{"id":44261,"date":"2019-10-01T12:01:18","date_gmt":"2019-10-01T16:01:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.umw.edu\/lcpw\/?p=44261"},"modified":"2019-10-01T12:10:54","modified_gmt":"2019-10-01T16:10:54","slug":"the-whole-is-something-else","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.umw.edu\/lcpw\/2019\/10\/01\/the-whole-is-something-else\/","title":{"rendered":"The Whole is Something Else"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><em>By Cara Parker, Strategic Planning and Leadership Development Consultant and Owner at C Parker Consulting, Inc.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" id=\"longdesc-return-44262\" class=\"alignleft  wp-image-44262\" src=\"https:\/\/www.umw.edu\/lcpw\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/21\/2019\/10\/oct-300x141.jpg\" alt=\"It has been said: The whole is more than the sum of its parts. it is more correct to say that the whole is something else than the sum of its parts because summing up is a meaningless procedure, wheras the whole-part relationship is meaningful. - Kurt Koffka\" width=\"325\" height=\"153\" longdesc=\"https:\/\/www.umw.edu\/lcpw?longdesc=44262&amp;referrer=44261\" srcset=\"\/\/www.umw.edu\/lcpw\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/21\/2019\/10\/oct-300x141.jpg 300w, \/\/www.umw.edu\/lcpw\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/21\/2019\/10\/oct.jpg 327w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 325px) 100vw, 325px\" \/>Kurt Koffka (1886-1941), the German Gestalt psychologist, often gets misquoted as saying, \u201cthe whole is greater than the sum of its parts.\u201d\u00a0 In reality, his famous quote is \u201cthe whole is\u00a0<em>something <\/em><em>else<\/em> than the sum of its parts.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>His quote is relevant when it comes to thinking about our present philosophy of teaming. Individuals are expected to perform at increasing higher levels within their organization.\u00a0 To maximize their performance, most organizations create a teaming environment.\u00a0 Cross-functional teams or matrixed organizations are the norm in organizations from high tech flatter firms to government bureaucracies. Office real estate is even configured to encourage teaming behaviors. They range from open space concepts with huddle rooms for discussions or a lab setting for real-time collaboration on issues.<\/p>\n<p>When individuals intentionally create a high performing team, they do in fact create <em>something else<\/em> or in Koffka\u2019s words, an \u201cindependent existence.\u201d\u00a0 This new \u201csomething\u201d is greatly sought after by managers throughout organizations, because the independent existence results in higher productivity, smiling employees, creativity\/innovation, and greater business results. This new something is called: team optimization.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Evidence of an optimized team:<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>Trust<\/strong>: Individual members must want to be successful and know that all the other team members equally want them to succeed.\u00a0 Trust is established from being transparent and vulnerable with each other in discussions by creating a safe space for expressing ideas.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Decisions<\/strong>: Being courageous and bold to make a decision allows problem solving to be accomplished quickly. Alternatives must be explored, but optimized teams do not get myriad down in analysis paralysis; they decide, move to action, and course correct accordingly.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Goals<\/strong>: Knowing the desired outcome and business result to be achieved encourages healthy collaboration. Clear roles and responsibilities result in accountability toward the goals. Teams should be able to describe their goals as part of their elevator speech.<\/p>\n<p>An optimized team is the <em>something else<\/em> (or independent existence) that Koffka is describing when it comes to organizations.\u00a0 Consider how optimized your team is and determine which characteristic your team excels at &#8211; and which one that may need some tweaking.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By Cara Parker, Strategic Planning and Leadership Development Consultant and Owner at C Parker Consulting, Inc. Kurt Koffka (1886-1941), the German Gestalt psychologist, often gets misquoted as saying, \u201cthe whole is greater than the sum of its parts.\u201d\u00a0 In reality, his famous quote is \u201cthe whole is\u00a0something else than the sum of its parts.\u201d His [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":92,"featured_media":44263,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"umw_cb_additional_links":[[]],"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"sidebar-content","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_advisory_expires_time":"","_advisory_meta_include":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-44261","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-blog","8":"entry"},"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v27.3 (Yoast SEO v27.3) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>The Whole is Something Else - Leadership Colloquium at UMW<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.umw.edu\/lcpw\/2019\/10\/01\/the-whole-is-something-else\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The Whole is Something Else\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"By Cara Parker, Strategic Planning and Leadership Development Consultant and Owner at C Parker Consulting, Inc. Kurt Koffka (1886-1941), the German Gestalt psychologist, often gets misquoted as saying, \u201cthe whole is greater than the sum of its parts.\u201d\u00a0 In reality, his famous quote is \u201cthe whole is\u00a0something else than the sum of its parts.\u201d His [&hellip;]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.umw.edu\/lcpw\/2019\/10\/01\/the-whole-is-something-else\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Leadership Colloquium at UMW\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2019-10-01T16:01:18+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2019-10-01T16:10:54+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.umw.edu\/lcpw\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/21\/2019\/10\/oct-kk.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"116\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"154\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Andrea Cordray\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Andrea Cordray\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.umw.edu\\\/lcpw\\\/2019\\\/10\\\/01\\\/the-whole-is-something-else\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.umw.edu\\\/lcpw\\\/2019\\\/10\\\/01\\\/the-whole-is-something-else\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Andrea Cordray\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.umw.edu\\\/lcpw\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/d5dd706e365b40de51655d8168964a17\"},\"headline\":\"The Whole is Something Else\",\"datePublished\":\"2019-10-01T16:01:18+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2019-10-01T16:10:54+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.umw.edu\\\/lcpw\\\/2019\\\/10\\\/01\\\/the-whole-is-something-else\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":369,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.umw.edu\\\/lcpw\\\/2019\\\/10\\\/01\\\/the-whole-is-something-else\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.umw.edu\\\/lcpw\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/sites\\\/21\\\/2019\\\/10\\\/oct-kk.jpg\",\"articleSection\":[\"blog\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/www.umw.edu\\\/lcpw\\\/2019\\\/10\\\/01\\\/the-whole-is-something-else\\\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.umw.edu\\\/lcpw\\\/2019\\\/10\\\/01\\\/the-whole-is-something-else\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.umw.edu\\\/lcpw\\\/2019\\\/10\\\/01\\\/the-whole-is-something-else\\\/\",\"name\":\"The Whole is Something Else - 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