Celebrating July 4th: Lessons on Interdependence and Teamwork - Part 1

This week we will be celebrating Independence Day in the US. I want to look at the concept of interdependence, specifically, how teamwork elevates productivity. This post is simply a development of ideas that I developed a few years ago when I went to Jamaica as a team leader for a group of about 35 teenagers. This was a huge project and it required that every member of the team contribute their very best. My thoughts will be developed in the form of an acronym that I will be sharing over the course of the week.

Here is the acronym:

Identify every aspect of the operation that requires a team effort.
Notify every member of the team of his or her role.
Team up on the basis of the group’s vision and not individual interests.
Examine your dream together and let everyone capture a passion for it.
Resolve to all be focused on the team aspects of the organization.
Divide responsibilities fairly to every member of the team.
Engage the soul of every member of the team.
Paint pictures and mental images of possibilities.
Employ a variety of people to help cast the vision.
Navigate through situations and circumstances as one unit.
Display an in-depth care and concern for one another.
Empower each other by relying on each other’s skills and abilities.
Nourish each other by equipping and elevating each other’s contribution.
Communicate at all times, making everything clear and plain to the team.
End every effort by sharing the benefits and rewards of teamwork.

In today’s post I will briefly look at the first seven things we did with our team:

1. Identify every aspect of the operation that requires a team effort
As a team, we started off by pointing out every area in which we had to work together. We build into the team an understanding of the team concept by helping them see that one would be too small a number to achieve what we had set out to do.

2. Notify every member of the team of his or her role
As team leader, I notified every member of the team of what would be expected of them. We developed consensus on the things we wanted to see achieved. Every “got on the same page” regarding what they had to accomplish individually (there is no “I” in team but there is a “me”).

3. Team up on the basis of the group’s vision and not individual interests
Our team developed a vision that had meaning to each of us. This was clearly written and displayed so that everyone had access to it. We had to ensure that everyone understood the cause. We rallied the entire team together on this one cause and it worked so well.

4. Examine your dream together and let everyone capture a passion for it
Every morning we had meetings together which greatly helped us to continually harness the vision and hold onto it. Understanding the vision and buying into it as a corporate team was essential to our success. This made all of us to run in the same direction with the same goal in mind.

5. Resolve to all be focused on the team aspects of the organization
Each day there were many obstacles and distractions that threatened our progress as a team. We had to resolve to stay focused. There were team-members who lost motivation every once in a while. We had to encourage each member of the team to stay focused.

6. Divide responsibilities fairly to every member of the team
Each member on the team had different abilities and we divided responsibilities based on their skills and willingness to serve in particular capacities. In the division of labor, we had to ensure that there was specialization in terms of the skill sets of the team member.

7. Engage the soul of every member of the team
We endeavored to “click” with our team by coaching, mentoring and communicating the vision to them every single moment we had the opportunity to do so. Those who soared as leaders within the group contributed immensely in mentoring the others.

To be continued some time after July 4th…