Insight: Stumbling into fate by Lorraine Glowczak

It happens about 95 percent of the time. I’m amazed at the serendipity that occurs between the subject I choose to write for my weekly editorial and the quote of the week.

It is true that I personally pick the quote of the week early Monday morning before I set out for the day. I also personally write the editorial. But, I randomly pick the quote with no idea what kind of “insight” I will stumble upon by early Wednesday morning when I sit down to discover what I have learned in the past seven days.

This week’s chosen quote is, “As one we are smart, but together we are brilliant.” I picked that quote before my meetings and interviews with the Raymond Age Friendly Community grant recipients (you’ll have to wait for next week’s edition), Melissa and Michael Hutchison – the parents of Kelli of whom the Kelli 5K is named; and attending the Windham Community Skate Park public meeting.

As I went from one meeting to the next – I met the most resilient, passionate and dedicated people. I saw nothing but pure brilliance in every instance. It is as if the quote was a premonition of what I was to encounter throughout my work day.

I realize there is a lot of strife and I’m not denying the fact that there is also struggle that can, has and may continue to divide us from time to time. But because the newspaper’s focus and mission are to provide positive and solution-based news, I see more harmony within the Windham and Raymond communities than I witness discord.

This is what I have observed in one day’s work (with a little help from the blog, nutcache.com):

Synergy. I saw what the combined action of separate entities can accomplish that would not exist otherwise.

Sharing resources. Everyone is great at one thing and when you bring all those “one smart resources” together – brilliance happens.

Increased community awareness. By being a part of bigger groups, the message is spread more quickly and better relayed to the community. 

Innovation. Much of what happens is a result of challenges. The collaboration I have witnessed this week has transformed difficult problems into exceptional resolutions.

So, what is my lesson for the week? Let me serve as a reminder of two things. 1) Despite all the ugliness and dissention that exists, there really are decent, moral and noble people in the world who are creating good and livable societies. 2) It may be true, after all – you do get to experience what you focus upon. I guess I’m a very lucky editor and reporter to work for a newspaper that focuses on the positive. And perhaps it was fate that this newspaper exists among the two brilliant communities of Windham and Raymond.

Thank you. Keep up the good work. You make this job the best job I’ve ever had.

www.nutcache.com/blog/benefits-of-collaboration-between-organizations-and-teams/