Page - 111 - in Reflective Cosmopolitanism - Educating towards inclusive communities through Philosophical Enquiry

CHRIsTIAN (MANUAL) 111 wider approach is to consider team members as parts of a whole where the whole is the team; similarly, we view a community as a complex system that is not just the sum of its parts. In order to work in the best way, a complex system needs coordination, balance, harmony, and understanding between its parts. In any complex system, from living organisms to communities, an important element for its proper functioning and thriving existence is the balance between its parts and the whole, and the relation between each individual and the community itself. For a community to value what is good for the group above personal achievement, it must create a feeling of solidarity through which each individual feels identified with the community without losing his individual- ity, and it must find a balance between individual and community development. That feeling allows each member of the community to focus not only on his position or personal achieve- ment, but to also value the common good, and to see how his individual achievements will be also met with the growth of the community. This line of thinking allows the individual to un- derstand that common good is a greater good, which we could never accomplish individually. Exercise/Activity: What is a good team? In the following exercise you will see different situations. Establish which show a good team, which a bad team and which have insufficient information to make this distinction. Explain your answers and try to think about what must be done to turn a team which plays badly into a team which plays well. What has to be changed? Situation Good Bad ??? Reasons We are all good friends on the team but we often argue about how to do things. Whenever we have a problem, it´s the captain who solves it. He knows what´s best and we must obey him. We get on well but we sometimes get angry because we don’t agree. We get on very well and we like being together even if we are not all friends. Whenever we have a disagreement, it’s always the same people who back down because Arturo, Os- car and Pedro think they are always right and their opinion never changes. Even when we argue, we always go back home to- gether while chatting happily. We can tell each other the things we do wrong with- out getting angry because we know our teammates are not trying to annoy us; they are trying to help. We all know that the important thing is the team, and if I have to stay on the bench because I am not a very good player, I understand, because it is good for the team.