The University of Cincinnati Medical Center’s mission statement is to “enhance and improve the quality of health for people everywhere by discovering, teaching and applying knowledge related to the health sciences.” This mission is accomplished “by providing high-quality educational programs, completing excellent research to improve health tomorrow, and applying knowledge today by providing the highest quality patient-centered care possible.”  The mission statement is dedicated to humanity so as to develop and provide innovative health care products that lead to healthier and more productive lives.  This was obviously demonstrated by Dr. Sabin’s work in developing the Sabin polio vaccine.

Dr. Sabin’s work is a constant reminder that through a committed and focused effort, and teamwork, great work can be accomplished. As you know, in the 1950’s polio was the most feared childhood disease, it spread during hot summer months when children crowded around public swimming pools.

Pfizer was also committed to “achieve and sustain our place as the world’s premier research-based health care company.”  With that as the mantra, the development of a polio vaccine became imperative and Pfizer played a key role in producing and distributing Dr. Jonas Salk’s killed-virus immunization.  Pfizer’s facility in Sandwich, England, started bulk production in 1958.  Meanwhile, in Cincinnati, Dr. Albert Sabin, assisted by a grant, had formulated his own “live-virus” polio vaccine.  The Type I Sabin Oral vaccine was developed.  The drug was a huge success; children quickly discovered that eating vaccine-laden sugar cubes was far more pleasant than under going injections.

Working with local health services, company representatives fanned out across America, organizing mass-immunization programs to administer Type I of the Sabin Oral vaccine.  This effort, promoted as S.O.S. – Sabin Oral Sundays – brought doctors, nurses, pharmacists, parents and civic groups together to immunize more than 50 million men, women and children in a mighty effort to eradicate this dreaded disease.  By enlisting the support of entire communities, from pharmacist to physician and from Boy Scout to banker to partner with Dr. Sabin and the University of Cincinnati, the eradication of polio was well within site.

Working together as team members, miracles happen.

So, picture the scene…..Communication Skills training, lead by a facilitator in the English language given to a group comprised of international cultures and languages and including Cambodian, Laotian, Chinese,  Japanese, Spanish, Russian, and Hmong.  Easy training to conduct, right?  It posed some unique challenges.  One major component of this training involved using the DiSC profile.  Let’s face it, even those who are native English speakers don’t always understand all of the words and their definitions in this profile and not all English words have a direct equivalent word and meaning in other languages.  For example, the work accountability does not translate into Spanish.  The closest you can get is the word responsibility and these words are doesn’t really say the same thing.  Since translators were not provided, we had to rely on the efforts of one patient facilitator and the teamwork of the group.

To make the classroom dynamics even more challenging, some of these participants were going through an internal culture change.  The organization had recently acquired several of these locations and many of the workers had been transferred from a facility in one state to a location in another state.  This meant that many participants had not had the opportunity to establish relationships within their peer groups.  Integration was still in its infancy stages and some cultures don’t always mix well together.  The “we vs. them” mentality that often develops when new players join a team was still prevalent.  It was clear that our facilitators had some animosity to overcome.

With these obstacles, our facilitators really had only one choice…which was to involve the participants in helping each other, particularly in their native tongues.  We knew that people might not want help from a peer because it would expose their weakness with a language.  What we didn’t expect, however, was that some people who speak the same language, i.e., Cambodian, clearly had cultural barriers of their own.

One particular person, a Cambodian who was able to read and speak English well, finished her DiSC profile relatively fast.  When the facilitator asked her for help with other Cambodian speaking people; she was not only hesitant but her resistance was physically expressed in her face.  Yet, with a specific description of what the facilitator needed and purpose of her help, along with some encouragement, the participant finally agreed to help the others.  This was a big step for her and the other Cambodians.

This cooperation and assistance became very critical to the success of the program.  Without this support many of the other participants would not have been able to complete their DiSC profile and continue with the learning. The point here is that true teamwork can take place, even in very simple forms, when we are able to clearly articulate the common purpose that we share.  Finding the common ground for our people and teams with diverse circumstances can overcome all kinds of obstacles and help improve relationships within an organization to continue to foster the teamwork effort.

• Big name schools are facing probation for ethics issues
• Players are being arrested for burglary and drug use
• Some top players have been dismissed from  established teams and are finding themselves on new teams
• Coach’s are being sued for hiring away skilled coaches from other schools

Is this negative publicity just or unjust, right or wrong?  Regardless of your opinion one question that keeps running through my mind is, “Do I really want that player or that coach on my team?”  It has made me think about following the advice and research in the book Good to Great in the chapter “First Who… Then What.”  What the author is referring to is that you need to get the right people first, then the ability to create a vision or direction and strategy will follow.  I don’t see recruiting coach’s or recruiting players to be any different than hiring employees and executives, as these are the resources that will ultimately determine the success of the organization.  The author of Good to Great quotes one executive in his research as saying.

