Lao Tzu: The Power of Teams (Article for www.coachiates.com "News & Views" page for February 2004)

Following our Lao Tzu quote on the front page of this website we have pleasure in introducing to you some more ideas of and insights into Lao Tzu, a gifted scholar and the custodian of the Chinese Imperial Archives twenty six centuries ago, during the reign of the Chou Dynasty. We find the ideas thought provoking and astonishingly "modern". This underlines our suggestion that coaching and its contents are nothing new, just obviously had been forgotten for a long time. Therefore we like to introduce "old" concepts and check what is in them for us today.

What were Lao Tzu's ideas of teamwork, the role of its team members and the 'mechanisms' of team processes?

Lao's ideas regarding teams improve the awareness and understanding of individual power and knowledge in relation to others, whether team members or other individuals in the organization. They explore the power that is within everyone and challenge people to create true meaning in their work. In addition, they ask organizations to become places of learning, where the force of these ideas can be channeled into productive, high performance endeavors.

The Substance
Lao Tzu's ideas are designed to open the mind to the realities of how people form fully functioning, high-performance teams that are not often found in the workplace. The ideas inspire everyone to rethink the concept of team participation and encourage them to discover new meaning for their work. The substance of team power is as follows:

Know who you are
- Walk the world around you and understand fully your experiences.
- Do not depend on the opinions of others; to do so takes away your opportunity to better understand yourself.
-Trust your intuition and use it to direct events without using force.
-Lead others by example.
-Let people manage themselves.
-Develop a strong idea of how to resolve conflict.
-Apply the least complex things in life.
-Understand that every project begins with a first step.


Power of Teams

Lao Tzu says that each team member potentially possesses power, so that each can contribute in a synergistic way to the team and the organization. It gives strength to each person to align with the forces in nature.
When team members feel powerless, they react negatively. When pushed to the extreme, they feel fear. And when they are fearful for a long time, they may feel hopeless and that all is lost. The result is that both the team and the organization fail.Good team members never need to show their power, although others will listen to them.
True power in team members is the ability to influence without effort. Powerful team members influence others by example and by modeling behaviors that contribute to overall team effectiveness. Within teams, powerful people have great presence. They influence those who come into contact with them by simply being present. Team members who can relate to the universal force are actively engaged in defining and redefining their personal reality and existence. This is the force behind the team power.

The Universe and the Power of Teams

The Power has been described as a unified force field that reveals a basic oneness of the universe. It has been suggested that all changes in the universe are the result of the interaction between the polar opposites: yin (negative) and yang (positive). Activity in the Power is a continuous interplay between these forces. From this principle, we can deduce two rules for team conduct: (1) whenever you want to achieve anything, look also at its opposite, and (2) when you want to keep something, include in it a bit of its opposite.
Change in the universe occurs not as the result of one strong force acting on something or someone else, but rather as a result of a tendency that is natural in all things and situations. Change is natural. Using force is unnatural.

Movement within the Power is not directive, it occurs naturally and spontaneously. Since unforced activity is the Power's principle of action, spontaneity should be a highly rewarded characteristic of all team interactions.

Acting in harmony with the universe means acting according to your values and beliefs. It means trusting your intuitive intelligence, which is innate to the human mind, just as the laws of change are innate in all things around us. If one refrains from acting contrary to nature or from going against the grain of things, one is in harmony with the Power and, thus, one's actions will be successful.

Thinking and the Power of Teams

Lao Tzu's ideas were originally written in a subjective rather than an analytical manner (the Western learning and reading style). His ideas, looked at from both a subjective and an analytical point of view are engaging and initiating a right-brain and left-brain thinking processes.

By engaging both parts of the brain, we open ourselves to an understanding of The Power of Teams from both perspectives. The goal of this approach is to create a balance or alignment - between how we feel and think - with other people in the team. This is necessary if we are going to be working both efficiently and effectively. Our focus must be as strong on relationship (right-brain) aspects of our interactions with others as on the task-oriented (left-brain), impersonal side of our behavior.

This article is based on the following book: The Tao of Teams, A Guide to Team Success, Cresencio Torres, Toppan Company (S) Pte Ltd, Pfeiffer & Company.

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