even make a few) and they watch 100,000 meals being cooked (pre-
sumably they are not permitted to ‘‘ruin the stew’’ by actually cooking
the food—since that is not something that can be trusted to ‘‘unskilled
labor’’).
Says Eisner, ‘‘They learn what it is like to work in 100-degree heat
and 100 percent humidity (shades of the Israelites in the desert here), to
clean bathrooms, cut hedges, check out guests, and soothe tired chil-
dren.’’ The executives keep up this routine from 7:00 .. to 11:00
.. for over a week.
At first, they dread this experience, says Eisner. ‘‘But by the third day,
they love it. By the end of the eighth day, they’ve totally bonded.
They’ve learned to respect what tens of thousands of people do, and
they’ve become close friends at the same time. When they go back to
their jobs, what happens is synergy, naturally.’’17 The Disney executives
may have started out as ‘‘reluctant group members,’’ but this experience
forged them into a team that willingly, even enthusiastically, sacrificed
individual ego for the unity and goals of the group.
King David was also a master team-builder who knew how to in-
crease team spirit by getting all to contribute willingly. David encour-
aged his followers to ‘‘let the me become the servant of the we’’ by setting a large example. He wanted his people to donate their efforts
and their money to the building of the temple (which would be carried
out by his son Solomon). David literally put his money where his
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mouth was, with no guarantee that others would follow. He had already
provided large amounts of gold, silver, and precious stones from the
national treasury. His next step in building the team was to donate even
more gold and silver from his personal wealth.
This is just what was needed to galvanize the team: ‘‘Then the leaders
of the families, the officers of the tribes of Israel, the commanders of
thousands and commanders of hundreds . . . gave willingly . . . The
people rejoiced at the willing response of their leaders, for they had
given freely and wholeheartedly . . .’’ (1 Chron. 29) To forge a team, a
leader often must be the ‘‘consummate team member,’’ a model willing
to selflessly give of his energy and resources so that others are encour-
aged to contribute.
Jan Carlzon of SAS knew he needed the efforts of every member of
the team when he took over Lineflyg, Sweden’s mediocre domestic
airline and an SAS subsidiary. He could have behaved like a typical
CEO or autocratic ‘‘king’’ by coming in and immediately establishing
his authority and issuing orders. Instead, he acted like the team-oriented
King David; he asked for help from every team member.
Carlzon assembled the group (and a group is all it was at that point)
and said, ‘‘The company is not doing well. It’s losing dollars and suffer-
ing from many problems . . . I can’t save this company alone. The only
chance for Lyneflyg to survive is if you help me— I have some ideas of
my own . . . But most importantly, you are the ones who must help me, not the other way around.’’
This was the first step in Carlzon’s ‘‘group’’ becoming a team. ‘‘We
thought you were going to tell us what to do,’’ noted one employee.
‘‘But you turned the tables on us.’’18 Carlzon had succeeded in ‘‘turning
the me (including himself ) into the we. ’’
There are many innovative ways to develop a team. We are all famil-
iar with the ‘‘executive retreat’’ at which top management practices
teamwork by boosting each other over walls and rappelling down cliffs.
Talent Fusion, a digital recruiting firm in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, has
devised an off-site team-building event that is more convenient and
costs less: They have a weekly soccer game.
‘‘The game isn’t about proficiency in soccer,’’ notes one of the com-
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pany’s executives. ‘‘It’s about proficiency in team building . . . We talk
about strategy, how we’re going to win, who’s going to do what—all
of which is applicable to the business itself. The point is to get people
thinking of the team and how to achieve concrete objectives.’’19 Like
King David and his ‘‘mighty men,’’ Talent Fusion holds a business
meeting right after the game, when all are hot, sweaty, and enthused.
It’s a great way to break down barriers and increase team commitment.
But sometimes a leader must give more than gold and silver to get
people to act as team. He may have to give up something even more
precious—his office. George Colony, CEO of Forrester Research, an
Internet research firm, thought his people would work more coopera-
tively if he took them out of their offices and formed a ‘‘pod’’ in the
central computer room. At first, the response was anything but ‘‘team-
like.’’
‘‘Everyone screamed,’’ says a bemused Colony. So he moved out of
his plush office and into the pod also. ‘‘That new team lit the company
on fire,’’ he enthuses. ‘‘We shared our tears and our fears, and at the
end of the year, we danced on our desks to celebrate our success . . .
It’s like being in a squad of eight or ten people in the military. You get
so you’re willing to die for the guy next to you.’’20 We don’t know
whether Colony consulted the Book of Nehemiah (where men were
willing to die next to each other to rebuild a wall) or had any knowl-
edge of David’s mingling with his ‘‘mighty men,’’ but in moving out
of his office, he certainly was following their principles of team-build-
ing: Give of yourself and put yourself out there with the troops.
But the me does not become the we without some painful individual sacrifices. The disciples were asked to give up their fathers and mothers,
as well as any permanent physical home, to follow Jesus: ‘‘Foxes have
holes and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has no place
to lay his head.’’ (Matt. 8:20) Whoever wanted to be on Jesus’ team
had to give up a lot.
A. G. Edwards has been a successful brokerage firm for 100 years.
They have accomplished this through a team approach very unlike the
typical ‘‘me first’’ attitude at most brokerage firms. Taking a page from
Phil Jackson and King David, Corporate Vice President Greg Hutch-
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ings notes, ‘‘Unlike other firms, we do not have a star system. Here it’s
always putting the team first and the client first . . . you are rewarded
for . . . being a team player, unlike other firms where everyone is out
for themselves.’’21
A. G. Edwards accomplishes this ‘‘team spirit’’ through their actions,
not just empty talk or cheerleading. In a business where ‘‘money talks,’’
they shout the ‘‘team message’’ loud and clear by tying all management
bonuses to company profits, not the overrides on the earnings of a man-
ager’s direct reports. This assures a minimum of backbiting and a uni-
fied, company-wide effort, where all are willing to help each other, not
just for that sometimes-ethereal ‘‘team feeling’’ but also for group fi-
nancial success. You won’t be asked to give up your mother and father,
but if you’re willing to sacrifice overrides, you’ll make a good ‘‘team
player’’ at A. G. Edwards.
GE Plastics was faced with a double challenge when it acquired
Borg-Warner Chemicals in a merger: how to preserve the effectiveness
of its existing team while integrating the members of the acquired com-
pany into the overall team. The corporate cultures were disparate, as
were many of the skills. GE Plastics had a younger, more individualistic
and aggressive culture; Borg-Warner Chemicals had older employees
who were accustomed to a more paternalistic culture.
The solution to integrating these two cultures was to form them into
a team with a mission: Renovate five nonprofit facilities in the San
Diego area, including a YMCA, a homeless shelter, and a Boys’ and
Girls’ Club. Joel Hutt, manager of marketing communications for GE
Plastics, assembled the ‘‘troops’’ and showed them pictures of the run-
down facilities. ‘‘The director of this ‘Y’ says fixing up this place will
cost $500,000 and take years. Well, I’m here to tell you . . . This GE
Army is going to attack this place. We’re going to do it in eight hours,
and we’re going to do it tomorrow!’’
Deliberately mixing people from the two companies (and also mixing
their skill sets), the teams rebuilt a soccer field, landscaped the grounds, and put in new windows and a retaining wall. (Unlike Nehemiah’s
team, they did not have to contend with armed attackers trying to pre-
vent them from building!) They used up 11,000 square feet of tile,
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2,200 square feet of carpeting, and 550 gallons of paint and planted over