Building Your Dream Team
In 1980, a team of average athletes won the gold medal. The United States hockey team shocked the entire world by beating the Russians and Swedes, two teams of great athletes favored to win the gold and silver that year. The 1980 USA hockey team showed the world that a group of average athletes working well together make a great team and have the potential to produce great results. When team members commit to being average, giving up their need to be somebody and impress others, you get a more cohesive team.
Collective intelligence – Generally, a group of average people working together to solve a problem is smarter than an expert working alone. In his book, The Wisdom of Crowds, James Surowiecki, shares how British scientist Francis Galton discovered collective intelligence. Galton believed that only a few people in society had the characteristics and expertise to keep societies healthy. At the West of England Fat Stock and Poultry Exhibition in 1906, he learned that he was wrong. Galton came across a competition to guess the weight of a selected ox. People had lined up to wager six pence on one guess. After the competition, Galton gathered the 800 non-expert entries to determine the group’s average guess. He figured if most of the crowd were non-experts and had only a few expert guesses, the crowd’s average guess would be way off. He was wrong. The crowd guessed that the ox weighed 1197 pounds. It actually weighed 1198 pounds. In general, a crowd with average people working together will outperform a single expert.
Let go of ego – Simply put, egos get in the way of team performance. Team members need to be willing to drop ideas, agendas, and the need to be the hero. When egos are in the way it signals a lack of trust and synergy on the team. Bottom line, the greater good is much more important than personal agendas and egos.
Don’t try, just do – I can try to sit down in a chair or I can sit down in a chair. I have a choice and the outcomes are markedly different. If I try to sit down, I probably won’t. If I sit down, I will move toward the chair and sit. I might fall to the side or I might sit square on the surface, but I at least I get results. “Trying makes you mediocre,” writes Keith Johnstone, “It’s like running up a down escalator. We only try when we don’t trust the forces within us…Sometimes being average is the best possible strategy.” Fear of failure and looking like a fool in front of others makes us cautious and choose to “try” instead of “do”.
When average people work together to accomplish a task, you get great results.
Written by: Mike Weaver
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Tagged as human economy, leadership, management, team, work organization + Categorized as Business, Economy articles, Ladership & Management