Synergy: Unleashing the Potential of the Organization INTRODUCTION The key for the success of every strategy is synergy.

Needless to say, in an organization, one cannot overemphasize the significance of synergy. Accordingly, it is very important in achieving optimum performance of the group towards achieving the organizations institutionalized mission and vision. We are committed to a world where I win, you win, and the Earth wins. WinWin Win. (Peter A. Corning) With the advent of the 21 st century, organizations are being challenged to reconfigure in ways that will make them better able to make them advantage of innovative technologies and be satisfactory places for people to work collaboratively and cooperatively. In the knowledge based economy that Peter Drucker espouses, the real value of an organization relies in its peoples ability to work. And people simply cannot think creatively if they do not feel a sense of ownership of their work and if they not do have the freedom to give full scope to their talents right in their own place of work. Understanding Synergy In a little know book published in 1965 entitled Eupsychian Management where Abraham Maslow delved into the intricacies of workplace productivity, he introduced the term enlightened management and the idea of business synergy. It urged managers to share power with their teams and to pursue continual improvement. Synergy, which has origins as a theological term describing the cooperation of human effort with the divine will is one of those 90s words that resulted into business jargon and was described as one with unlimited potentials and dynamic possibilities. In the very best sense of the word it is the vital component in the make up of any management team. To grow the top and bottom lines of any organization competing against one another, a well coordinated, complementary management team is a must. Synergy, came from the Greek word synergos which means together and work. It means working together, operating together as in Co-Operation, laboring together as in Co-Laboration, acting together as in Co-Action. Broadly defined, synergy refers to the combined co-operative effects; literally it means the effects produced by things that operate together such as parts, elements or individuals in an organization. The term is frequently associated with the slogan the whole is greater than the sum of its parts. It is also described as the difference between the combined effect and the sum of individual effects resulting from the interaction of a group of humans, agents or forces. This means that the effects produced by wholes are different from what the parts can produce alone. Synergy occurs when group performance from group action of members exceeds expectations based on perceived abilities and skills of individual members. It is produced only when group members work in an interconnected and interrelated way. The goal of synergetic union is to accomplish a larger, more difficult task than can be accomplished by individuals working separately. Groups can have a positive assembly affect called positive synergy which is characterized by an output superior than the output produced by the individual members of the group. On the

other hand, there is also that possibility that synergy can also happen. This takes place when groups encounter process loss fortune, naked truth, play the fool, truth will out, and others without at times knowing that you are quoting Shakespeare. It has been estimated that about 24,000 different words are used in Shakespeares writings. Thus, he probably had the largest vocabulary of any author. English language loaned many words from the works of Shakespeare. From Macbeth come the words assassination and fitful. Courtship and educate first appeared in Loves Labours Lost. Dwindle comes from Henry IV; fretful from Henry VI; barefaced from A Midsummer Nights Dream; and eventful from As You Like It. How these words have helped shape English minds and how they influence the psyche and consciousness of modern readers is undeniably remarkable. The universality and timelessness of his themes is beyond refutation by any literary critic. His themes range from high idealism of youthful dreams and exuberant spirits; poetic fantasies; Systems Theory and Synergy During the 1940s and World War II, system analysis emerged. This viewpoint uses system concepts and quantitative approaches from mathematics, statistics, engineering and other related subjects to solve problems. Managers used the systems approach to find optimal solutions to management problems. A system is an interrelated and interdependent set of elements functioning as a whole. It is an open system that interacts with its environment. It is composed of inputs from the environment (material or human resources), transformation processes of inputs to finished goods. (technological and managerial processes), outputs of the finished goods into the environment (product or services, and feedback (reactions from the environment). Figure 1. INPUTS TRANSFORMATION PROCESSES

OUTPUT

FEEDBACK

ENVIRONMENT FIGURE 1. FOUR PARTS OF OPEN SYSTEM Subsystems are system within a broader system. Interdependent subsystems such as finance, human resources, production, research, etc, - work toward synergy in an attempt to accomplish an organizational goal that could not otherwise be accomplished by a single subsystem. Systems develop synergy. This is a condition in which the combined and coordinated actions of the parts of a system achieve more than all the parts could have achieved acting independently.

Implications of Synergy in Organization Various forms of synergy have been responsible for the progressive evolution of complex, functionally organized biological and social systems.

