Is there a WE without ME?

A few years ago walking through my beautiful city Vienna, I ran into this glass booth in the middle of a square with an artist and a bunch of cubes. My curiosity pushed me inside the cube and I found myself talking to the artist about his project. I could see a lot of cubes with the letters ME on them… and when you turn them around, they became WE. I was puzzled, what is all this about? 

He asked me if I wanted to participate in his experiment – my curiosity was now screaming YES, YES! 

His next question was something in the lines of: “If you look and feel deeply inside of you and you were to arrange these cubes, how would you arrange them?” 

It seemed so easy said, but when I started arranging them I found myself struggling with the concept and the balance between ME and WE. 

How much of ME was there and how much of WE was there? 

How much of ME made me, and how much of WE made me? 

Is there a ME without WE? 

Is there a WE without ME? 

And how do we create a balance among them? 

How can we use this balance in #teamwork? How can we use this balance in #leadership? 

That’s me and my arrangement back then in the photo. Unfortunately I don’t remember the name of the artist, but his experiment stayed with me for a long time.

What do you think? Share your thoughts.