I’ve long thought that the concept of “teamwork” is poorly thought through and over-used in an unhelpful and uncritical way in a lot of leadership and management writing.
Obviously the idea of people working together in a common direction is beguilingly attractive but please let me explain why I have grave doubts.
It all became very clear yesterday at the semi-final of the rugby cup, in the splendid Stobart Stadium, in Widnes, Cheshire.
Warrington didn’t just defeat the Catalan Dragons to secure their place against Leeds in the final, they trounced them.
Rugby League is an impact sport of huge violence and total commitment. The objective is to exhaust, confuse, deceive, frustrate, concuss and overwhelm. Without the regular rotation of substitutes, there would be few men otherwise left standing at the end of a game of this magnitude.
But at the end of the game the broader dimensions of the event suddenly expanded into a much wider significance.
The Warrington squad walked slowly round the ground, smiling, waving, searching out recognisable faces in the stands, winking at kids, stopping and squatting down to chat to lifelong supporters in wheelchairs.
Community Contribution & Recognition flooded the stadium, the essence of the cultureship we advocate as the core of healthy corporate culture.
Teamwork there had been aplenty out on the pitch; and it was spectacular in its effectiveness – but that was just a moment in the enduring productive community that is the longer term Warrington rugby league story.
Teamwork alone speaks to ultimate fitness, unsustainable outbursts of extreme passion, will power (which can only ever be temporary). In short, teamwork focuses on freneticism and the physical limits of doing. As a subset of organisational success, such teamwork must from time to time be brought to bear on pressing issues. But this is not an attitude or a credo of constant choice.
A more balanced scorecard takes into account sustainable motivation, sustainable action and, as in the post-match CCR, the joy of diverse talents doing great things together: without all of those people in the stadium, contributing with everything from their ticket money to their singing, there would have been no Warrington rugby club – just a bunch of big guys tramping up and down a muddy field.
It always takes all sorts, it always takes everyone. Productive community holds the cup of life, not just the cup of one-off victory.
0 Responses to “Teamwork? This is not the Corporate Culture we want!”
Leave a Reply