They can connect us with collective knowledge and “bring us home” to our deeper wisdom.  This seems like a good time to contribute one of my own. The particular story I’m going to share is about the triumph of team spirit and strong heart – keys to resilience in the midst of chaos and change. 

 

It was a beautiful day for a regatta. High school crew teams from Washington and Oregon gathered at Lake Vancouver for the Northwest Junior Regional Championship Rowing Races. Being that it was May,  this was the end of the season; graduation was just around the corner and every crew was facing change.  This would be the last time many of these kids would row together. .

 

My oldest son was a varsity rower in his second year on crew.  By now, we had pretty much adapted to the Spartan lifestyle. Our small team functioned largely on grit and determination.  The kids practiced daily and participated in fund raising activities on the weekends. Since we operated on a shoestring, we had to be frugal.  Our lodging at this event consisted of several tents pitched at a rustic campground.  Meals were cooked over propane burners.  The kids, having spent months and in some cases, years rowing together, automatically clustered in groups by “boat”.  When it was finally too dark to do anything else, they turned into their tents and slept in piles of 4 or 8.

 

Our racing shells weren’t any fancier than our accommodations.  While the bigger crews had the latest in fiberglass and carbon steel, our kids rowed in heavy, dated, second-hand shells. Rather than medals, we took home the reward of deepening relationships and the satisfaction of doing our best and supporting each other.  Our “team” of parents and rowers clustered together and voiced unreserved, noisy encouragement each time one of our boats began the approach toward the finish line - whether in first place, or more commonly, among the last.

 

By Sunday afternoon, we were all tired as we faced the last race of the event. This race, the “High School 8” required that the coxswain and all 8 rowers in each boat attend the same high school; not typical of crews that pulled 80 to140 kids from several schools.  In this, we had an advantage; with two exceptions, our kids DID attend the same high school, and they had spent hundreds of hours rowing together. Our varsity boys carried their old heavy, wooden shell to the water for their last race together, and sent them toward the starting line with shouts of encouragement as they disappeared from sight.  We learned later that they were greeted with condescension and jest as they took their place at the start.  Their old boat was clearly a handicap and the other teams pointed this out enthusiastically. Last place obviously had their name on it.

 

Ultimately, though, teamwork and spirit played a bigger part in this event than equipment. The long hours of rowing working and playing together created a synergy that propelled our boy past sleek fiberglass boats to a second place victory. These seven years later, as I retell this story, it continues to warm my heart and inspire me.

 

The sports world is filled with stories of teams overcoming the odds. Every genre of enterprise has a wealth of these stories. I’m sure you have them within your own experience and within your organization.   I am deeply influenced by David Cooperrider’s work with Appreciative Inquiry, and believe it is vital that we tell these stories of success – over and over - and illuminate the factors that supported them.

 

What does this have to do with Pursuing Perfection?   As a Team Development Specialist, the similarity is clear to me.   The latest in interior design makes for a pleasant waiting room but synergy, teamwork and focus of the staff is what really counts to patients.  I don’t look at chairs or wallpaper.  I look for the smile that greets everyone who comes in the door and I listen.  I listen for the words of encouragement, and support to patients and fellow coworkers. I listen for compassion and truth telling.  I try my best to stay curious about resistance and fears and hopes. .

 

We need everyone on board in this change process.  Coming up with creative solutions in a complex environment requires synergy and teamwork. The plan for our process improvement is to trim up any “heavy wooden boats” that may be slowing folks down in providing the care they truly want for patients.  We will bring models such as the Awareness Star, so aptly demonstrated by Annie.  Self-awareness increases one’s ability to respond to a situation, rather than to react to it; thereby enhancing our effectiveness.  We’ll be sharing models of self-awareness and communication and look at models such as the Waterline to understand the building blocks and roadblocks of effective teamwork. 

 

These models and concepts are useful.  And, there is one requirement.  Any rower would agree that practice is a big factor between a “good row” and a bad one.   My biggest challenge so far is pulling staff away to get this practice time.  I’m searching out creative solutions, and I’m expecting my best teachers will be the caregivers themselves.  They are the ones with their “oars in the water”.