than everyone else and that keeps the team from crystalizing into something bigger and better than the individual parts.  Sometimes the reason a team doesn’t achieve synergy is because they don’t have shared thought values, principles and processes; they just don’t fit together.  Other times, there is no synergy because the team has too much turnover and people can’t gel… a serious issue for companies today given that most Millennials and Zellennials don’t stay at a company more than a year or two.  And sometimes there is no synergy because the team is too homogenous; they fit too well and there just isn’t enough diversity of skills, talents and processes to complement one another.   

The reasons for why a company, team or organization can’t build synergy are many.  Given how hard it is to even achieve teamwork, it is not surprising that most companies never enjoy synergy.  But, while it is hard to achieve, it is not impossible.  Stay tuned next week as we delve into the ways to build synergy in business.  Don’t miss it.

Quote of the Week

“Synergy – the bonus that is achieved when many things work together harmoniously.”
Mark Twain

© 2022, Keren Peters-Atkinson. All rights reserved.

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