…without help.

I watched a team of highly capable people struggle to have a conversation.  These are ‘best of the best’ folks, hand-picked to carry forward a charter.  Each person is individually and highly motivated, personally capable and competent, and geared in service toward others.   

…and yet, basic etiquette such as interrupting, talking over people, using pointed language (e.g., “such a person is stupid”) was front and center for the entirety of the meeting’s 90 minutes.  If such highly capable people are together for a common goal, then shouldn’t we blow through our objectives and hit happy hour early?  

Then I remembered the All Star game.  In the NBA, the game is mid-season and designed to be an exhibition when the league’s best players get together to show off.  The game's elite players dress up in their finest advertisements and take to the court to bring their best.  In an average NBA game, each team scores about 100 points, but an average All Star game scores in the 150 point range (peaking at 196 in 2016).  You’d imagine that if 100 points is awesome, then 150 points, nay 196 points, is extraordinary!  Except that it’s not. They’re awful.  They’re boring.  No one is trying.  And in a game where the ‘bonus pay’ is greater than the annual salaries for most teachers, I’d hope for a little effort. 

Teams can do that though. Great individuals don’t, necessarily, make great teams.  Teams must be intentionally groomed, built and refined.  There must be effort invested in developing the team.  Someone must take the balcony view and facilitate they interactions between players, allowing each to be seen and heard and helping the team find its place. 

It’s easy to pick on the NBA All Stars because, but let’s be clear: these ‘teams’ are together for 48 hours to play 1 game, then they go back to their respective markets and take their place as the keystone player.  Your teams hopefully have more longevity than that.  

Great talent doesn’t need to be built, it needs to be refined.  Teams at the elite levels in both the ballfields and boardrooms need intentional effort aligning and refining how the parts work together.  It’s only when the edges have been refined and each gear operates in synchronicity with another that the machine works smoothly.  

• What is not happening with your group of ‘All Stars’ that should be? 

• How are you leading the group (in addition to its individual components)? 

• Who are the key role players on the team that should be praised?