Ubuntu philosophy holds that personhood itself is relational — Desmond Tutu distilled it as 'I am because we are.' Product theorist Marty Cagan argues the opposite failure mode plagues most teams: they build in isolation and call it focus. The tension between these two ideas reveals something most leadership frameworks miss: deep individual accountability and genuine interdependence are not opposites to balance — they are the same discipline practiced at different scales. Sharpen one, and you sharpen both.

Where in your work are you treating independence as a virtue when interdependence is actually what the problem requires?

Drawing from African Philosophy (Ubuntu) — Synthesized: Desmond Tutu / Marty Cagan