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The Importance of Teamwork: Maximizing Performance
What is the importance of teamwork to your organization?
Teamwork is critical to the success of your business; in some cases, it determines survival.
In the military, soldiers learn to work together because lives may be at stake.
Survival means learning to rely on each other and taking advantage of every opportunity for the team to learn and grow.
High performing teams in business experience the benefits of teamwork too. They consistently perform better than their competitors, especially when the pressure is on.
Why is teamwork important?
A Life or Death Scenario
Consider the importance of teamwork and leadership in the military, with a goal of establishing a beachhead such as the Allied invasion and D-Day landing at Normandy, France during World War II.
Now, imagine another goal of smaller scale where an infantry unit of 200 men must attack an objective in a remote mountainous area. To get there, they must travel by helicopter and to increase safety, the operation must be done at night.
Since it is a mountainous area, there isn’t much open space; five helicopters are the most that can safely fit into the landing zone (LZ) and there is only one LZ available.
Let’s say each helicopter can carry 10 passengers, so this means you will need 20 aircraft to insert these troops, but the infantry unit will have to be divided into four groups and they will arrive in the LZ in waves of 50 people each.
The number of and complexity involved will require coordination and teamwork that relies on multiple roles and responsibilities being met.
Teamwork Makes a Difference
To increase their chances of survival, the four groups of infantry soldiers must arrive as quickly as possible, one after the other. Upon arrival, they will need to clear the LZ and form a perimeter to provide security and allow the next group to land safely.
The helicopter unit will have to time their flights so that they land within 30 seconds of their scheduled arrival time, offload the troops and then clear the area for the next flight of aircraft.
Finally, yet another organization who will provide close air support aircraft will provide the necessary firepower to protect the flights of helicopters during the ingress, landing, and egress phases, as well as the soldiers who are on the ground.
Again, complexity and numbers require coordination and teamwork.
Each infantry member must know how to safely enter and exit the helicopter, and once it lands, know exactly where to go and what to do when they get there.
Each helicopter crew will have primary and secondary responsibilities such as flight navigation, coordination with the infantry unit, or coordination with close air support from supporting aircraft.
The close air support aircraft need to be aware of the helicopter flight routes and the location of the infantry soldiers so that there are no friendly fire casualties.
Three separate organizations must coordinate missions, synchronize their efforts, and work as a team.
So far, our scenario assumes everything is going as planned, but what if something goes wrong? How does each team react to change and what is the collective response of the overall team?
Teamwork in the Workplace
Every organization has situations where things go wrong, but the best teams stick together during the toughest times.
How well does your team work together and react to these challenges?
Team Players Leaders who instill a team player attitude recognize the benefits of teamwork and create an environment that enables others to feel that they can be a part of something greater.
Team Building Skills Great teams are no accident. It requires team building skills that guide everyone to work together toward a shared vision or goal.
