competition vs collaboration

I'm sure I'm not alone when I say I work for a company that really needs to get its act together. My day job is for a national company with a number of branches that are so concerned with their own bottom line, they bicker, fight, and rip each other off rather than cooperate. What's more, the divisions within the branches and even corporate are also pitted against each other. It's not an "organization." It's a collective of sub-groups, each with their own focus, who are so concerned with their own benchmarks that getting something done for the good of the customer is next to impossible. Shipping fights with sales; sales fights credits; branch fights branch; IT fights everybody. Perhaps if some central figure brought everyone to the table - or better yet in the short term, simply took on absolute authority - some sort of cohesion could be restored and organization could be more than just an empty dream. But right now... it's chaos.

I was thinking about this as I left work for dress rehearsal at the school where I teach, thinking how lucky I am - for the moment - that the theater I direct there is not so divided. There's no bickering between front stage and backstage, wardrobe and props, or even administration and theater. There's a common goal and central leadership to keep everyone focused and working together.

I've been on youth committees where nothing gets done because everyone has to have a say and argue. I've been in churches where the music team fights the drama team and won't even allow them a five minute mic check while they spend fifteen tuning their guitars. When we become so divided that nothing gets done, order needs to be restored. God should be the ultimate authority, but there must be a desk where the buck stops. Doesn't matter if its a music minister, a worship arts minister, or whatever. Someone needs to take charge, bring everyone together, and post the same sign that hung outside the "We Are the World" recording session: Check your egos at the door.

United we stand. Divided... we look like total morons.