IF you're not intending to move any time soon, then it’s a fair bet that you would like your health service, your education system, your economy, your society to be better?
Of course you would. Place and infrastructure is more important to many of us than political borders: we live where we live, whether you choose to call it the UK, the island of Ireland, Ulster or Northern Ireland.
The Fresh Start Agreement needs to really make a difference because no matter what happens externally or politically we need to make the place in which we live and work better for society and better for business.
Our fresh start will require all of us to work together while acknowledging and respecting our differences. Our vision and focus needs to be on a better economy and society for all of us. That means working together, team building and team work. And this needs to start in Stormont, showing us the vision and leading by example.
The business community of Northern Ireland knows this better than anyone. Teamwork is essential and indeed, team-building is a huge business. The Bruce Tuckman Model of Team Stages was created in 1965, and has been applied to countless organisations and scenarios.
With four main stages - forming, storming, norming and performing - this theory is commonly referred to as the origin for successful team building. We are currently stuck in the unproductive “storming stage” and are well over due to “performing”.
We all celebrate AP McCoy, Rory McIlroy, Seamus Heaney, Liam Neeson, and the recent news of Rory Best being picked to captain the Irish rugby team. And there are women to celebrate President Mary McAleese , Dame Mary Peters, Wendy Houvenhagel, Claire Curran and Tiffany O’Brien among them, and our amazing integrated education campaigner Baroness May Blood.
And all women in Northern Ireland, and those from the north of Ireland, will acknowledge the huge success of Arlene Foster in becoming our first female First Minister.
Finding many more areas for agreement, even celebration, is the way forward. Starting more indigenous businesses, creating more jobs, improving our health service, reviewing our education are all areas where we can and should find a common ground and something to celebrate.
Business success is dependent on people, on collaboration, on teamwork, on confidence, on hard work, on passion, on determination, on communication, on attitude, on flexibility and on a vision.
We all live here together, now we need to find a way to work here together and deliver the profits/ rewards/improvements in all sectors we deserve.
:: Roseann Kelly (roseann@ womeninbusinessni.com) is chief executive of Women in Business (www.womeninbusinessni.com), the largest and fastest growing business network for female entrepreneurs and senior women in management in Northern Ireland with more than 2,500 members. Follow Women in Business NI on facebook at www. facebook.com/women-inbusinessni or on twitter @ wibni.
