A Fresh Perspective on Teamwork in America

        There Is No $ In TEAM!

© 2003, Colleen Kelly and Jon Quade

 Colleen Kelly

Jon Quade

Some teams are unforgettable: the 1980 USA Men’s Olympic Hockey team, the Apollo 11 astronauts and, well, the Three Stooges, to name a few. Yet in today’s world of corporate downsizing and ‘rightsizing’, where company and employee loyalty are all but unheard of, the functionality of certain business teams are greatly diminished and at best, questionable.

This workplace transfiguration is the reason for this writing, which explores the team concept from the perspective of today’s business professional – an individual who must prepare for the future by using far more diverse methods than his or her parents did. It is not sufficient to rely on mere tenure or, sadly, performance to ensure one’s future job security. Today’s blue-collar and white-collar workers alike must have a new sense of individualism to ensure their success.

With that said, we are not suggesting teams cannot accomplish great things and be highly effective. As a case in point, the U.S. Military could not operate nearly as efficiently as it does without employing a team concept – everyone is highly trained to know his or her duties and responsibilities. That comprehension drives the whole to remarkable levels of performance. But the military, too, has a good grasp of the power individuals bring to the organization, as witnessed by the “An Army of One” advertisements to bolster recruiting efforts in the U.S. Army.

In the business world, teams do not exist in a virtual vacuum like the military; competition is high and something as subjective as how to achieve profitability drives most decision-making. That understanding necessitates a new set of rules. 

... Nearly everyone who has at some time worked with a team understands the abbreviation CYA. For those who have not been exposed to this ingenious utterance, it represents a version of ‘Cover Your Behind’. It means, when making corporate decisions, make certain you have a plan that allows you to blame someone else or, at very least, cover your tracks by documenting that you properly followed company protocol. This is a prevailing philosophy that troubles much of corporate America today. And frankly, it is the one that stifles creativity and productivity more than any other because people find themselves so concerned with protecting their livelihoods that they become unwilling to sponsor anything that may subject them to undue attention. Most major corporations could nearly DOUBLE their productivity and profits if they only recognized the paralyzing force of CYA and started combating it. Let’s face it: if people are frightened for their jobs, they won’t seek solutions that require out-of-the-box thinking. These very solutions could potentially cut costs, improve client relationships and drive performance to new heights.

o      Meetings

o      Memos and Emails

o      Procrastination

o      Management Ignorance

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