"Coming together is a beginning.
Keeping together is progress.
Working together is success." -- Henry Ford
Ford's assembly line was built on a principle of teamwork. Everyone had to do their job well. Everyone had to assume that the others on the line would do their jobs well. Everyone needed to realize that their own work was part of a greater whole. We can glean a lot from those words.
“The way a team plays as a whole determines its success. You may have the greatest bunch of individual stars in the world, but if they don't play together, the club won't be worth a dime.” -- Babe Ruth
At one time, George Herman ("Babe") Ruth held several of the great "individual" records in baseball. He was the home run king, but he knew that his home runs were only a part of winning games. Often, he'd have a great day, but the game would be lost. Alternatively, there would be days when he struck out several times, and yet the game was won. The players comprise the team, but the team wins games and championships.
"The one constant through all the years, Ray, has been baseball. America has rolled by like an army of steamrollers. It has been erased like a blackboard, rebuilt and erased again. But baseball has marked the time. " -- "Terrence Mann," from Field of Dreams
If you have seen the film, or even if you haven't, at points baseball is used in it as a metaphor for relationships within a society. Here, we read that when our world is spinning on -- seeming to overwhelm us -- we individuals need something constant in our lives. The relationships that we build with one another (even if they are only the perceived allegiances that come with sports franchises) -- these things "mark the time." Our relationships with one another are the one constant. When we feel as though we are losing track of our mission, our objectives, and our goals, are relationships with the other members of the community are still there.
Whether we're looking at football, baseball, hockey, or volleyball, the team is more than a collection of individuals. A good team ethic reinforces the best qualities of each of its individuals and downplays their worst attributes. Sometimes we can get caught up in our own worlds to the point where the others' worlds seem unimportant. However, it is at those times when we need one another the most. It is at those points in our lives when a great team is the most successful.
Great businesses operate the same way: not with a top-down, heavy-handed authority structure but with what we college types call "shared governance." Everyone buys into the goals. Everyone experiences the college mission first hand. Faculty, staff, and administrators recognize the value in one another and realize their own importance in achieving the goals.
Yes, we can learn a lot from sports and business...about teamwork strategies that WORK.
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