No Agreement Today

No Agreement today

Disagreeable people can’t achieve great things together. Fela sang:

No agreement today, no agreement tomorrow

If one looks around and lists the people that they are in regular contact with and find there is no one in that list that will do what they tell them to, there are only two things to do. One is to accept that no great thing will be achieved in this life (since nothing can be achieved alone). Two is to find new people.

Working with people effectively boils down to being an exchange of commands or suggestions. If someone says ‘no’ to all your suggestions then you are wasting time together. Music is an easy example for illustrating the symbiotic nature of producing a final product. If the vocalist and record producer say ‘no’ to each other’s suggestions on how the work should go, a time will come when it will be imperative they shake hands and say good bye.

Great partnerships like the one between Michael Jackson and Quincy Jones involves a certain amount of give and take. There has to be agreement on the genre of music, the type of instrumentalists and choice of songs. The first run is never mutually satisfactory especially when great perfectionists are involved and that means more suggestions and instructions of what to try to make things better.

Some instructions in partnerships are not even spoken out. When agreeableness and compatibility are reached a certain stage, things become telepathic. We see that in football when great players like Nwankwo Kanu (Arsenal FC) used to send out those defence splitting passes deep from mid field that had the stadium wondering who he was passing to. Like the delivering of a baton to a runner, the pass becomes an instruction and the striker runs like the wind and latches onto the ball scoring the goal.

People who hate each other have been known to work well and achieve great things together because when professional matters came up they collaborated, responded to cues and fought for each other. Outside of the professional arena they might not even send each other Christmas cards.

These are environments of trust. People knowing that they are working with someone who can deliver and thus are willing to break their necks to see the vision come to pass. That is when teams become well-oiled machines, communication is frictionless and collaboration is the main thing on the agenda.

Unfortunately many never find themselves in these environments where their views are respected or even trusted. Rather than just get used to this ‘hopeless’ situation an urgent self-appraisal is needed. Questions like: Who am I? What do I do best? What do I bring to the table? Have I improved my skills to the best I can? Have I demonstrated what I am capable of to others? Need to be asked and answered truthfully.

Next the people around need to be studied. Do they have ambition? Are they willing to work hard and develop themselves? Are there goals they are aiming for? Do they have the talents and skills required to achieve the share objectives?

If an individual and the people around them have not developed skills or have no shared objectives or vision then nothing gets done. No one trusts each other and no one believes in any one.  One going nowhere usually believes that if you were going somewhere you wouldn’t be hanging around them all day. So why should they take suggestions from someone who they feel is going nowhere?

People complain about how dissatisfied they are in relationships all day long and the usual suspects keep on complaining year in year out without changing themselves or their circle. Sometimes they don’t get admitted into more progressive circles because they have not ‘paid their dues’.

Some groups of people listen to one another and these are the professionals. The lawyers, accountants and even boxers! You cannot turn up in a boxing gym and start giving suggestions on how to swing a punch just because you have Sky TV and have watched a few bouts. You need to have won a belt or passed some coaching exams and be known in the sporting fraternity before anyone listens.

The same is true with the Army. There are people who give orders that no one argues with but it takes years of training to be a senior commanding officer.  

We trust authority figures; familiar faces, lovers, and those we see standing in front of great crowds such as pop stars, Politicians, religious leaders and captains of industry. Some of these people worked their way up through hard work and doing what they were instructed to do, and sometimes over performing on their targets. Family, childhood friends and lovers are familiar faces that can be trusted but might never agree with any progressive thought or ideas and can turn out to be stumbling blocks or even mountains.

Once in a while you may get a student arguing on some points with teachers but by and large people headed for the top in any profession start out learning and developing their own learning styles. A trainee heart surgeon cannot be arguing with the boss when the patient lies on the table with the chest open and neither would the army cadet be arguing with the commandant of the military school in lessons. People who work collaboratively know the value of listening and communicating and this comes from training. Astronauts on the Space station miles above the earth would have learnt how to resolve conflicts as a fight in outer space will endanger the crew and valuable equipment.

That environment of no agreement is toxic. Nothing grows there. Planting seeds in the Sahara will not be fruitful as the dry hot sand cannot respond to the demands of the seed for a cooler soil rich in moisture. No agreement today, no agreement tomorrow, no chance of success.

Plant that same seed in a different location and the fruits are surplus.

Can two walk together unless they agree?

It is usually best to observe people and test them. Pretend you are doing a lot of talking and then suggest things. See if they brain storm your ideas with you or they just dismiss them and argue for hours on why these ideas will fail.

Mark these people and avoid them like Ebola because for the next hundred years you would still not achieve anything good with them in your life.