Words from Dr. Bracco

Collaboration and Common Sense

Virtually all of us in the course of our lives evolve or develop a world view. Our world view may be seen as a set of core beliefs that create a framework for us to understand the environment we find ourselves in. Our world view is shaped by our families, teachers and experiences. While individualism and competition appear to be prevailing values in American society I have learned to view my world from another vantage point.

One of the individuals that shaped my thinking was Alfred Adler, a contemporary of Sigmund Freud. Adler’s basic tenet was that humans experience a deep sense of inferiority given that they are exposed to a world filled with natural and man-made forces that are overwhelming. Consider what we must experience at the moment of birth. If we are to thrive we must overcome the challenges in this world that threaten our survival. Adler believed that the solution lay in “common sense.”

Common sense in Adler’s view consists of people coming together to share their talents and ideas in search of answers. Collaboration is common sense and common sense is collaboration.
A social model that supports Adler’s view involves having individuals solve a problem by themselves such as, ranking a list of items that they may need for survival on a deserted island, then they are to come up with the list as a group. Invariably the group solution proves to be synergistic, that is, it proves to be better than any one of the individual solutions. As the saying goes “The whole proves to be greater than the sum of its parts.”

In seeking to fulfill Seven Counties’ mission of building healthy communities; common sense, and consequently collaboration are necessities. While there are many ways to organize the community in which we live I use a model in which our community is composed of twelve systems ; 1) Health, 2) Social Welfare, 3) Government, 4) Criminal Justice, 5) Business & Industry, 6) Faith, 7) Education, 8) Housing, 9) Transportation, 10) Media, 11) Recreation and 12) General Public. Each of these systems affects the health of a community. To achieve its mission Seven Counties must work collaboratively with and across all of these systems.

In order to build a healthy community Seven Counties must create linkages with each of these systems. If we stand alone we will realize our inferiority and we will fail. We can only achieve our mission by collaborating and using our common sense.