| By Morgan Donnelly All Together Now … Team Work
We hear about team work in all aspects of our modern day lives. For instance:
At work our boss may say “OK guys if we want to finish on time tonight, we are all going to have to pull our socks up”. Or at home your other half may say “Right, we need to make dinner, walk the dogs, phone your mum, and wrap your sisters present, before we can head down the pub!”
We hear folks talk about being a ‘Team Player’ who acts for the good of the team, or alternatively being a ‘Prima Donna’ who is only interested in acting for the good of themselves!
It’s not difficult to see that the above activities/tasks are more efficiently and quickly done when people work together. The thing is, do we know what being a team player is/involves, and hence what makes good team work? Hopefully the following will shed some more light onto this subject, although only a fairly narrow beam!
Why Team Work?
For the basis of this article we will assume that the majority of Adventure Racing is done as a team, even if there are only two team members. Hence team work is an essential element of racing (and actually one of the elements I enjoy, having missed out on team sports at school!)
A team that works well together should by all accounts achieve a result greater than the sum of its members. This is largely because a single person can not always be 100% focussed or giving 100% physical effort. If burdens can be shared across the team, then those moments of lapse can be carried without a significant impact on performance.
My narrow beam on team work will illuminate the following two areas, team goals and communication.
Goals
The team goals should be shared goals, and therefore everybody should have signed up to them. What this means is that everybody wants to achieve the same goal, and nobody is being dragged reluctantly along for the ride, because they happen to have a minibus, fancy one of the other team members, or are good at kayaking or some other discipline that the team is weak in!
This is important because if you all have the same goal, then the team can make team decisions (decisions for the benefit of the team) without fear of upsetting any of its members.
These shared goals should be established from the very beginning, thereby eliminating any disillusions or arguments! Shared goals are not necessarily: - We want to win this race, and that race.
- So & so is doing this race, and we (usually one of the team members) want to beat them.
- That race is near where my folks live and I have not seen them for a couple of years!
But more like:- We want to complete this race and that race.
- That race is in a beautiful area.
- Last year that race was really good fun.
The key then is to explore why the team wants to do the race, and hence what is involved with doing the race. Once the shared goal has been sold to every member of the team, it will be much easier for the team members to obtain the motivation that is required before and during the race. It also means that the team members are all there (at the race/on the team) for the right reasons. | 
