This week has been amazing and I have experienced first hand what real teamwork looks like.
About a year ago I heard a talk by John Amechi and at the end he was asked a very interesting question – “In your book you say that you were with a team for only 2 years but surely you played with a team for much longer than that?” His answer was very revealing. He explained that he had been with a group for a long time but a true team for only 2 years. In short I guess it could be simply explained as the team almost always used the word ‘we’ whereas the group predominantly used the word ‘I’. If a goal was scored by a ‘group’ the individual would rush around the pitch holding up their arms wanting the cloud to applaud their brilliance. A similar goal scored by a ‘team’ the scorer would turn to the person who passed them the ball to set up the goal with a big thumbs up, who, in turn, would turn to the others who were part of the creation of that golden opportunity.
This part of John’s speech had a profound impact on me and when I work with top teams of companies, both large and small, I ask them very frequently which they are, a group or a team. Sadly, observation tells me that all too often it is the former. MDs of particular divisions sometimes even seem to be in competition with each other to see who can achieve the most in their area.
Well, this week I saw real teamwork. A group of individuals set themselves a goal to raise money for Get Connected to help young people by cycling 999 miles across 9 countries in 9 days! We at The Living Leader sponsored Day 5 travelling from Luxembourg to Nancy in France – 98 miles. My co-Director, who also happens to be my younger daughter, decided she would set herself the challenge of doing this day with them – brave lady!
Watching and hearing them on that day will stick in my memory because seeing how they supported and encouraged each other was inspirational. 98 miles is a long way and each day is done in four legs with a morning, lunch and afternoon break. Because each individual is different everyone gets challenged at different parts of the day – for Emma it was the stretch straight after lunch. Watching them support, with a gentle hand on the back going up a slope, slowing down yourself to keep the momentum of the person next to them, a shout, clap or cheer as they arrived wearily at the next break. They cared and looked after Emma, spurring her on and encouraging her every bit of the journey. The conversations later and at dinner was all about how ‘we’ are doing what ‘we’ will have achieved and how many young people ‘we’ will have helped.
I will remember this day for many years and would like to see some top teams of the large corporates take on a challenge such as this and see how much more they could learn about being a team as opposed to a group – providing they then take that learning back to the workplace.
A question to leave you with – ‘if you knew that you could take 100% responsibility for developing your ‘group’ to be a truly exceptional ‘team’ what would you do differently from this moment? What behaviour might you change?’
