It would seem that a huge quest for people is to have balance. Balance in their life, their home, business, practice, team etc. Much time and energy is spent trying to bring life into balance and yet all too often this quest is not accomplished.
Maybe our perception of balance has a missing component to it. I suggest that the thing that gives balance its form is time. We could say in the middle of the night that there is no light and that all we have is dark – however, wait for the required time and you receive light for another period of time. In the middle of a heated disagreement in the office, there appears to be no balance. When we look at the short term, it appears that nothing is ever in balance and yet when we look at the long term everything is ultimately in balance – eg seasons, cycles, rise and fall of countries, wealth, political cycles etc
When it comes to your team, you will see the balance in all aspects of the people involved as they interact together. If you have choice in team configuration, make sure that you hire for difference, so you get the benefits of the polarities involved. Whilst at any point in time there may be no balance due to the different character traits being heard on a given issue, in the context of time you will have the harmony that this imbalance brings. It’s an interesting observation that no one is indispensible. Have you ever had someone on your team who you thought was indispensible? Someone who you thought was the balance holder of the team, finally leave? If you have, I am sure that you would have seen the entire team shift and change to another level of function that included the attributes of the recently departed person. All parts are always there – balance is everywhere and nowhere.
