“We are not all cut from the same cloth”

Monday, 3 February 2025 03:02 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

By Varuna Ratnaweera

I have been fortunate to work with individuals of several nationalities, different religions and varying age groups over the years and the experience has been very rewarding to say the least. Some of the colleagues I was privileged to work with, in different forums, have been strong believers of other faiths, whether it be religion, race or politics, etc.

However our differences have been our strength and they have never become a hindrance to friendships that we have formed over the years.

Yes, the differences between us were sometimes much more than our similarities. Yet, when we got together as a team to work towards accomplishing a task, these differences did not matter at all because we always believed in the greater strength that we have when we combined our forces without worrying too much about individual brilliance or diversity of our beliefs. This diversity can give us the opportunity to learn from each other, there could always be a person in your team who is more knowledgeable about a certain subject area than you are and the group output will become much more productive if we are humble to accept this fact and draw from that person’s strength towards the task to be accomplished.

Similarly when we think of the age factor the diversity of age groups that we have can also be a major positive factor when we work on projects that have to be appealing to a cross section of the population.

Very often we have to work with individuals who have different religious faiths but there is always a common feature that any religious belief will have, in being true to your own inner self and working towards the well being of others around you. It is all a matter of being humble to accept that you are not a person who knows every thing and that your beliefs and strengths are not superior to others but that it is through our combined efforts in pooling our resources that we can achieve greater success. If we have the notion that no one is above another and that we are all players in one team with equal status, despite having different levels of education, experience and diverse faiths and alliances, we can always become a strong force that can achieve any given task, whether you think of an organisation you work for or the nation as a whole.

“We are not all cut from the same cloth, but together we make a beautiful quilt”

(The writer is a founder member of TMC and a former Chairman of TMC Colombo and former President of Chartered Management Institute, UK SL Branch.)