Examples of Great Teamwork

by Genevieve Van Wyden, Demand Media
By working collaboratively, your employees help your business.

By working collaboratively, your employees help your business.

teamwork image by Yvonne Bogdanski from Fotolia.com

Teamwork doesn't have to exist only in big, international companies. Smaller organizations and businesses benefit when individual team members work in cooperation with each other, setting and reaching unit and individual goals. Take teamwork lessons from nature and from the experiences of others and begin working together -- not only will each member of your IT or sales team benefit individually, but your entire team will see increased results.

Within Job Industries

The employer and customers benefit when employees work together collaboratively. If one customer service representative is on the phone with a customer who has a particularly tricky technical issue, for instance, it is better for several CSRs to assist that one representative in trying different techniques and strategies to correct the issue, suggests professional people-skills coach Kate Nasser.

While each CSR is focused on her call-in numbers and calls completed, she can take just a few minutes out of her day to suggest troubleshooting ideas to a colleague. Although her call-in numbers and calls completed numbers will fall, this will be temporary -- and her colleague, remembering the help he received, will be more willing to help other coworkers in the future.

In Nature -- Monkeys

When monkeys learn that attempting to reach a banana results in a negative consequence imposed by someone more powerful, they stop trying to reach the banana. If one of the original monkeys leaves the group and a new monkey replaces him, she will be attacked by the remaining original monkeys when she spies the banana and tries to get it. She doesn't know why she is attacked, and she doesn't know about the original consequence. When another monkey from the original group leaves and is replaced by yet a second new monkey, the same thing happens. The first new monkey participates in the attack on the second new monkey.

Neither of the new monkeys experienced the powerful entity's initial punishment, and they were attacked by the original monkeys remaining in the group. As this process moves forward, eventually none of the original monkeys remains in the group, but none of the new monkeys tries to get the banana. Each new monkey learns that its counterparts don't try to get the reward, because that's the way it has always been.

Tie the monkeys' learning experience into how your employees respond to new procedures and policies in your business. Developing a new policy on customer relations or generating sales leads, then introducing the new methods to your employees, may generate a variety of responses. Because the old method "is the way it's always been done," some employees will resist, saying, "But we've always done it the old way and it worked. Why fix what's not broken?" This can create disharmony as some employees try to adjust to the new policy while others continue to resist and react negatively.

Sports Team

The Manchester United soccer team relied on the teamwork and cooperation between its two strikers, Teddy Sheringham and Andy Cole. As they played a match against another team, that opposition team scored a goal. Sheringham blamed Cole and Cole blamed Sheringham. After this, the two teammates never spoke to each other again.

Fast-forward to the next year -- 1998-1999; Cole and Sheringham continued competing on the same team and cooperating with each other while on the soccer pitch, despite not talking to one another. In that season, Manchester United won the Premiership League, the FA Cup and the European Cup. One year later, the team made 50 goals in 19 matches and scored 97 goals for the entire season.

Two people on a team may not like each other personally, but if they are able to work together toward a common goal, they can help the entire team reach that goal.

Individual Departments

When a company's sales team works on moving into a new area, each team member is responsible for learning about his particular territory. As that team member accumulates new knowledge about sales prospects and customers in the area, he can decide to keep this new knowledge to himself as he pursues the highest individual sales goal for the team -- or he can share his knowledge so the entire team benefits, says Kate Nasser.

Teamwork from Geese

Learn from the flocks of geese that fly south before every winter season. If you observe a flock's behavior, you'll see the geese in that flock working together to achieve the common goal of reaching their winter grounds.

The geese honk at each other to encourage other geese who are getting tired or straggling. When the entire flock flies together in the V formation, each goose creates uplift and reduces drag for the goose flying behind it. Each goose in a flock shares and rotates the "front bird" position.

Your employees can learn from the geese by verbally encouraging colleagues who are struggling and falling behind, just as the geese honk to encourage each other. Develop a "team mentality" in your different departments, reminding supervisors and employees that when each department develops and shares a common goal, achieving it becomes easier -- like the geese flying in the "V" formation. As you encourage teamwork and cooperation, allow several employees to take leadership positions so your business benefits from the different strengths of each employee. This practice allows your business to practice the "front bird" behavior demonstrated by a flock of geese.

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