Once upon a time, there was an enterprising businessman who had a fantastic idea. He thought he had figured out a way to build the perfect automobile.
He hired a team of young engineers and told them to buy one of every model car in the world and dismantle them, picking out the best part of every car and placing it in a special room. Soon, the room was filled with parts — the best carburetor, the best brakes, the best steering wheel, transmission and so on. It was an impressive collection, more than 5,000 parts in all.
Then the businessman had all the parts assembled into one automobile. There was only one problem: The car would not function — the parts would not work together.
The point being, you can have a team of superior individualistic all stars, but they are no match for a group of people with a common objective and harmony.
My definition of teamwork is a collection of diverse individuals who respect each other and are committed to each other's successes.
Teamwork sometimes requires people to play roles that aren't as glamorous as they'd like.
There's the story of the symphony conductor who was asked which instrument was the most difficult to play. Without missing a beat, the conductor replied: "Second fiddle. I can get plenty of first violinists. But finding someone who can play second fiddle with enthusiasm is a real problem. When we have no second fiddle, we have no harmony."
Teamwork is unwittingly shunned by most people in business because, deep down, they are afraid of it. They think it will render them anonymous or invisible.
