“Then make me truly happy by agreeing wholeheartedly with each other, loving one another, and working together with one mind and purpose.”

There is always an underlying tension between working together with co-workers or working independently. In business, within companies, we need to work together, towards a common purpose or we will never succeed. The Economist magazine wrote, “Business is a remarkable exercise in cooperation. For all the talk of competition ‘red in tooth and claw’, companies in fact depend on persuading large numbers of people – workers and bosses, shareholders and suppliers – to work together to a common end. This involves getting lots of strangers to trust each other. It also increasingly involves stretching trust across border…the word company is derived from the Latin words cum and pane, meaning ‘breaking bread together.'” Let’s remember this the next time we are requested to go our to dinner with someone else in the company. We may not want to go, but that time breaking bread together is all part of finding the cooperation that makes business work.

I personally am not the biggest fan of lots and lots of time being spent with each outside of work (because I like to spend time at home too), but I get how important it is to spend time with our co-workers outside of the office. What can be powerful about this time is that we get to establish relationships that are deeper than we could ever reach in the office. It is in these times that we get the opportunity to reveal the areas of our life that are important to us, like our faith. How we think about this time, is important. As we break bread with others, then let’s not forget that true cooperation comes from when we share a set of values and principles with someone else. And, let’s not miss this unique opportunity we have to share what is most important to each of us.

Reference: Philippians 2:1-3 (New Living Testament)