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During our lives we have all become a part of many teams. Our family is a team; the community groups and the organisations we belong to are teams; even at work, we are on a team. Even though some may view teams sceptically, because so many organisations treat them cynically, teamwork has quite often become a euphemism for organisational politics. But no matter how it is viewed, the general consensus is that it is definitely better than individualism. Remember the old adage 'two heads are better than one' that holds true even today and could easily have been 'one head is better than two' if individualism yielded better results than teamwork.
On the subject of unity of purpose there is a fable by Aesop The four oxen and the lion. The story goes that a lion used to prowl about a field in which four oxen used to dwell. Many a time he tried to attack them; but whenever he came near they turned their tails to one another, so that whichever way he approached them he was met by the horns of one of them.
At last, however, they started quarrelling amongst themselves, and each went off to the pasture alone in a separate corner of the field.
Then the lion attacked them one by one and killed all four of them. Initially the oxen were able to keep the lion at bay by staying united but once they quarrelled and eventually parted ways, their end seemed inevitable. The moral of the story is that anything can be achieved when individuals come together to work with a unified purpose in mind. The phrase 'United we stand, divided we fall' is a derivative of this fable.
Faith in each and every member of the group is also crucial towards building successful teams. A person trusts the members of the team only when he or she believes that they make an effort to stick to their commitments and will not take undue advantage of one another even when the opportunity presents itself.
Successful teams focus specifically on building relationships to increase trust which develops only through open and honest communication. In the team environment, trust builds as team members experience the teams competency and integrity. When team members demonstrate those attributes, they prove themselves trustworthy. In other words, the level of trust in their team members increases.
Teamwork is more about cooperation than it is about competition. This brings up an important point teamwork can be taught. It means developing a disciplined work environment where the team members must conform to a specific set of rules. They will be measured and held accountable against these set of rules. Inevitably, it means giving up some work habits and developing new ones. This can be painful, yet necessary if teams ever intend on achieving the desired results.
It is important to teach people or discipline them to live and work together as a team as opposed to working apart. Team members need to be reminded from time to time about the acceptable behaviour of working in a team. Some behavioural practices that will help teams run smoothly include being polite and courteous in conversing with team members, seeking opinions and input, sharing responsibility, compromising in resolving differences, employing creativity and candidness, and accepting and delivering praise and criticism.
To sum it up, in the words of Henry Ford, “Coming together is a beginning, keeping together is progress. Working together is success.” Successful teams are therefore able to group together with a unified purpose in mind, put their faith and trust in each other and execute the task successfully in a disciplined manner. This is essentially what teamwork is all about; it revolves around unity, faith and discipline.
