In my daily life, I am grateful to work with so many people and organizations doing good together.  And one of the realities of teamwork is that it’s not rainbows all the time.

So how do you work together to be the best team that you can be now and in the future? The key is in having shared agreements and what you do when you hit a bump matters—a lot!  

You are going to hit a bump. There is an email that will be misunderstood or written at a rough moment. There is a decision that someone will make that you won’t agree with.  Someone will do something that you don’t understand.

What you do in these moments can really affect how much good you can do together.

In those moments:

• Remember that you are all there because you care about the mission and the people involved.
• If you see or hear something that you don’t understand or agree with, ask the person who it involves about it.  Not other people.  You might have different information.
• When in emotional conflict, get off email and text. Try to talk in-person or on the phone.
• Most of the time, conflicts happen because of misunderstanding, not malice.
• Be grateful for the ones who showed up to do this work with you.

These lessons were inspired by a video I recently ran across from Maya Angelou entitled Be A Rainbow in Somebody Else’s Cloud.

In it, she says:

“There is an African American song, nineteenth century, which is so great, and it says… “When it look like the sun will not shine anymore, God put a rainbow in the clouds.” … I have had so many rainbows in my clouds, I have had a lot of clouds, but I have had so many rainbows….

One of the things I do when I step up on the stage, when I stand up to translate, when I go to teach my classes, when I go to direct a movie, I bring everyone who has ever been kind to me- black, white, Asian, native American, gay, straight, everybody.  I say, “Come with me, and we are going on the stage. Come with me. I need you now.”

They all did, you see, so I don’t ever feel I have no help. I’ve had rainbows in my clouds, and the thing to do, it seems to me, is to prepare yourself so that you can be a rainbow in somebody else’s cloud. Somebody who may not look like you, may not call God the same name you call God, if they call God at all, you see. They may not eat the same dishes prepared the way you do, may not dance your dances, or speak your language, but be a blessing to somebody.

That’s what I think.”

Thank you for taking the time with me today.  I look forward to what else we can learn and do together tomorrow. Look for the rainbow in the clouds. Be the rainbow when you can.

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Hannah Randall is a Senior Advisor with Armstrong McGuire who specializes in organizational assessment, executive search, board retreats, strategic planning, and mentoring. Learn more about Hannah in her bio. Check out Hannah's recent video on organizational assessment here.