Extraordinary Outcomes: Shaping an Otherwise Unpredictable Future

3Galvanize Your TeamForge Tightly Aligned Teams Poised for Seamless Action

In a world of increasing complexity, we seldom achieve greatness alone. Just about everything we do depends on engaging other people. In this chapter, we look at factors that help deepen our connection with others to pursue purpose.

The Team as Organism

Imagine that your right leg is trying to walk while your left leg is trying to run. The organism we call YOU is going to fall flat on your face. Only when all your parts organize to work in unison, with a coordinated effort, can you successfully navigate in the world. You are a living, breathing organism with lots of individual parts—kidneys, shoulders, intestines, eyeballs—and all your limbs and organs have to collaborate and coordinate their efforts for the great purpose of keeping you alive.

A team is also an organism, and the parts, in this case the individual members of the team, have to be organized for success. The parts that make up the team are people who have to collaborate and coordinate their efforts, and it takes a system to create a dynamic, adaptive organism that we can call a great team.

For instance, when the NBA athletes met with Coach K to start their training for the 2008 Olympic Games, they were not yet a team. They were a collection of players with outstanding skills, but they had no system in place to organize for success.

Forging a Team Identity

To create this system, Coach K called a meeting with the athletes. The purpose of ...