Someone once said, “No one cares what you know, unless they know that you care.” That helps explain why our opinions of others can change after we see them caring for someone else. Or maybe giving of themselves for the good of the community.
Maybe that’s why volunteerism, in addition to helping others, is such an effective method for bringing people closer together. In our hurried lives, we often focus on deadlines and pressing matters at hand, and we rarely have an opportunity to get to know the true character of our colleagues.
When you see someone delivering a meal to a homebound senior and going the extra mile to make a lonely person smile, you truly get a sense of a person’s heart. When you and your colleagues engage in a community building project and everyone is either hammering on the walls or hauling in lumber or carrying out scrap, you see how easy it is for people to come together. And how powerful.
We all know what can be accomplished when people pull together. If you want to make your team even stronger and help your community in the process, I strongly recommend that you consider a volunteer project.
The experience will reinforce what the Maasai tribe has been saying for many hundreds of years: “One hand cannot clap on its own. It needs the other hand to make a clap.”