What Would It Take for Us to Come Together?

The divide feels real.

Politically, racially, financially, the separation seems to be growing. At least that’s what I see in the work I do with people and organizations across the country.

There is a spoken, and often unspoken, feeling of separation. And underneath that, a quiet sense of hopelessness about what to do.

Over the last month, I’ve heard it all.

“Burn it all down.”
“Trust the politicians.”
“Elect new ones.”
Even a passionate call for a savior—someone, something, to come fix it.

The interesting thing is… every person who says these things means it. And each one is convinced they are right—and that everyone else is wrong.

I see the same dynamic inside companies.

Different agendas. Different priorities. Different perspectives. And each group believes theirs is the most important. What does that create?

Silos.

One of the most infectious and destructive patterns in any organization.

When companies ask me what they can do, the first thing I offer is this:

Reinforce or develop a common mission.

A shared mission is often the first step toward reconnecting, healing, and collaborating.

We all know this. We also know how hard it is. Because right now, in this country, your family or possibly in your department at work, there is no common mission.
And if we’re honest… we’re not even really trying to create one.

Some might say we have tried—through patriotism, religion, science, children, truth, even love.

But many of these have been co-opted and turned into:
“This is the way… and the problem is them.”

And when that happens, those ideas are no longer unifying.

They are used at the expense of others.

Our tendency to blame and scapegoat is one of the easiest patterns to see in history—and one of the hardest to change.

We still seem to need an enemy to come together.

But if that’s our common cause, then we are repeating a cycle that has failed over and over again.

If I’m being honest, I don’t think we are going to find a shared national mission anytime soon.

So the question becomes:

What can we do in the meantime? I believe it starts with the individual.

Not in a grand, abstract way, but in a very practical one.

Seeing ourselves as part of something larger.

Astronaut Victor Glover while on the Artimus II orbiting the earth said,
“From up here, you all look like one thing… you’re all one people.”

Now, that might sound idealistic. But what would your workplace feel like if everyone saw themselves as part of the same whole?

Not identical. Not in agreement on everything.
But connected.

What if you didn’t feel like you had to be on guard all the time?
What if you didn’t feel like you had to protect yourself in every interaction?
What if you didn’t need to make someone else wrong in order to feel right?

What if you simply understood that each person brings a piece of something necessary?

That’s not “woo.”
That’s how healthy teams—and healthy communities—actually function.

If we stripped away the layers of fear, greed, and self-righteousness, we would likely find that we have far more in common than we think.

So maybe if we started to see the connection we could see that we have more in common than our fears, judgments and biases tell us about our differences.

 

Your Personal Mission Statement

The next step might be that each of us develops our own personal mission statement.

To know our personal why, beyond fear and greed, and to begin living from our True Nature and values. When we do that, we start to see that our real motivations, needs, and purpose are not in contrast to others, but are part of something larger.

I’ve always felt that this universe has a need, and you are the fulfillment of that need.

We need each other. We need to find common ground. But that’s difficult to do if we don’t first know what we stand for, what we value, and why we’re here.

When you begin to understand and live your why, something shifts. You start to see that others are not as different as they may seem. That we are not in opposition—we are interconnected, each bringing a piece of a much bigger picture.

I’ve created a simple template that can help you begin to discover your why. Use the QR code to download the questions, and at this month’s gathering we can share—only if you’d like—what we discover.

Not to compare, not to debate, but to see something very real:

That we are not so different…

And that we don’t need an enemy to come together, to find common ground, and to build something meaningful as one.

Let’s talk about this at our next gathering.

Join me Wednesday, May 6th at 6:30 PST
Here is the link:

https://us02web.zoom.us/j/87814168399