When people say 1 + 1 = 3 (or greater), they talk about synergy.
synergy (noun): the working together of two things (muscles or drugs for example) to produce an effect greater than the sum of their individual effects
Today, I learned that the reverse is also true. It’s possible for 1 + 1 to result in less than the expected 2. In a best 2 out of 3 shootout with team Flesh Wound, my team (Storm) lost the first two games. In the first game (we lost 0-5), we were the most shorthanded we have ever been, with something like 7 or 8 players only, and missing some of our best players too. Before today’s game (the second game), I was all excited and was confident we could take them. Why? Because we had our best players show up, and we had almost twice as many players. So I figured, if we lost 0-5 the first time, we’re going to win this time, or tie the game at the very least.
How wrong I was. We lost 1-10. So just to analyze the situation from a purely statistical point of view, my explanation to this is — in the first game, despite having less players and less skilled players, we worked together like a well oiled-machine. In our second game however, with the increased strength in numbers and more skilled players, we failed to work together like a tightly-knit group. The increased headcount required increased effort in working together — which we did not. Not only did we fail to capitalize on our advantage, we created a vulnerability in the way we played.
I won’t lie that I’m totally bummed out. Yes, I was emotionally invested, and I set myself up for the disappointment. But if you play like you’re going to lose, you’re probably going to lose anyway. So I played like we were going to win, even if that means setting myself up for a disappointment. It’s important to acknowledge my disappointment, so that I can now let it dissipate.
Just to extrapolate the lesson learned to building a team at work, it’s kind of like having super-star employees on your team. If they don’t play well with each other and each do their own thing, not only will that zero-out any possibility of synergy (meaning, 1 + 1 = >3), but that may even cause negative synergy (1 + 1 = >2).
Does anyone know the antonym for synergy? Negative synergy?