Agreement

         A friend of mine once told me that "people in agreement have power."  This is the simplest and truest thing that I have ever heard to date, so I thought I would write upon that word.

To reach agreement implies that there are other people involved beyond yourself.  So the simple question is how do people reach agreement?  And, more importantly, what happens once we reach agreement?  Farmer pun approaching ... lets dig in!

Agreement also implies that a conversation is being had.  In a successful conversation, all sides have had a chance to speak their mind and be heard.  To be heard, it is critical that others are listening.  To listen we need to slow down (our own thoughts), stop and consider the words that are being said.

Consideration is the foundation for understanding.  To understand you must literally stand under someone, put yourselves in their shoes.  You have now just opened up your mind to the possibility of agreement, things are on the table.

In conversation, many things are said and considered, but maybe only a few are mutually agreed upon.  And that is a very good thing.  You will not agree with everyone on everything, one of the critical foundations of making a strong independent populace that could never be taken over by tyrants.  These are the foundations of democracy.  One fact is the more limited you are in the items agreed upon, you can gather more people in this agreement.  In other words, keep it simple.  The foundation of states' rights and federalism, limited national government, or as I like to call it, localism.

These handful of ideas that are agreed upon by all, this becomes the foundations for future actions.  We all love action!  Things are happening, we are making plans, people are taking leadership positions based upon strengths and prior experiences.  This is the magical part that we all love, we are working together and moving towards a goal.  All because we took the time to stop, listen, consider, understand and reach agreement.

Side note on the level of agreement.  Would you participate in a group if you voted no for something but in the end it still went through?  If you just answered no to that question, take a moment on that and reflect why?  Unanimous decision requires literally the most basic of definitions and the fewest items.  90% agreement as in the Occupy Wallstreet movement showed little to no action.  50% leads to a divided population with equal power.

Side note on ideal group sizes.  Malcom Gladwell wrote about this subject and he noted that 5.5 was the most efficient and productive per capita, and beyond 12-13 the productivity and cohesiveness really took a nose dive.  Keep it small to really get things done.

A bit more on leadership.  Leadership is taking the reigns on a situation, making the first few steps.  Leadership is also making sure everyone has had a chance to be heard.  Benevolent leaders will take those first bold steps in hopes that it will make everyone else's first few steps that much easier, not to get ahead within the group, but to move the group forward together.  Leaders do the things that others are hesitant to do but need to be done.  Leaders have thick skin and can gracefully listen to and accept constructive criticism.  I wrote more on this subject in my post titled To Preside.

In summary, we have stopped to listen to other free thinking and independent people, considered their words, understood them and have reached agreement on a few things.  Because of leadership, things are happening, the ball is rolling, and we are moving towards the mutually agreed upon goals.

Agreement is so beautiful because it takes time to really do it right.  This time is the foundations for relationships.  What about the common expression to "spend time together" because the action is an investment.  Time is in limited quantity and once the moment has passed there is no getting it back so time is a precious resource.  All of us must determine who we give our time to and how much time we spend alone.  Ahh yes, the great internal balancing act.  Some choose not to address it at all and only be alone, army of one.  Others choose not to use wisdom and discernment and to have shallow, artificial relationships with many people so that really we don't have to know anyone and don't have time for anyone, including ourselves.  Army of none.  Find that happy middle ground to take the time and reach agreement with everyone in your life.