Too many egos

A little while ago I was in a room with a group discussing their logo. It turned out that they had talked about it a while ago but couldn't agree on one. "Why?" I asked. The answer turned out to be, "Too many egos!"

Organisation are often set up with a collaborative intent, but they are often set up by powerful individuals who all want to be the one that the others collaborate with...

We do this in church life and many church leaders talk about collaborative leadership but live out a form of central authority. We need to learn to be facilitators and enablers - even if it means we are less obviously efficient in our work... at least in the short term...

Today in London, twenty of the worlds most powerful men and women are gathering to talk about the worlds problems. The test that they all face is the challenge of recognising that none of them have all the solutions by themselves. President Obama may be bright, new, powerful and shiny - but he won't achieve anything if he tries to negotiate from a position of strength. Gordon Brown may be the host, but he can't assume that his agenda will have any more priority than that of India, China and Russia. Nicolas Sarkozy would be foolish to walk away and Germany can not go it alone...

True collaboration is a sophisticated and ever developing thing - and those in the room need to remember that it only works if you are conscious of those beyond it. Those who protest also have a voice that needs to be heard and the world's poor must not be ignored. Will the G8 rise to the occasion? I hope so, but it really depends on where they've put their egos.

As for the rest of us, we need to keep listening and recognising that we need every voice. It's slow, I know, but the only way to go.