“Look, I don’t really know where we should take this bus.  But I know this much: if we get the right people on the bus, the right people in the right seats, and the wrong people off the bus, then we’ll figure out how to take it someplace great.”

It appears this is occurring with several of these schools and football programs this summer.  A football team is just like a business, literally.  The highly paid Head Coach’s are the CEO’s of the team and are making important decisions about who will help or hurt their team.  I think more and more of these “CEO’s” are figuring out that you must do as the author  suggests, get the right people on the bus in order to achieve success.  You have to have the right kind of players to perform as a team.  One bad apple can spoil the whole bunch!

• Increased focus on leadership as opposed to the task of managing.
• Quality partnerships between all types of people (team members, customers, suppliers, etc.).
• Better cross-team collaboration.
• More team based organizations and projects.
• Greater employee commitment and loyalty.

Is your team cohesive?  Do your members work well with internal and external customers?  What would members on your team say if you asked them, “What level of trust do you have in the organization?”

The following elements have been identified as key factors in the level of trust within an organization both as an individual contributor and as a team:

Results + Integrity + Concern = Level of Trust (Robert Shaw)

Achieve Results

Individual contributor: Follows through on business commitments

The Team:

1.            Has a long-term, customer- and market-based vision

2.            Establishes clear, ambitious and measurable performance targets

3.            Has consensus on key targets and measures

4.            Celebrates accomplishments

Act with Integrity

Individual Contributor: Behaves in a consistent manner

The Team:

1.            Has a clear purpose and guidelines for working together

2.            Openly shares essential information about the business

Demonstrate Concern

Individual Contributor: Promotes the well-being of others

The Team:

1.            There is a feeling of one vision, one organization, one team

2.            Peoples’ contribution are recognized and appreciated

3.            Everyone benefits when business goals are met

As you review these elements for developing trust within an organization, which of these three areas do you feel your team needs to improve the most?  Why?  With this in mind and understanding the why, what are the three most important things your team could do right now to improve the team’s level of trust.

This is just a beginning as your team moves forward to raise their level of trust.  As this is accomplished there will be more robust communication within the team and greater productivity as all work towards a common goal. Teamwork makes beautiful music.

Birds of a feather, flock together:
Have you e’er been walking and seen in the sky
A flock of geese flying and perhaps wondered why?
They fly in a V-shape—not in some other form
Such as small groups or large groups or straight as the norm.
No feathered brain fowl, these geese really know
How to travel efficiently where e’er they go.
The V has a purpose, aerodynamically smart,
Those birds are good buddies; each one does its part.
They’ve got a neat system that’s often been shown
To provide for hurt geese so they’re not left alone.
And although their squawking won’t make a sweet song,
They honk to encourage each other along.
There’s rarely a goose with its neck out of joint
Cuz each one gets its chance to fly at the point.
So there’s never a leader too tired to lead
For each goose is primed for its turn when there’s need.
All of the creatures live lives that can teach
Us humans some lessons! And geese surely preach
How to learn and to lead, to build up and to bond
Why geese can show teammates how they could respond
To each other like geese as they fly. Don’t you think?
We could be Team Honkers and teammates in sinc?
By Linda Pederson 3/29/94

This simple poem has some very powerful advice regarding teams and teamwork:

•    Teamwork sometimes requires an individual sacrifice.  Just as the geese make sure that if one of their group needs to fall back, another is with them, such should be the motto of a team. No one is left  behind; in idea sharing, team building or assignments.

•    There is not a universal definition of a team. Teams are made up of people, animals, sub-groups, etc. The authors of the Team Approach , Dr. Steven Stowell and Stephanie Mead also contend that there are stunning parallels of the forces of teamwork , which are observable, between nature and what we see in modern organizations. They make the case that a team’s success is everyone’s responsibility.

Next time your eyes gaze upwards at the flying V in the sky, remember…all this “teamwork stuff” is not simply for the birds.

However, the act infuriated the blocked car’s driver. With a smirk on drivers face and a “me first” attitude, the driver eased the car forward almost pinning the young girl between the two cars. While people in both cars were too impatient for the situation, the driver’s action was potentially dangerous. Had the driver accidentally pressed the gas pedal instead of the brake, the girl would have been badly injured if not killed. This driver’s “me first” attitude was noticed by several other drivers. In an unspoken group effort, the errant driver was deliberately boxed in for several extra minutes while others exited.

