By Lynn Smith, Chief People and Operations Officer – MyEva
Living on my own, and having spent near on the whole of 2020 working from home with only Zoom, Netflix and Facebook as my way to connect with other humans (unless you count the weekly supermarket shop!), you begin to really understand the power and importance of being part of a team and continuing to build and grow it.
So when I read a poster the other day which made me laugh and think at the same time, I thought I should share it. The poster said :
“If you take out the team in teamwork it’s just work. Now who wants that ?”– Matthew Woodring Stover
It made me laugh because I love observational humour and it made me think about teamwork and what it takes to do it well. If you were asking an academic what makes good teamwork, they would talk about a shared goal, purpose and objectives. Whilst these are key ingredients I thought about what someone who really understands people would say and it’s this…
Teamwork is all about a powerful connection with the people you are interacting with, a belief and a knowing that they have your back and will catch you should you fall, feeling secure in the knowledge that if you share any of your concerns, your doubts about either yourself or what you’re doing and the team will rally around you.
I read a book recently about a lady called Mandy Hickson, who is one of only a handful of women who have flown Tornados in the RAF and she tells a story of how being the only female, she had to deal with sexism on a daily basis. She hadn’t realised just how much she had put up with it until the whole team she was working with decided to make a formal complaint on her behalf, as her team-mates were not willing for her to put up with it. That for me is demonstration of teamwork, all for one and one for all.
