As we read about international politics, it's clear to see that vast philosophical differences as well as personal traits, beliefs, and ambitions often make it difficult for individuals, states, countries, and regions to get along, compromise, and make good decisions.
In thinking about this, I think it may be a good idea for all of us to study diplomacy. I also find myself revering those diplomats that are able to forge humane paths of peace between individuals and states that have vast philosophical differences as well as differing beliefs, ambition, and traits.
I'm thinking about times in my life when philosophical differences, beliefs, ambition, and traits stood in the way between me and others. What did I do? How did I react? What did I learn?
Honestly for most of my life I was in groups that held mostly similar philosophical perspectives, beliefs, traits, and ambitions. Only in the recent past did I find myself challenged more by those who differed with me in this regard. In facing these differences, I can say that I wasn't prepared as to how to handle this. In hindsight, I wish I had a guide book, consultation, or the wisdom to recognize what this means and what one has to do to reach good compromise and connection.
I'd like to take this apart a bit. I'll start with a situation that occurred when I was teaching. I was very invested in changing schools to make them more child-friendly with the focus on enjoyable, successful learning for every child. I joined a large number of groups of similarly-focused educators, attended conferences, read books, and studied this topic in depth. I learned a lot and liked what I learned. I also was happy with the results as I implemented many related ideas and practices in the classroom. Then came the opportunity to change the way my classroom looked in order to foster greater collaboration and hands-on project work. I requested the purchase of aesthetically pleasing, large wooden tables rather than the desks we always had. The request was denied at least once and perhaps a few times. Then I wrote a grant proposal to an organization that typically funded innovative ideas and the grant was approved. The beautiful tables arrived, and they functioned exactly how I wanted them too, but some in the school building did not approve of this switch. They deemed the desk arrangement to be a much more successful classroom set-up, but because the grant organization held some clout in the district, I was able to keep the tables. Soon after I left, the expensive, beautiful tables were removed, and I don't think they were ever put back in the classroom which saddened me because they were such a wonderful change for teaching and learning in my opinion. Philosophical differences were at the base of why I didn't get the tables in the first place and why they weren't well received when they arrived and, in part, removed after I left. They were also removed due to the COVID epidemic requirements.
How could we have thought together about our differing philosophies related to the tables from the start? As I think about it, very little time was spent thinking together about our ultimate goals in education and for the school. In some ways, the shared goals were somewhat superficial involving good performances on tests, but we had few objective goals related to teaching all students well and teaching in more modern, invigorating ways. It's too bad that we didn't make more time for teams to think about this together. Also, for many, discussions about the actual environment and furniture that make up a classroom were not a top priority, but for me, a person who is greatly affected by my surroundings, it was a high priority--the environment I'm in does greatly influence my mood, efforts, and success.
So as I think about this, I think it's important to make time to discuss differing philosophies with depth, yet that can be a hot bed of struggle since our philosophies include our biases, experiences, ambition, traits and so much more. It's not that simple. As I think about the world stage, we witness leaders meeting who have vast differences in philosophy seemingly trying to work for some compromise. When we align with a leader, we generally agree with what they are willing to agree to, but when we don't agree, we may disapprove or truly be frightened or angered by what they are willing to do, give up, or agree to. It's a complex situation.
Bringing it back to my life, clearly when you work on a team, you have to decide on what it is that you are doing and what you agree on together. Without clear parameters, goals, and efforts, the teamwork can become very, very messy. I often refer to the most successful teamwork I had the privilege to be apart of--in general, it was a school situation and our relationships with students as well as successful holistic learning was our common goal and we helped each other achieve that goal by way of our collective and individual strengths. There were points of disagreement, but in each case, we fell back on our ultimate aim and easily let go of issues that got in the way of that.
As for my most unsuccessful teamwork situations, there was never a point of envisioning what it was that we believed in together and what we were working for together. There were a lot of assumptions made by all team members, but we never discussed those assumptions. Roles were often muddy and difficult to discern. I often entered these situations blindly and stupidly thinking that everyone shared my vision for the teamwork, when in reality our philosophies differed greatly in terms of experience, research, vision, traits, process, and beliefs. I didn't expect such a difference--I thought we were a lot more alike than we were. That was a big surprise to me. I was naive.
In general, I want people to get along, find common understanding, and work together for both their personal good and the greater good. I think that's a positive aim. We can all improve in our efforts to be apart of successful teams, and some teamwork will be more difficult than others. Each life experience comes with lessons for betterment, I'll heed the lessons I've learned as I move along in life.
