Steve Ritter

Imagine you’ve been given a blank slate. You get to pick your teammates and choose your mission. You can choose how fast or slow to move and how cautious or risky to act. You have unlimited funds and a vast pool of talent. You get to start from zero. What’s your first move?

It’s time to get clear about what is sanctioned in the workplace. Psychology 101 teaches us that dysfunction is considered normal by children until they reach sufficient emotional maturity to realize it’s not. Do you mean all dads don’t abuse moms? No way? I thought treating people like $#!T was the way all families operate. Unless and until you have that epiphany, you are extremely likely to select a workplace culture that perpetuates your own personal pathology. Most workplaces are populated by employees who haven’t figured that out. That’s the prime reason healthy cultures are so rare.

Everyone carries a burden. We live in a world where showing your pain is a sign of weakness, so most people’s burdens are not visible. Stanford University uses a duck as the metaphor for invisible effortlessness. The objective is to make accomplishment look easy so imagine the water fowl gliding swiftly across the water while his webbed feet are paddling like mad, out of view, to move forward. Most people respond with “fine” when asked how they’re doing. Are they really fine?

Growing up, most of us are taught how to succeed as individuals. The formula is simple: set goals, take initiative, work hard, and persevere. Succeeding on teams uses different competencies and they don’t always come naturally. The same skill set that gained you acceptance into an elite college probably doesn’t make you the best teammate. Teams are messy and complicated. Conflict is unavoidable and it only takes one disengaged teammate to ruin a culture. So how do we learn the skills and competencies to function in team settings? Clue #1: It’s not by taking personality tests and discovering what makes other people tick.

Everyone has advice and guidance these days. The paths to wellness, individually or as a team, are many. Like most fads, there’s always something new that catches the attention of social media and gets talked about among friends. While all of that is unfolding, there remain three simple tools that have stood the test of time. One at the micro level, one at the mezzo level, and one at the macro level.

When people think of the word ‘team,’ they often imagine a larger group of talent with interlocking roles. They repeat the adage about the whole being greater than the sum of its parts. They measure the impact of effective leadership and good chemistry while imagining some pro sports team winning a world championship. While all of this can be accurate, it is a stereotype. Teams assume many forms.

Some people seem happy all the time. Whether at work or play, they move from event to event with a bounce in their step and a twinkle in their eye. It’s not that adversity doesn’t come their way – it’s that they manage it with grace. Is this simply because they were born with a cheery disposition? Have they just faced less trauma than their peers who appear filled with consternation? Perhaps they’ve developed a better arsenal of coping skills. Or maybe they’ve discovered the elusive secret to a satisfying life.

Granted, it’s not over. The delta variant appears more contagious than the alpha. Businesses are rethinking the wisdom of requiring workers to return to the workspace. Many industries are requiring full vaccinations and/or repeated proof of negative COVID tests to stay employed. Those of us in client-facing roles are reinstituting masks and social distance. As we brace for another wave of adaptation, let’s take stock of what we’ve learned.