Cris Mishel Miranda

“A choir is made up of many voices, including yours and mine. If

one by one all go silent then all that will be left are the soloists.
Don't let a loud few determine the nature of the sound. It makes
for poor harmony and diminishes the song.” -Vera Nazarian, The
Perpetual Calendar of Inspiration

In the discussion earlier I learned that collaboration does not involve a single person only. I have
a good understanding now of how collaboration and inclusive working relationships are very
important in managing and handling people. As a future leader, I would apply collaboration by
means of having a common goal with my subordinates in which I would let them share ideas
and open up to possible solutions so we can come up with a good sound decision.

I had an experience where I tried working on my own, like for example in my previous company
I tried figuring out on my own and was very shy in asking for the help of others or opinion of
others. But it ended up taking me too long to complete my task. As a part of a team we have a
goal to finish and provide a good output for a special project. Although there are good resource
materials, the ideas coming from your team will help us create a better output and benefit us to
do brainstorming and will help us have a harmonious working relationship. So, I decided to ask
my other colleagues about our tasks and they started to share brilliant ideas. Regardless of the
social status everybody is interested to share their inputs. It felt so good that I was being heard
by my superior and colleagues and accepted different shared thoughts. I worked in the BPO
industry and this means we have different bosses who have other races, geography, beliefs and
so on. My company in Manulife was such a good space where employees have a great avenue
to promote diversity and inclusion.

This saying from Vera Nazarian, If I were to define collaboration and inclusion in my own words
then, it would be working together with an accepted and valued diversity of ideas among team
members to achieve a common goal. Literally, when you hear a choir with joined voices it’s
pleasing to our ears, then just like working collaboratively with inclusion it results in a good
outcome. In contrast, if the team doesn’t collaborate well it will just end up in division. As a
leader I will remove biases and consider my team members point of view as well to unlock
individual’s potential, innovate and learn and grow.