Surface Ripples

Do We Need "Teamwork Training"?

The corporate ethic has it that workers do their best to rise to the top. 

The problem with this is that it is inherently contradictory to an organisation’s goals which, these days, depend increasingly on teamwork.

Teamwork is a group of people trusting each other, working together and looking out for each other to achieve a common goal.  Getting to the top in many businesses (and politics), however, means putting oneself above the rest – the exact opposite.

To reinforce the point, who are the ones who “get the glory” on TV, the news and in the press/corporate newsletters?  Answer, those who have clawed their way (or are clawing their way) to the top over the backs of others. 

Hunter gatherer societies found (through hard experience) that working as a team is far more effective in bringing home food for the rest of the tribe. Solitary hunters may get lucky, but more often than not, they don’t.

If one looks at modern armed forces training, it’s all about teamwork as your life may literally depend on your buddy/wingman/backup doing the right thing at the right time.  The ultimate test of the officer is whether their team will follow them into battle and die – the most extreme example. 

In the corporate world, we don’t expect our team to lay down their lives (although many sacrifice their marriages, relationships with children and personal health at the altar of “the company”). Success, promotion and recognition come at a cost.

I recently saw a TED Talk about how the US’ SEAL Team 6 decides on whether a candidate is fit to enter.  The answer is simple: trust.  Not performance.  Trust. 

The same applies to leaders and teamwork. A team that trusts its leader and each other is capable of quite literally working miracles. 

We have innumerable metrics to measure performance; we have almost none to measure trust.  

We need modern leadership and teamwork training to teach workers to subordinate the contradictory desire to rise to the top over the backs of others by re-instilling the spirit of teamwork that comes naturally to any society of hunters.

I’ve spent more than half my life delivering change in different world markets from the most developed to “emerging” economies. With a wealth of international experience in international financial services around the world running different operations and lending businesses, I started my own Consultancy to provide solutions for improving performance, productivity and risk management.  I work with individuals, small businesses, charities, quoted companies and academic institutions across the world. An international speaker, trainer, author and fund-raiser, I can be contacted by email. My website provides a full picture of my portfolio of services.  For strategic questions that you should be asking yourself, follow me at @wkm610.

Labels: Career, Leadership, Teamwork

posted by William Martin @ 11:15