For an enterprise, a team or a partnership to be valuable in itself, as opposed to being valuable as a means to a finite end, it must first establish a unique level of unity. This unity has to go beyond merely mechanical organization of a sum of its many parts. This ability to operate coherently is what creates intrinsic value. There has to be what Bertrand Russell calls “organic unity,” as opposed to mere structural unity.
The idea of unity brings me to this: A concept in Quantum Theory that can be applied to all organizations. When two particles exhibit such “quantum entanglement,” they lose their individual identities, acting now as one system – no longer two entities. A change to one will be experienced by the others – now the whole is greater than the sum of its parts.
Think of this idea in terms of people. When two or more people sincerely and earnestly come together to work toward a common goal, a collective consciousness emerges, allowing the team to act as one. Each entity, be it the individual cell of a human body or a single bee in a colony, is powered by its own intelligence. But the individual minds of the smaller entities collectively form a greater super intelligence that ensures the group’s well-being, thus a higher mind is born. Roger Penrose in Shadow of the Mind observed, that “The unity of a single mind can arise … only if there is some form of quantum coherence extending across an appreciable part of the brain.”
When such coherence is established in teams, individual team members can intuitively recognize what’s required for them to collective succeed. In the case of sports, the goal is to win. In the case of life, the goal is to survive. Each player need not do anything extraordinary or make any significant sacrifice to participate in these cooperative ventures.
When two or more people sincerely and earnestly come together to work toward a common goal, a collective consciousness emerges, allowing the team to act as one
By understanding the internal collaboration of such intricate ecosystems and teamwork, we come to better know ourselves.
If organizations aim at this level of synchronicity among its associates, then something beautiful can happen. This is when the whole becomes more than sum of its parts. This is how organizations become a uniquely valuable contributor to making the world as we know it a far better place.
