Building Teams
For some reason I have teams and groups on the brain these days. As I wrote, I think that structured collaboration is the key to driving beauty and, ultimately, success in a group context. And, I suppose, I think groups are important in general. And teams. The people you work with. They mean something. They’re important. I still can’t tell, for myself, whether the quality of the team is so important that it trumps the mission of the team.
But I know that it’s really really important to have a productive dynamic with the people you work with.
Teams and groups are important and the ways that people work together in those groups are important and a good team can be bigger than the sum of its parts. Which is a different way of saying that a team of average people that can work really well together is often much more valuable and productive than a team of all-stars that don’t have a working relationship together.
And one thing I’ve learned is that it doesn’t matter at what level you’re operating. You still want to create a team dynamic. And there is no point at which basic human motivations, basic human psychology trumps these notions. There is no point at which you can say, “Well, they’re professionals. It’s their job to create a team dynamic. That’s what they’re paid for.” Well, you can say it, I guess. But it won’t get you very far.
I’m a musician. And I’m a business dude. And I like football. And I am a Washington Redskins fan. And I see Dan Snyder and Vinny Cerrato fundamentally misunderstanding team dynamics when they make decisions. They seem to think that these players they pay for are just cogs in a machine and that you can you swap pieces in and out and ultimately you’ll stumble upon the right combination of players that will win you championships.
But, I guess, I’m making a nurture vs nature argument with teams. And teams are grown. And team dynamics are grown. And you can delude yourself that you can swap people in and out until you discover the combination that wins you awards. And, of course, sometimes you really do need one new piece or two new pieces or what-have-you.
But, really, I think that it’s more likely that with practice and determination and a focus on the long term, the team will emerge. And the people on the team will become better than they might have been otherwise. And constantly shifting and changing the dynamics and the pieces will probably give the impression to the other folks that they’re equally dispensable and the team loses an identity and you start to feel like you’re in those terrible trust-building exercises and that if you close your eyes and fall backwards you’ll crash onto the cold marble floor and your back will hurt very badly.
I remember the Redskins from my youth and the things that stand out, besides the championships, is the great sense of team. The constancy. I know the names of the players. And I also know that some of those players would not have been all-stars on different teams. But they were critical components of the Redskins. Only on a great team can an otherwise average quarterback like Mark Rypien become an all-star and a Superbowl MVP.
I watch the Pittsburgh Steelers play or the Phillies or the Pittsburgh Penguins or the Celtics and I get that same understanding.
Same deal with music, of course. I saw my friends play the other night at the Mercury Lounge and, again, you got that team vibe. You got that idea that these guys had been playing together for years and, as a result, the set was tight, energetic, and powerful. Each player was better for being on that team, in a way that wouldn’t be possible in a different context.
And I guess I’m coming back to the same ideas I’ve been writing about for awhile. That relationships matter. Because relationships are how you create good team dynamics. And that you need to focus on nurturing and building relationships in honest and good ways to create the chemistry that will ultimately lead you to success.
