My discussions with entrepreneurs, staff and board reveal that they all put lots of emphasis on team work. And strongly believe that the most important factor in making an enterprise profitable is “TEAM WORK”, yet almost none could define team work in simple language. The answers I get are:
Team work means ---------------
• Unity
• Together Everyone Achieves Miracles.
• Achieving set goals through collective group effort
• Corroborative action with all the people involved to gain a single goal/ objective
• Achieving mutually agreed objective through collective efforts with out becoming free rider
• Helps in achieving the vision through smart objective.
• Patience
• Submission
• Teamwork is a coordinated effort which allows each member to maximize his/her strengths and minimize his/her weaknesses.
• Teamwork is that when synergies of the team get larger than the sum of individual potentials....may sound too idealistic but that is what an ideal team should be
• It is when no one cares who gets the credit for the success
• This is the "soul" to work as a Team! If this soul is absent, it becomes individualism
To me these are excellent explanations, but a bit more theoretical! I tell them that they need to understand the concept and explain in simple language, otherwise the concept would not cascade down to the lowest levels; making team work a rear phenomenon!
My understanding of “TEAM WORK” is very simple!
Lets watch small clips of a field hockey match or a team of hyena on hunt.
Observe that in both cases, there are teams, the forward player or attacker focuses on the ball or in case of hyena at targeted animal, whereas the rest of the team focuses on the forward player or attacker. Also observe the mental coordination that helps in coordinated moves to strengthen the attack.
This is a great learning for me! Can you develop such team sprit?
If Hyena could do it, you can too……..
