Aristotle suggested that friends "have a common commitment to the good".
If we substitute the word "team members" for "friends" we can develop team skills and enhance our value to the team by focusing on improving our skills as an effective team member.
Team Members have a Common Commitment to the Good
Goals, metrics, benchmarks within a culture where the team members focus on making their team and organization successful while remaining accountable for their actions, a commitment to the common good. A team member that is lacking a commitment to the common good is one that is only making themselves desirable for the next opportunity. It returns to a team member commitment of “being a team member as opposed to making oneself desirable for membership in the team”.
A common good is created by team members exercising their ability to choose. This is the responsibility of all team members, not just management. Once team members choose to be responsible for their choices they are able to be “useful to one another”, as well as “enjoy the other team members company”.
This common good that comes from a feeling of “team” and accountability to the respect and trust of the fellow team members’ results in increased production rates, increased staff retention, and develops a team that is high functioning and effective.
Do team members need to be friends with each other as opposed to merely tolerating other team members? Yes.
This is done with a paradigm shift, “making myself an effective team member, one who is focused on being a team member as opposed to making myself desirable for membership within the team.”
- How does one "have a common commitment to the good"?
- What are some concepts of "good"?
- What are some concepts of "bad"?
- How can "a common commitment to the good" be bad for individual team members?
- What is leaderships role and responsibility in developing a mission of "the good"?
- What are your thoughts?
- Michael Cardus is the Founder of Create-Learning-Team Building, an experiential based training and development consulting organization, and a blogger for TeamBuilding NY. Mike specializes in team building, team development, leadership development consulting and training, creating team building programs that retain talented staff members, increase production and effectiveness of your team.
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