People are always asking me this question; How come that democracy (giving people the right to express their opinions) always leads to argument, competition and conflicting with each other, yet when these same people came together for the sake of working as a team? 

Answer; You should remember that democracy is the human right which enables us as human beings to express our motives, desires, thoughts, ideas and experiences.

Democracy does not hold people accountable if their ideas, motives and behaviours turns out to be dangerous, insulting and disrespectful towards someone else or their society…

In the case of working together as a team, there must be a willingness of putting aside our democracy, and replace democracy with the attribute of mutual respect, so that we may work towards a collective goal or collective aim.

Step 1: Using democracy as a platform of speaking out:

Democracy is a platform where you allow the members of a group to voice their opinions, ideas, experiences, desires, thoughts and dreams.

In within the voiced ideas, thoughts, experiences etc, there is going to be useble and unuseble ideas, ideas that you can use and those that are not compatible with the vision you are trying to impliment or stand for.


Step 2: Separate the useble ideas from the unuseble ones:

In step 2 this is when the leader of the group (he or she) uses his leadership skills to compliment the useble ideas, so that the good (useble) ideas can be justified and secured to know that they are qualified to become building materials for the vision.

Things to avoid: avoid letting the members of the group to choose for themselves which ideas will go to the next level, because if this choice is left for the members of the group to deal with on their own, this is when conflicts, arguments and strife over whose idea is the best takes over the group.

(People will start to use their ideas to compete, to put down others, to insult, to show off etc), if the group lacks a stable organic vision or leadership, this is when democracy becomes an expression of extreme wild behaviors which leads to conflicts and strife in within the group. 


Step 3: Useble ideas transformed into building blocks for the vision.

In step 3 This is when you start to give reponsibility to the group or team according to the capacity of each individual.

Turning the ideas into structured templates which enables the members of the group (team) to contribute towards the building of the vision. The utilizing of talents or skills in a disciplined and organized manner which enhances mutual respect and team work.

Article written by Ap Ngabo Flimpoman for Conscious lifestyle