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Nanticoke rings in the season

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Luzerne County Council chairmanship up for grabs

<p>Many consider Michael Jordan to be one of the greatest basketball players and athletes of all time. While constantly striving to achieve his own personal goals, he was also a strong believer in the power of teamwork. &#8220;Talent wins games,&#8221; he said, &#8220;but teamwork and intelligence win championships.&#8221;</p><p>Babe Ruth shared Jordan&#8217;s vision. &#8220;The way a team plays as a whole determines its success. You may have the greatest bunch of individual stars in the world, but if they don&#8217;t play together, the club won&#8217;t be worth a dime.&#8221;</p><p>Hard work and teamwork recently paid off big time for 198 employees of a Maryland commercial real estate firm who received a collective total of $10 million dollars in end-of-year bonuses. These life-changing sums were based on tenure, not title, to show that &#8220;all of us are equal in achieving this goal.&#8221; Company founder and chairman, Edward St. John, said he wanted to reward employees in a &#8220;big way&#8221; that would have a significant impact on their lives. &#8220;Without the team we are nothing, we are absolutely nothing.&#8221;</p><p>Teamwork and collaboration by individuals and organizations will also be vital to the future of our region. Teri Ooms, executive director of The Institute, believes that our economy and quality of life depends on it. &#8220;If we are going to address our workforce challenges, we have to work regionally to attract and retain talent. Collaboration between different sectors is imperative. If leaders in government, education, economic development, nonprofit and business communities work together&#8211; even in ways that are outside their comfort zones &#8211; we can address regional issues and harness regional opportunities to ensure we are a place where people want to live and work. We have a bright future, and collaboration will play an important role in that future.&#8221;</p><p>Lindsay Griffin, COO and vice president of the Wilkes-Barre Chamber of Commerce, knows firsthand about the value of teamwork. &#8220;Over the past four years we have seen tremendous change for the better. I think that we are all seeing the good that can come from taking a more regional approach to things. Our team collaborates with other chambers, businesses, and nonprofits all the time. There is definitely great momentum behind the movement to make our region a great place to live, work and raise a family. It is really exciting. We have new ribbon cuttings frequently &#8211; businesses are moving here and creating jobs which is helping to grow our overall economy.&#8221;</p><p>We have come a long way as a former coal region and are reinventing ourselves. There has been growth in new sectors such as healthcare, manufacturing, and transportation which added thousands of jobs to Luzerne County over the past several years. The economy is growing and poverty rates are dropping. Teamwork and thoughtful collaboration will be important to sustaining this trend.</p><p>Malcom Forbes was quoted as saying, &#8220;Diamonds are nothing more than chunks of coal that stuck to their jobs.&#8221; There are many in our region who are working hard &#8211; often behind the scenes &#8211; to turn our coal into diamonds. If we continue to work together toward the greater good, there is no reason to believe that there isn&#8217;t a championship in our future also.</p><style>
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<div class="metaInfo"><bylineMeta><p>Susan Magnotta</p><p>Institute Insights</p></bylineMeta></div><div class="metaInfo"><shirttailMeta><p>Susan Magnotta is Director of Community Outreach at The Institute. Her column appears every other Monday.</p></shirttailMeta></div>

Institute Insights: Be like Mike. Use teamwork to make region great