Me Versus We? Or Both?

“People must simultaneously be ‘me,’ an independent individual, and ‘we,’ an interdependent part of groups.” That’s the claim of Jessica Lipnack and Jeffrey Stamps (1997), two experts on networks and virtual teams. “Each of us grapples with an inevitable and continuous tension between the need to differentiate—to enhance our individuality—and the need to integrate—to bond in groups” (p. 112). Their conclusion: cooperation requires individuality.
Autonomy and connection are complementary, not contradictory, needs.
To reframe Lipnack and Stamps’s words a bit, the two divergent themes in American life—individualism and collectivism or autonomy and connection—aren’t necessarily contradictory. Rather, me and we are complementary ...

Get Leading Across Boundaries: Creating Collaborative Agencies in a Networked World now with the O’Reilly learning platform.

O’Reilly members experience books, live events, courses curated by job role, and more from O’Reilly and nearly 200 top publishers.