Though it feels like a modern buzzword, synergy has a long and meaningful history. Truth be told, the word was borrowed from the Orthodox Church where it originally described the cooperation between divine grace and human free will. Simply said, God does not save us without us.
This understanding differs from some Protestant views of rendering humans helpless, and some Catholic theology of measuring human merit. In its original sense, synergy is relational.
The new Synergy Meaning
It was sometime in the 1950’s that military and corporate leaders began using the word synergy in their team-building exercises. In the process, they removed the spiritual cooperation and redefined it simply as people “coming together” and claiming synergy naturally happens when structure is correct.
That is when the phrase we all know took hold.
“The whole is greater than the sum of its parts.”
Later in the 1980’s and 1990’s, synergy took on yet another meaning. Corporations adopted it as a buzzword for justifying mergers and acquisitions that paid little attention to the human cost, especially to employees.
Is Synergy Overused or Misused?
Sure, but not to me.
I see it everywhere, all the time, in my spiritual, personal, and business life.
This month alone, as we prepared for 2026 Dancing Into Dreamland (DID), continued construction of the Dreamland Lounge, and building our first museum exhibit, something remarkable happened. We learned that StudioMAIN had been awarded a grant from Smart Growth America and created a program called Beyond The Divide.
The intention of the grant is to bring community awareness, bolster local assets, and identify challenges in our 9th Street neighborhood! With this grant came new friends, Ernest Banks our DID26 event chair, and a new street mural in front of our building.
Did We Manifest This?
To wrap it up in a nice little religious and corporate synergy bow. I have to ask:
Was this spiritual cooperation: our leap of faith and free will to plan and begin these expensive Taborian Hall projects, then invited grace and spiritual synergy?
Or was it corporate synergy: our decades of hard work, relationships, and collective effort finally converging on 9th Street?
I think it was both.
And for that, I am deeply grateful.
“The whole is greater than the sum of its parts.”
About the Author
Kerry McCoy founded FlagandBanner.com in 1975 with just $400 and a dream, building it from door-to-door flag sales into a multi-million dollar enterprise. With over five decades in the American flag and banner business, her insights into patriotic trends and flag sales patterns come from serving customers nationwide during times of celebration, crisis, and everything in between.
Kerry is also the host of “Up in Your Business with Kerry McCoy” radio show and continues expanding her business empire through Kerry McCoy Enterprises while sharing the entrepreneurial wisdom gained from decades of building the American dream.