With the all the negative news on television, radio and newsprint, many people may demonstrate this “me first” mentality. We can understand their fear, as no one wants to lose their job, income, or current standard of living. Yet, this mentality harms not only harms team members and the organization, but that person’s competence and performance as well. When their intentions are to prove their personal importance, they tend to make less desirable decisions, sabotage other’s efforts, and in the end bring their fear to fruition.

As a leader you can do many things to help avert this “me first” behavior. Consider the following as you choose your course of action

1. Remain positive in your speech and actions. Your team will reflect your attitude; if you are positive, team members will feel more secure.
2. Keep communication lines open with everyone. Don’t keep secrets. Secrets have a way of being shared and peoples trust in you can be lost.
3. Give constant and honest feedback. Don’t lie; people recognize a lie very quickly. Lies generate fear.
4. Encourage innovation and creativity. Ask them to look for processes that can streamline, boost efficiency, or increase savings. Make them a part of the solution.
5. Impress on individuals that through team effort the organization can survive a negative environment. There is power in numbers if corrective action is taken.
6. Encourage employee development through training. Training increases the feeling of security (If the organization values me enough to train me, then I am important).

If you remain optimistic, the members will respond in a like manner. Your team will not continue to perform proficiently but serve as a model of teamwork to others in the organization.

Recently I related a story about a burger chain and the combined effort of 5 employees to make one 20 ounce cup of Joe. The number of people needed to fulfill the task grew as each team member added his/her expertise to the task at hand, and together the team found the direction to go. Eventually, with the help of a team approach, the task was completed. As we dig a bit deeper into the realm of Teamwork, there were 2 additional elements that I found important as I related the incident. Teamwork is not merely a “good idea” but essential in today’s fast paced, ever-changing world.

In their book, The Team Approach, Dr. Steven Stowell and Stephanie Mead give two key points on just how important teamwork is in our everyday lives – first, Teamwork is everyone’s responsibility, and second, Teamwork must have a direction- not only a solution.

Teamwork is everyone’s responsibility. Helen Keller said, “Alone we can do so little, together we can do so much.” How can we consider ourselves a member of a team and yet, watch as one of our members’ struggles without help? We have to ask ourselves are we truly a team or simply observers? As I watched (as an observer) employee #1 struggle with the task at hand, he was at a dead end within seconds of starting. The more team members who got involved in the completion of the task, the narrower the margin of error became, the less time it took to complete the task, and the lower the level of negative emotions. It is said that “Two heads are better than one” well…what about 3, 4, or 5?

Teamwork must have a purpose. This implies that each member of the team must have a clear direction as well as a solution. A goal is a great starting point, but how do you reach your goal without some sense of direction? The team I observed had a very obvious purpose: to fulfill the order of a customer. However, the direction soon became unclear when employee #1 had trouble completing the goal. As each additional member became involved, teamwork approached evolved and the pathway to the goal grew shorter. More work done in less time.

I never thought I would see the day when it would take 5 people to make one 20 ounce cup of mocha coffee, but what a learning experience it was for me. It showed me how to be a more effective team member in my own realm of work, home and civic responsibilities. As we remember that Teamwork is everyone’s responsibility and do whatever it takes to achieve a purpose, it may take 10, 20, 50 people to complete what we see as one of the most common tasks. The end result however, is to be a part of the team, not merely an observer.

The benefit of this question is that at least one member of the team recognizes some flaws and is looking for guidance on how to influence and change the team for the better. Of course from my standpoint, I need more information to give appropriate suggestions as to what to do. But, after digging a little deeper and getting more information, the same problems seem to be occurring within the majority of teams. The common themes typically are:

1. The team isn’t very focused.

2. Team meetings are not effective.

3. Certain members are working harder than others on the team, causing frustration and negatively impacting cohesion and unity.

Within these themes, the element that is commonly missing, which causes these symptoms to surface, is processes. I have found that when teams have frustration, it can often be traced to lack of processes, or processes not being used, or processes that are outdated, or even processes not being followed correctly. Regardless of the problem, teams need to take a serious look at their processes.

One of the reasons process improvements continues to be a vital aspect of an organization is because of frequent changes in the marketplace. Paradigms change and the goals of the organization and the team change regularly. Because of change, processes must be in place to ensure stability and constancy.

Teams with process issues need to be prepared to question them. Some of my recommended questions would be:

1. What processes do we need to create and follow to have efficient meetings that produce the results we are all seeking?

2. What processes do we need to eliminate or modify that are hindering our success currently and will continue to affect us in the future if we don’t so something about it now?

3. Does the whole team understand our processes and are we committed to following them from now on?

Processes are the playbook by which teams operate. When team members don’t understand the playbook, the rules, and the tools that are in place to create success, teams do not reach their potential. If your team is not quite reaching its full potential take a hard look at your processes and see how well your team is following and using your playbook.