The leading paragraph above speaks of society's advancement of the individual through intellect and personal awareness and places great emphasis on individual learning. Colleges drive home the point of individualism through messages and instructional methodologies that emphasize how much a person should know in order to achieve a scholastic degree or academic standing. We're consistently told to "be the best," "you can do anything..." etc. only to arrive into the real world where few are adequately equipped to function collaboratively. For some of us, this comes as a huge surprise as we suddenly realize that little, if anything, can be effectively realized without some kind of teamwork. For those few of us who were fortunate enough to be exposed to team sports and other civic groups, organizations, or memberships, we come better prepared...not fully prepared, but better prepared.
Teamwork is loosely defined as "work done by several associates or like-minded people, each doing their own part according to their strengths or expertise, each contributing a part of whom they are, consciously subordinating personal prominence, to the objective or entirety of the whole." Big breath...in other words, two or more people that work well with each other. It is a fundamental truth that time and effort are leveraged when two or more people collaborate ideas, ideals, resources, and labor. A myriad of examples immediately come to mind ranging from two like-minded people seeking to create a business to a married couple looking for common ground upon which to build their dreams. The commonality among virtually any of these rests with an ability to build an effective team. At the heart of effective team building lie some fundamental truths that, if applied, will undoubtedly better equip your team for success.
Communication - An absolute essential element in any successful team, communication conveys vital information, discloses the objectives, and inspires. This process doesn't require lengthy diatribes and "death-by-power point" meetings or infer one-sided pronouncements and proclamations. Instead, effective communication should be issue-centric, informative, and support the sharing of essential elements and ideas that will promote the objectives of the team.
Respect - In order to experience the fullness of teamwork and the effective flow of communication, there must be mutual respect among the members. Whether your team is comprised of one other member aside from yourself (a business partner, friend, or a spouse) or is made up of several members, every member must respect the views of the others. Every member must feel as though they have relevance. Relevance supports commitment and loyalty, both of which reinforces a team's overall construct. However, respect is a bi-lateral concept whereby each member should be aware of and reactive to both the strengths and weaknesses of the team, hence the need for the team's existence in the first place.
Decentralized personal focus - While each member is to be considered a vital part of the whole, the process of team collaboration should never become personal. As soon as it does, it becomes fragile and is in danger of failing. This fundamental truth ties back to the second truth of respect. Ideas and concepts can be scrutinized and analyzed but personalities should never take center stage. Remaining clearly focused on the objectives will always result in team cohesiveness, learning, maturity, and success. I've found that, no matter what the topic, a decentralized personal focus almost always yields positive results while avoiding the sting of personal targeting.
Define the win - While the concept of teamwork typically will advance the objective, rarely will one member's ideas be fully adopted. More often than not, there will be both adoptions and concessions that will not always be agreed to by one or more members. Defining the win ties back to the first truth - communication. There must be an agreement among the members of the team on the definition of a "win." In other words, whether or not ideas or concepts are adopted or rejected must be subordinated to the overall aspect of progression in terms of moving closer to an objective - the win.
Who do you have on your team? Are you employing the sound principles and truths that will yield the best, most effective results? If not, maybe an adjustment is in order. Start with an open discussion and take it from there. The fact that you bring awareness to the team will begin to pay huge dividends from the start.
Until next time!
-G-
"Teamwork is the fuel that allows common people to attain uncommon results." ~Andrew Carnegie
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