Teams with real bonds tend to perform better, so employees of big companies are told to have fellowship. But they don’t, actually.
When people take care of each other and they feel safe, they can do things that they would not in lack of respect. Therefore opinions are openly shared, favours are asked and done, actions have additional motivation, and finally performance is higher. The conclusion is simple, employees should and must be friends. But fellowship is created via common goals, joint struggle, or emotional bonds, while neither of those are present in companies in many cases.
Have you noticed that in sport, team members give high fives to each other in many situations, even for a seemingly small action? For a tackle far from their own goal in football. For a pick and roll during taking the ball to the offensive half of the court in basketball. Taking the running back down even before he advances past the line of scrimmage in American football. For simple actions that might not have a huge impact on the outcome of the game. Yet, in other situations an act like that can become a clutch achievement that proves to be decisive in the final seconds. Either way, every member of the team knows that at a professional level, these small deeds add up and make the difference between winners and losers.
Giving high fives for delivering something valuable for the team shows two things:
Why don’t they do the same or at least similar in corporate teams? Well, they might not be members of a common system, they’d rather work for a goal. But for a goal to be inclusive, there must be an emotional bond. If your goal is purely intellectual, your experience of getting there will remain intellectual.
In big organisations, when there are lots of key performance indicators (KPIs) and you are interested in one, you won’t be involved in the others if there is a limited connection among them. You work for your metrics, others work for theirs. You share no real success or failures. Will you feel happy for your co-workers? Will you show them your acknowledgement? In most cases, no.
Sport teams seem to be more advanced in team spirit. They represent the modern version of fighting, which creates strong bondings. In the military, they call each other brothers and sisters, not colleagues or co-workers. Even if they are together for far less time than how long some people have worked together in a company. Even if they are strangers in a way. What is their secret?
You do not have to love your team members to form a strong team. Yet, you have to respect them. You need to trust their expertise, their competence and their willingness. They are all who you can achieve your goals with. You have no power to change them, the team is set, you have to accomplish your goal with what and with whom is available. It is a crucial dependency in a crucial situation.
In corporate life, crucial situations are rare. During business as usual, there is no crucial moment, as business is (or should be) an infinite game. So the stake is smaller and is not concentrated in the situation. As a result, colleagues will not have a strong bond. They think they don’t depend on each other, some will come and go, and if something goes wrong, changing the lineup and firing the weak links will be the way to solve the issue.
You need to have respect in your organisation so people fight for each other and while doing so, fight for the company. I often hear people complaining about their colleagues whom I know from previous setups and I know that they are equally smart and devoted. In lack of communication and not revealing the different focuses and interests, people will never understand each other and they won’t have respect.
So people are part of organisations, they work for them, they even show some spirit of teamwork, but the level of engagement can still vary. The following model shows some basic characteristics of how you can detect if your team is just doing what they are told to or they are actually the engine of your operation.
The first phase is adaptation when your employees are doing their jobs just because of avoiding missing out. They adapt because they realise that they are out of the circle and they want to get inside. To do so, they pretend to share your values. But with this approach, there are always misunderstandings, blunders, weird silence, some latent and open conflicts. Something just does not work smoothly.
The second phase is about acceptance. The colleagues are part of the big team, they understand and accept the guidelines and values. Now you've got rid of the awkward conversations and situations, things are okay, business is running smoothly.
While in the third phase, goals and values are shared, they serve as your common identity. You might already feel the strength of it. Your people are actually pushing things on their own, they are actively shaping your business and it all works out since there is a perfect match.
When things are okay, you can be fine with the first two ways of alignment. But when it comes to challenges, changes and struggles, you need a crew who can act as you would even in your absence. In which phase do you think you can find respect in your team?
