The Power of an Effective Team
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You know, we hear an awful lot about teams, teamwork, and how the power of teams can sometimes even be greater than the sum of its parts. But my questions are these: How do you know when your team is effective? And so what? What’s the power of an effective team?
So rather than present yet another list of tips (2,973 tips to simplify your team-building) or illustrate lessons learned (What I learned when my team abandoned me in the wilderness) or even to tell you how to build one (How NOT to build a team). Naah (sound of buzzer); why don’t we just muse a bit today. (Hey, it’s what we do here, right?)
Well, (and I’m sure you knew this was coming) I remember this time…
Too many years ago than I like to remember, I attended summer school at Texas A&M University. I’m tellin’ ya, they used to have the most spectacular weather I’ve ever seen. (Hmm… come to think of it, I suppose they, er, still do!)
Periodic summer thunderstorms that rolled through the area were practically legendary in their intensity. Particularly impressive were the lighting storms, and it wasn’t unusual to see magnificent lightning displays - and yet not get a single drop of rain.
I remember one time especially well. Oh, it wasn’t one of those brilliant flash/crashing thunder kinds of storms, though (although we had plenty of those!) No, this one was a different sort altogether.
It was a dark and stormy night (well, it was!) and the air was surprisingly still. At about 10 p.m., the temperature was a bit sultry, but without being too unpleasant. An unbroken ceiling of cloud had curtained the sky that afternoon, and was now hovering low like a big, soft weight; campus lights reflected gently from their bellies in a softly pink glow. The still, quiet evening had a subtle, almost surreal feeling to it.
Plenty of lighting decorated the clouds that night, but strangely, not a hint of thunder. No, it was all distant, partially-hidden flashbulbs popping, as if Heaven’s own paparazzi were doing their thing somewhere above the cloud deck.
For much of the evening it was mostly random flashes; sometimes close together, occasionally spread from horizon to horizon. But every now and then they lit up entire sections of the sky at once, momentarily turning the clouds into bright, grey-white cotton candy.
In fact, the display was so spectacular, people started coming out of their dorms and setting up chairs and blankets, just to watch the show. For about an hour or so, it was flash…FLASH… flashflash…flash…FLASHflash…; God entertained us with an amazing display of light, dark, and silence.
Gradually I noticed something interesting. As the evening wore on, it seemed that larger and larger sections of the sky would light up at once. At first, it was just one small section over here; then over there. Eventually almost a quarter of the sky was flashing at one time. It was truly phenomenal, as if lightning bolts all across the sky were learning to synchronize themselves.
Finally, there was this one moment… this one spectacular moment when, as if on cue, the entire sky silently and brilliantly lit up all at once - FLASH!!! Wow!
It was absolutely breathtaking! There were surprised and appreciative reactions of wonder and amazement from most of the other nearby students as well (who by now numbered in the hundreds). A few even started clapping! I’ll never forget that night as long as I live.
And you know what? That’s exactly what happens when a team really starts clicking!
I remember seeing a TV documentary about lightning, and they showed videos of a nighttime storm over the U.S. as viewed from the Space Shuttle. Incredible! One of the more interesting phenomena (it’s still not clearly understood) is how each lightning bolt has a tendency to trigger others throughout the cloud.
But what’s amazing is that sooner or later there may be a moment when the whole storm seems to “hit it” at exactly the right moment, and WHAM! you get a brilliant display of light over a tremendous area.
And that’s the power of an effective team!
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8 responses so far
Middle Zone Musings is a comfortable place to stop, have a cup of coffee, swap a few stories and share practical ideas for the real world. I don't ask for much, just a bit of your brain every now and then. Have a seat, take a load off, and relax...
What a beautifully written post, Robert! I actually felt as if I were vicariously experiencing the storm you were describing. In fact, I could almost hear an accompaniment of classical music, in which all the individual instruments play their parts, eventually culminating in a final crescendo.
Thank you for the muse!
Thanks, Amy! I’m glad you managed to get at least some of the sense of wonder we all felt at the time. Times like this, words are simply inadequate - like seeing pictures of the Eiffel Tower vs. actually standing under it.
As I wrote this, I decided it might be fun to practice my prose. (Gearing up for that Great American Novel.) I love the music track idea! Mind you; nothing as obvious as the 1812 Overture. More like something Andrea Rieu would compose…
Robert,
Wonderful illustration of the magic of an effective team, where one member’s “lightning” tends to trigger another’s, and so on down the line until the brilliant display that comes from every member’s unique contribution, as well as the entire team’s shared inspiration,
becomes visible to all!
Thanks for sharing that highly illustrative image from nature!
Jeanne
Howdy, Jeanne! Yes that’s exactly right - as each individual gets more “powered up”, they bring the whole team with ‘em!
People tend to notice that sort of thing!
That’s for sure!
I also believe that in a similar, though not identical way, we bloggers inspire one another and trigger ideas and revelations about writing and life that help make one another’s writing more interesting, vivid, informative, and engaging.
It doesn’t work quite the same way as it does with a team, because we aren’t usually working on the same project as a group (except maybe, in one sense, for group writing projects). Yet, it does share the characteristic of each of us–through both our writings and our interactions–”zapping” one another with that bolt of inspiration that provides a chain reaction which can fire us up and make our own individual contributions to the “great conversation” so much better than they would have been had we written them in isolation.
That’s one of the best things about blogging!
Jeanne
I couldn’t have said it better, Jeanne!
Hmmm… maybe there oughta be a way to harness a group of us into a real team project of some kind? Lemme think on that one a bit (sound of grinding gears…)
Good idea, Robert!
Be sure to let us know what you come up with! I can only imagine how electrifying such a collaboration would be!
Jeanne
(Sounds of grinding gears, assorted bangs and thumps, a mechanical wheezing and finally a humongous explosion…)
Er, don’t worry folks, no permanent damage done! Now let’s see… where did I put that can of WD-40?(more gears grinding…)