Underlying each of the many complexification process a common functional principle has been at work synergism. In the other words, the functional effects or synergy produced by co operating objects and individuals have themselves been the very cause of the trend toward more complex systems. Literally, things that operate together have themselves been the very cause of the trend toward more complex system, in voluntary processes, effects are also causes. 1. Organizations must learn to make seriously the contingent and interdependent nature of causation in complex systems. Evidently, it is important that every manager / leader in organization in order to bring about synergy must be able to know how to handle people, motivate people and understand basically the intricacies of human nature insofar as interdependence and interrelatedness is concerned. Collections of interacting parts we call systems not only produce synergies but these synergies have in turn become important sources of causation in the furthering the evolutionary process. Highly successful organizations continue to grow and expand because of synergy while some organizations go through entropy, a process that lead to decline. This is due to inability of the organizations to coordinate and combine all resources as one to achieve its goals and objectives. Through the combined efforts of individuals, parts and elements, synergistic effects have become an important influence in shaping human activity and human culture, not to mentioned their far reaching impacts on human development, land use, resource consumption and the natural environment. The synergism hypothesis requires us to focus on the both wholes and parts. In evolutionary processes both biological and socio cultural / technological; parts and wholes exert mutual and reciprocal causal influences on one another. Over the course time, evolving parts are shaped by their functional relationships on the performance of wholes . . . and vice versa. Benefits of a Synergistic Environment 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. Work is less stressful. Responsibility is share. Individual members have greater feelings of self- worth. Reward and recognition are shared. Individual members have the ability to influence the another. All members of the organization experience a sense of accomplishment. Achievement of goals are assured

2.

Developing Organizational Synergy Organizational synergy cannot be nurtured unless there is an environment that allows individuals to work as a team collaboratively and cooperatively. The following are valuable considerations in developing organizational synergy. 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. Establish a common identity. Focus on common goals and objectives. Identify and recognize a common leadership. Stress the value of working together as a team. Define specific roles for each team / group member. Decision making is a responsibility that should be shared.

Web of Inclusion: A Paradigm Shift in Achieving Synergy According to Sally Helgesen (1995) most organizations are still structured on a 19 century model; rigid and hierarchical with emphasis on order, rank boundary and division which restricts flow of communication. For organizations to thrive in the 21st century, must build flexible and human-centered webs of inclusion. Unlike the old organizational structure, the web of inclusion puts its leader at the center rather than at the top, it emphasizes accessibility and flow of communication and includes people in decision making.
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For managers, leaders in organizations and professionals to understand the concept of the web of inclusion as a means of distinguishing it from the organizational models; the purpose, architecture, processes and characteristics are presented and discussed. Purpose. The web of inclusion is a model helping us redesign the institutions that frame our lives(Helgesen, 1995) it demonstrate the universe in operation. : not as a precisely calibrated great machine in which each constituent part is locked in its own immutable slot, but rather as pulses of energy that continually evolve and assume shifting shapes as the various elements interact and in which identity is inseparable from relationship. Architecture. The web of inclusion provides a way of relating parts to a greater whole. Because a web is built from the center out, the development is a never ending process. At the center of the web is not the CEO, the President or the Manager but the mission, the goal, the task and what is necessary. Through the warp and the woof of the web of inclusion, everyone is equally connected with the center and with anyone else. It is the pattern of relationships and connections instead of isolations and divisions. The tools used are not force, not the ability to used commands, but providing access and engaging in constant dialogues. Process. The web process is more than a team approach. It plays a lasting role with its emphasis on process as well as structure which establishes new ways of approaching problems, of thinking, of connecting people, of giving them information and motivating them, thus transformations of the organization is achieved. More than a pattern, the web of inclusion can be defined as a process. This is best describe in terms of the principles by which they operate: Open communication Freely flowing information is an essential components of webs. Information without regard for position and right to know adds a sense of security and destroy uncertainty, thereby building morale Blurred distinction between conception and execution thinking and doing are inextricably linked 3. Lasting networks that redistribute power Unlike traditional organizational models, webs are not disbanded at the end of each task. By maintaining the connections across the levels, the teams are able to keep and expand those linkages to the benefit of the organization. Constant reorganization New ways of connecting people are needed in order for organizations to be adaptable to every changing situations and to redefine the nature of its business . Continual Reorganizations is facilitated because web are so permeable.

Expansion to the world outside The web, by its very nature, can expand to include collaborative efforts with other individuals and groups to expand its reach and scope. Acceptance of trial and error The ability to try one approach and then other to discover that works and what doesnt provides and effective strategy for operating in a crisis when there is a little time to prepare detailed plans. The web of inclusion is characterized by: 1. Permeability. The terms means there are no fixed borders either within the organization or between the organization and its environment. It allows attention to be focused on what needs to be done rather than who has the authority to do it. 2. Improvisation. It means prompt and on the spot revision of the action to suit the current necessity. This approach facilitates discovery of small mistakes and correlation of them before they become so big as to threaten the whole project. 3. High reliability. Different departments in modern organizations are so interwoven with each other that they rely on each other for successful fulfillment of not only their departmental tasks. Consequently, a small mistake in one department may expand into a whole organizational disaster. High reliability grants all players equal importance. REFERENCES Black, J. and Whitney, F.C. Introduction to Mass Communication, 3rd ed. Iowa: Wm. C. Brown Publishers, 2001. Daprix, R. Communicating for Productivity. New York: Harper and Row, 2002. Jamieson, A. Communication at Work. London: Arnold Press, 2000. Tortoviello, T.R., et. Al. Communication in the Organization: An Applied Approach. New York: McGraw-Hill Book Co., 2002.